Implementation Science
Journal Data
| Type | JOURNAL |
|---|---|
| Publisher | BioMed Central (GB) |
| ISSN | 1748-5908 |
| Scopus | 5700191210 |
| Wikidata | Q6007191 |
| OpenAlex | S76880069 |
| Website | https://link.springer.com/journal/13012 |
| Total publications | 56 |
| Coverage period | 2006 - 2022 |
| Country | GB |
| Language | EN |
| Access | Open Access |
| Indexing | DOAJ indexed • Scopus indexed |
| Impact factor | 24.903 |
| SJR | 4.951 (Q1) |
| SNIP | 6.131 |
| CiteScore | 23.1 |
| Female authorship share | 65.5% |
Health Informatics · Health Policy · Medicine (miscellaneous) · Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health · Behavioral and Psychological Studies · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Clinical practice guidelines implementation · Community Health and Development · Complex Systems and Decision Making · Diabetes Management and Education
Conceptualizing outcomes for use with the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR)
The updated Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research based on user feedback
Rapid versus traditional qualitative analysis using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR)
Implementation science should give higher priority to health equity
The sustainability of public health interventions in schools
The Implementation Research Logic Model
The health equity implementation framework
BACKGROUND: Researchers could benefit from methodological advancements to advance uptake of new treatments while also reducing healthcare disparities. A comprehensive determinants framework for healthcare disparity implementation challenges is essential to accurately understand an implementation problem and select implementation strategies. METHODS: We integrated and modified two conceptual frameworks-one from implementation science and one from …
Evidence-based intervention sustainability strategies
The FRAME
BACKGROUND: This paper describes the process and results of a refinement of a framework to characterize modifications to interventions. The original version did not fully capture several aspects of modification and adaptation that may be important to document and report. Additionally, the earlier framework did not include a way to differentiate cultural adaptation from adaptations made for other reasons. Reporting additional elements will allow f…
Comparison of rapid vs in-depth qualitative analytic methods from a process evaluation of academic detailing in the Veterans Health Administration
BACKGROUND: It is challenging to conduct and quickly disseminate findings from in-depth qualitative analyses, which can impede timely implementation of interventions because of its time-consuming methods. To better understand tradeoffs between the need for actionable results and scientific rigor, we present our method for conducting a framework-guided rapid analysis (RA) and a comparison of these findings to an in-depth analysis of interview tran…
Choosing implementation strategies to address contextual barriers
BACKGROUND: A fundamental challenge of implementation is identifying contextual determinants (i.e., barriers and facilitators) and determining which implementation strategies will address them. Numerous conceptual frameworks (e.g., the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research; CFIR) have been developed to guide the identification of contextual determinants, and compilations of implementation strategies (e.g., the Expert Recommendations …
Systematic review of the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, Sustainment (Epis) framework
Using Normalization Process Theory in feasibility studies and process evaluations of complex healthcare interventions
Engaging patients to improve quality of care
Applying GRADE-Cerqual to qualitative evidence synthesis findings
The GRADE-CERQual ('Confidence in the Evidence from Reviews of Qualitative research') approach provides guidance for assessing how much confidence to place in findings from systematic reviews of qualitative research (or qualitative evidence syntheses). The approach has been developed to support the use of findings from qualitative evidence syntheses in decision-making, including guideline development and policy formulation. Confidence in the evid…
Making sense of complexity in context and implementation
BACKGROUND: The effectiveness of complex interventions, as well as their success in reaching relevant populations, is critically influenced by their implementation in a given context. Current conceptual frameworks often fail to address context and implementation in an integrated way and, where addressed, they tend to focus on organisational context and are mostly concerned with specific health fields. Our objective was to develop a framework to f…
Community-based participatory research and integrated knowledge translation
BACKGROUND: Better use of research evidence (one form of "knowledge") in health systems requires partnerships between researchers and those who contend with the real-world needs and constraints of health systems. Community-based participatory research (CBPR) and integrated knowledge translation (IKT) are research approaches that emphasize the importance of creating partnerships between researchers and the people for whom the research is ultimatel…
