PARTICIPANT APPLICATION DATES:

02-Jul-24 to 05-Aug-24

COURSE DATES:

23-Sep-24 to 01-Dec-24

Overview:

In the United States, it’s estimated that it takes an average of 17 years from the discovery of an intervention to its implementation at scale. This is called the know-do gap. For interventions outside of the US, this know-do gap is even larger. The goal of implementation science is to close the know-do gap.

Learning Objectives

Participants in the Fundamentals of Implementation Science track will explore the current literature on implementation science; be introduced to innovative scientific methods and tools of diverse disciplines to understand and overcome impediments to implementation and facilitate scale-up; and use case studies to identify and examine implementation successes and failures. At the end of the course, participants should be able to:

• Identify the major factors that limit the translation of efficacy trials to effective health programs, and describe the role of complementary research methods in the development of evidence-based health programs and policies.
• Explain appropriate research and evaluation methods to overcome impediments to implementation and facilitate timely scale-up of proven interventions with high levels of fidelity and effectiveness.
• Contextualize and explain real-world examples in which efficacious interventions failed or succeeded.
• Describe a multi-disciplinary framework for improving implementation of evidence-based interventions.

Curriculum

Module 1: Introduction to Implementation Science (IS) and IS Data Sources

Describe why implementation science is important to global health

Summarize a framework for using implementation science to facilitate the translation of knowledge to successful program implementation.

Recognize the value of core systems of information collection to monitor disease and health programs; and

Identify barriers to implementing robust health information systems.

Module 2: Impact Evaluation and IS Study Designs

Describe common impact evaluation methods and study designs used to evaluate the effects of programs at scale.

Distinguish between internal validity and external validity, and describe the importance of external validity within implementation science.

Recognize the importance of impact evaluations in the design of public health policies.

Module 3: Economic Evaluation

Provide an overview of different economic evaluation methods; and

Provide an overview of how to conduct a cost-effectiveness evaluation.

Module 4: Qualitative Health System Research

Identify qualitative data collection methods and sampling approaches, and describe their implications for analysis and interpretation of data in implementation science studies;

Identify how qualitative research design and methods can be developed to maximize rigor, validity, and reliability of findings in implementation studies; and

Describe the benefits and limitations of mixing qualitative and quantitative methods in operational and implementation science study designs.

Module 5: Organizational Readiness

Explain the theory behind and importance of organizational readiness.

Module 6: Quality Improvement as a Management Tool

Define Plan – Do –Study – Act cycles and how they can be used in continuous quality improvement; and

Demonstrate how quality improvement can be used to facilitate broad scale-up of health programs.

Module 7: Stakeholder and Policy Analysis

Describe the stages of policy development and how empirical information can be used at each stage; and

Identify and map key stakeholders in a policy issue.

Module 8: Dissemination Research

Familiarize yourself with implementation science frameworks for dissemination of evidence-based health promotion practices; and

Discuss the need for dissemination research and describe the roles that researchers play in dissemination.

Module 9: Social Marketing of Implementation Strategies

Explain the process of developing an effective social marketing strategy; and

Assess the incremental value of social marketing strategies in health program development and execution.

Module 10: Operations Research as a Contributing Discipline

Identify basic lean implementation and its application to healthcare settings: waste and time, value steam mapping, process improvement/Kaizen; and

Recognize other potential applications of modeling for operations research.

Course Synthesis and Final Project Submission

Identify appropriate implementation science methods and strategies to develop and implement successful, large-scale public health programs.

Format of Learning

Blended