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HSR&D and QUERI Contribute to Dissemination and Implementation Conference

Dissemination and implementation science seek to promote and evaluate strategies for integrating evidence-based approaches into clinical and diverse community settings. The 10^th Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation in Health (D&I) was held in Arlington, VA, December 4-6, 2017. Cohosted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and AcademyHealth – and supported by VA – the D&I Conference bridges the gap between research, practice, and policy in health and healthcare. This year’s theme, A Decade of Progress and the Path Forward, focused on a decade full of accomplishments and challenges, as well as the opportunities that lay ahead.

The plenary session titled “What is the Minimum Level of Evidence Needed to Implement?” discussed the various arguments and challenges related to the sufficiency of evidence required by various stakeholders and settings before an intervention can be widely implemented. Presenters included: Austin Frakt, PhD, Director of QUERI’s Partnered Evidence-based Policy Resource Center (PEPReC), and Mark Helfand, MD, MS, MPH, who directs QUERI’s Evidence-based Synthesis Program (ESP) Coordinating Center in Portland, OR. In addition, Uche Uchendu, MD, VA’s Chief Officer for Health Equity, presented during a plenary session on “Achieving Health Equity: The Role of D&I Research.”

Conference sessions covered a range of topics under the D&I umbrella, and both HSR&D and QUERI investigators were prominently featured.

• “Counterbalancing Measures: Identifying Unintended Consequences.” David Aron, MD, MS, Louis Stokes VA Medical Center, Cleveland, OH.
• “Scale-up, Spread, and Sustainment of Tele-Collaborative Care for Bipolar Disorder: Lessons Learned from a Model-Guided, Mixed Methods Analysis” and “Comparing Controlled Implementation Trial Designs: Strengths, Limitations, and Indications for Stepped-Wedge Designs.” Mark Bauer, MD, HSR&D’s Center for Healthcare Organization and Implementation Research (CHOIR), Boston, MA.
• “Planning for the Technology Revolution: Case-Study-based Guidelines for the Implementation of Novel Information Technology Applications within an Integrated Healthcare System.” Julian Brunner, MPH, HSR&D’s Center for Healthcare Innovation, Implementation and Policy, Los Angeles, CA.
• “Randomized Controlled Trial of the Getting to Outcomes Strategy’s Impact on Implementation Quality in Community-based Settings.” Matthew Chinman, PhD, HSR&D’s Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion (CHERP), Pittsburgh, PA.
• “Evaluating the Sustainability of Healthcare Delivery Innovations in Massachusetts Community Hospitals: The Chart Investment Program.” Rani Elwy, PhD, QUERI’s Complementary and Integrative Health Evaluation Center and HSR&D’s CHOIR.
• “A Guided Discussions Method for Observing and Reflecting on Implementation Phenomena: A Multi-Study Evaluation of ‘Brief Reflections.’” Erin Finley, PhD, MPH, South Texas Veterans Health Care System.
• “Developing Strategies to Adapt Social Skills Training for Supported Housing Participants.” Sonya Gabrielian, MD, MPH, an HSR&D Career Development Awardee, and part of HSR&D’s Center for Healthcare Innovation, Implementation and Policy (CSHIIP), Los Angeles, CA
• Alcohol Use Disorder Pharmacotherapy and Treatment in Primary Care Settings: The Adapt-PC Trial Hildi Hagedorn, PhD, Center for Chronic Disease Outcomes Research (CCDOR), Minneapolis, MN
• “Enhancing Multi-level Stakeholder Engagement in Implementation Research: Perspectives of Implementation Scientists” and “Tailoring Implementation of VA’s Patient-Centered Medical Home to the Needs of Women Veterans Using Evidence-based Quality Improvement.” Alison Hamilton, PhD, QUERI’s Enhancing Mental and Physical health of Women through Engagement and Retention (EMPOWER), Los Angeles, CA.
• “Advancing De-Implementation Research,” including discussant Christian Helfrich, PhD; QUERI’s Improving Safety and Quality through Evidence-based De-Implementation of Ineffective Diagnostics and Therapeutics program, and HSR&D’s Center for Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Drive Care, Seattle, WA.
• “Implementation and Effectiveness of a Secondary Risk Screener for Intimate Partner Violence (IPV): Evidence to Inform IPV Screening Practices in Integrated Care Settings,” Katherine Iverson, PhD, CHOIR, Boston, MA.
• “Responding to the Challenges of Context: Adaptation of an Implementation Strategy and a Psychosocial Intervention for VA’s Supportive Housing Program.” Megan McCullough, PhD, CHOIR, Boston, MA.
• “Scale-Up and Spread of Collaborative Care for General Mental Health Teams.” Christopher Miller, PhD, CHOIR, Boston, MA.
• “Implementation Science Contributions to, and From Efforts to Scale Up Health Technologies in Low and Middle Income Countries.” Brian Mittman, PhD, CSHIIP, Los Angeles, CA.
• “A Logic Model for Precision Medicine Implementation Research.” Maren Scheuner, MD, MPH, FACMG, VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System.
• “Economics in Dissemination and Implementation Research.” Todd Wagner, PhD, HSR&D’s Health Economics Resource Center (HERC), Menlo Park, CA.
• “Implementation of Policy Recommendations for Shared Decision-Making about Lung Cancer Screening: Patient and Clinician Perspectives.” Renda Wiener, MD, MPH, CHOIR, Boston, MA.
• “Longitudinal Assessment of Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) Strategies in the Uptake of Evidence-based Practices for Hepatitis C Treatment in the Veterans Administration: Year Two.” Vera Yakovchenko, MPH Bridging the Care Continuum QUERI and CHOIR, Boston, MA.