Using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to produce actionable findings
BACKGROUND: Much research does not address the practical needs of stakeholders responsible for introducing health care delivery interventions into organizations working to achieve better outcomes. In this article, we present an approach to using the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR) to guide systematic research that supports rapid-cycle evaluation of the implementation of health care delivery interventions and produces act…
Developing a comprehensive definition of sustainability
BACKGROUND: Understanding sustainability is one of the significant implementation science challenges. One of the big challenges in researching sustainability is the lack of consistent definitions in the literature. Most implementation studies do not present a definition of sustainability, even when assessing sustainability. The aim of the current study was to systematically develop a comprehensive definition of sustainability based on definitions…
Psychometric assessment of three newly developed implementation outcome measures
BACKGROUND: Implementation outcome measures are essential for monitoring and evaluating the success of implementation efforts. Yet, currently available measures lack conceptual clarity and have largely unknown reliability and validity. This study developed and psychometrically assessed three new measures: the Acceptability of Intervention Measure (AIM), Intervention Appropriateness Measure (IAM), and Feasibility of Intervention Measure (FIM). MET…
A guide to using the Theoretical Domains Framework of behaviour change to investigate implementation problems
BACKGROUND: Implementing new practices requires changes in the behaviour of relevant actors, and this is facilitated by understanding of the determinants of current and desired behaviours. The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) was developed by a collaboration of behavioural scientists and implementation researchers who identified theories relevant to implementation and grouped constructs from these theories into domains. The collaboration aimed…
“Scaling-out” evidence-based interventions to new populations or new health care delivery systems
BACKGROUND: Implementing treatments and interventions with demonstrated effectiveness is critical for improving patient health outcomes at a reduced cost. When an evidence-based intervention (EBI) is implemented with fidelity in a setting that is very similar to the setting wherein it was previously found to be effective, it is reasonable to anticipate similar benefits of that EBI. However, one goal of implementation science is to expand the use …
Implementation, context and complexity
BACKGROUND: Context is a problem in research on health behaviour change, knowledge translation, practice implementation and health improvement. This is because many intervention and evaluation designs seek to eliminate contextual confounders, when these represent the normal conditions into which interventions must be integrated if they are to be workable in practice. DISCUSSION: We present an ecological model of the ways that participants in impl…
The concept of mechanism from a realist approach
BACKGROUND: Public health interventions are complex by nature, and their evaluation requires unpacking their intervention logic and their interactions with open social systems. By focusing on the interrelationships between context, mechanism, and outcome, Pawson and Tilley's realist approach appears a promising innovation for public health-related evaluation works. However, and as expected of any methodological innovation, this approach is being …
A systematic review of the use of the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research
No prominent publications on this page.
Evolution of Wenger's concept of community of practice
BACKGROUND: In the experience of health professionals, it appears that interacting with peers in the workplace fosters learning and information sharing. Informal groups and networks present good opportunities for information exchange. Communities of practice (CoPs), which have been described by Wenger and others as a type of informal learning organization, have received increasing attention in the health care sector; however, the lack of uniform …
Development of a theory of implementation and integration
BACKGROUND: Theories are important tools in the social and natural sciences. The methods by which they are derived are rarely described and discussed. Normalization Process Theory explains how new technologies, ways of acting, and ways of working become routinely embedded in everyday practice, and has applications in the study of implementation processes. This paper describes the process by which it was built. METHODS: Between 1998 and 2008, we d…
Specifying and reporting complex behaviour change interventions
Complex behaviour change interventions are not well described; when they are described, the terminology used is inconsistent. This constrains scientific replication, and limits the subsequent introduction of successful interventions. Implementation Science is introducing a policy of initially encouraging and subsequently requiring the scientific reporting of complex behaviour change interventions.
