Research News

Psychiatry Research Supplement Introduces Implementation Science to the Non-Specialist

October 18, 2019

Establishing the effectiveness of a clinical innovation does not guarantee that it will be adopted into routine clinical care. The problem of non-uptake of effective clinical innovations is longstanding and persistent – and likely the rule rather than the exception. The relatively new field of implementation science – the study of methods and strategies to promote the uptake of evidence-based practices into routine clinical care – can increase the impact of evidence-based practices on public health. Imagine how many lives would have been saved if the smallpox had been quickly and widely disseminated to the public?

The Psychiatry Research Supplement titled “Introduction to Implementation Science: Increasing Public Health Impact of Research” is designed to introduce the principles, concepts, and methods of implementation science. The articles have been written for clinical scientists interested in how to increase the public health impact of their work, and each article features a real-world, funded study. Articles include but are not limited to:

• Kirchner and colleagues describe implementation strategies used to address barriers and facilitators of clinical innovation uptake – the focus of implementation trials.
• Eisman and colleagues discuss the economics – both the similarities and differences between implementation science and clinical research.
• Miller and colleagues review implementation trial designs, both experimental and quasi-experimental.
• Kim and colleagues introduce case study methodology to learn lessons from variability in implementation in order to identify what works and for whom.

Introduction to Implementation Science: Increasing Public Health Impact of Research. Psychiatry Research. October 2019.  

This Supplement was guest-edited by Mark Bauer, MD, Associate Director, HSR&D’s Center for Healthcare Organization & Implementation Research (CHOIR), and JoAnn Kirchner, MD. Drs. Bauer and Kirchner co-lead QUERI for Team-Based Behavioral Health.