Practical Implementation Science

This book addresses a growing concern. Implementation science seeks to close the research-to-practice gap by identifying the barriers that impede the adoption, implementation, sustainability, and scale-up of evidence-based health interventions, and by identifying the best methods for overcoming those barriers. The implementation scientists’ aspiration for the field is to generate useful and usable scientific knowledge to improve the practice of implementation. The rapid growth of implementation science as a research enterprise, however, has given rise to concerns that the authors and implementation scientists share that implementation science itself will replicate the research-to-practice gap that the field was intended to address. This book represents the first systematic attempt by leading implementation researchers to “translate” implementation science for implementation practitioners by making accessible and practical the wealth of scientific knowledge and associated tools that implementation science has produced. It also addresses an unmet need. Although a growing number of colleges and universities offer courses in implementation science, there are no textbooks in implementation science geared specifically for graduate health professional students or advanced undergraduate students. Instead, instructors teaching such courses must rely on peer-reviewed articles published by implementation researchers for implementation researchers. The book is organized into 14 chapters, suitable for a semester-long course but also useful for a quarter-long course. The core of the book consists of eight chapters organized by common tasks or steps involved in planning, executing, and evaluating implementation efforts. These tasks or steps include assessing the knowledge-practice gap (also known as the know-do gap); selecting an evidence-based practice (EBP) to reduce the gap; assessing EBP fit and adapting the EBP; assessing barriers and facilitators of implementation; engaging stakeholders; creating an implementation structure; implementing the EBP; and evaluating the implementation effort.