Expediting systematic reviews
Scoping studies
BACKGROUND: Scoping studies are an increasingly popular approach to reviewing health research evidence. In 2005, Arksey and O'Malley published the first methodological framework for conducting scoping studies. While this framework provides an excellent foundation for scoping study methodology, further clarifying and enhancing this framework will help support the consistency with which authors undertake and report scoping studies and may encourage…
The behaviour change wheel
BACKGROUND: Improving the design and implementation of evidence-based practice depends on successful behaviour change interventions. This requires an appropriate method for characterising interventions and linking them to an analysis of the targeted behaviour. There exists a plethora of frameworks of behaviour change interventions, but it is not clear how well they serve this purpose. This paper evaluates these frameworks, and develops and evalua…
Validation of the theoretical domains framework for use in behaviour change and implementation research
The sustainability of new programs and innovations
Realist synthesis
BACKGROUND: Realist synthesis is an increasingly popular approach to the review and synthesis of evidence, which focuses on understanding the mechanisms by which an intervention works (or not). There are few published examples of realist synthesis. This paper therefore fills a gap by describing, in detail, the process used for a realist review and synthesis to answer the question 'what interventions and strategies are effective in enabling eviden…
Developing theory-informed behaviour change interventions to implement evidence into practice
BACKGROUND: There is little systematic operational guidance about how best to develop complex interventions to reduce the gap between practice and evidence. This article is one in a Series of articles documenting the development and use of the Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) to advance the science of implementation research. METHODS: The intervention was developed considering three main components: theory, evidence, and practical issues. We u…
Knowledge translation of research findings
BACKGROUND: One of the most consistent findings from clinical and health services research is the failure to translate research into practice and policy. As a result of these evidence-practice and policy gaps, patients fail to benefit optimally from advances in healthcare and are exposed to unnecessary risks of iatrogenic harms, and healthcare systems are exposed to unnecessary expenditure resulting in significant opportunity costs. Over the last…
Dynamic adaptation process to implement an evidence-based child maltreatment intervention
BACKGROUND: Adaptations are often made to evidence-based practices (EBPs) by systems, organizations, and/or service providers in the implementation process. The degree to which core elements of an EBP can be maintained while allowing for local adaptation is unclear. In addition, adaptations may also be needed at the system, policy, or organizational levels to facilitate EBP implementation and sustainment. This paper describes a study of the feasi…
Public health program capacity for sustainability
A checklist for identifying determinants of practice
Implementation strategies
Implementation strategies have unparalleled importance in implementation science, as they constitute the 'how to' component of changing healthcare practice. Yet, implementation researchers and other stakeholders are not able to fully utilize the findings of studies focusing on implementation strategies because they are often inconsistently labelled and poorly described, are rarely justified theoretically, lack operational definitions or manuals t…
Development of a framework and coding system for modifications and adaptations of evidence-based interventions
BACKGROUND: Evidence-based interventions are frequently modified or adapted during the implementation process. Changes may be made to protocols to meet the needs of the target population or address differences between the context in which the intervention was originally designed and the one into which it is implemented [Addict Behav 2011, 36(6):630-635]. However, whether modification compromises or enhances the desired benefits of the interventio…
The dynamic sustainability framework
BACKGROUND: Despite growth in implementation research, limited scientific attention has focused on understanding and improving sustainability of health interventions. Models of sustainability have been evolving to reflect challenges in the fit between intervention and context. DISCUSSION: We examine the development of concepts of sustainability, and respond to two frequent assumptions -'voltage drop,' whereby interventions are expected to yield l…
Towards a general theory of implementation
Understanding and evaluating the implementation of complex interventions in practice is an important problem for healthcare managers and policy makers, and for patients and others who must operationalize them beyond formal clinical settings. It has been argued that this work should be founded on theory that provides a foundation for understanding, designing, predicting, and evaluating dynamic implementation processes. This paper sets out core con…
The implementation leadership scale (ILS)
BACKGROUND: In healthcare and allied healthcare settings, leadership that supports effective implementation of evidenced-based practices (EBPs) is a critical concern. However, there are no empirically validated measures to assess implementation leadership. This paper describes the development, factor structure, and initial reliability and convergent and discriminant validity of a very brief measure of implementation leadership: the Implementation…
Use of concept mapping to characterize relationships among implementation strategies and assess their feasibility and importance
BACKGROUND: Poor terminological consistency for core concepts in implementation science has been widely noted as an obstacle to effective meta-analyses. This inconsistency is also a barrier for those seeking guidance from the research literature when developing and planning implementation initiatives. The Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) study aims to address one area of terminological inconsistency: discrete implementation s…
Making sense of implementation theories, models and frameworks
BACKGROUND: Implementation science has progressed towards increased use of theoretical approaches to provide better understanding and explanation of how and why implementation succeeds or fails. The aim of this article is to propose a taxonomy that distinguishes between different categories of theories, models and frameworks in implementation science, to facilitate appropriate selection and application of relevant approaches in implementation res…
Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) in health care
BACKGROUND: Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) refers to collaboration between researchers and decision-makers. While advocated as an approach for enhancing the relevance and use of research, IKT is challenging and inconsistently applied. This study sought to inform future IKT practice and research by synthesizing studies that empirically evaluated IKT and identifying knowledge gaps. METHODS: We performed a scoping review. We searched MEDLINE…
A refined compilation of implementation strategies
BACKGROUND: Identifying, developing, and testing implementation strategies are important goals of implementation science. However, these efforts have been complicated by the use of inconsistent language and inadequate descriptions of implementation strategies in the literature. The Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) study aimed to refine a published compilation of implementation strategy terms and definitions by systematically …
Narrative review of models and success factors for scaling up public health interventions
Using theory of change to design and evaluate public health interventions