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Introduction to Implementation
While medicine has a long history of investigating what works and why, there is a fairly limited understating of the causal mechanisms of interventions to improve health care quality. Implementation research has been defined as the scientific study of methods to promote the uptake of research findings for the purpose of improving quality of care.1 It includes the study of factors that influence the behavior of health care professionals and organizations, and the interventions that enable them to use research findings more effectively. Closing the quality gap relies on the implementation research to create effective quality improvement interventions. Implementation research is referred to by many names, including action research, research utilization, practice guidelines implementation research, diffusion of innovation, translating research into practice, quality improvement research, knowledge translation, knowledge transfer, knowledge mobilization, and knowledge exchange. Research has followed two primary and related tracks: transfer or diffusion of knowledge and behavioral change.
Excerpted from:
Shojania KG, McDonald KM, Wachter RM, Owens DK. Closing the Quality Gap: A Critical Analysis of Quality Improvement Strategies, Volume 1 – Series Overview and Methodology. Technical Review 9 (Contract No. 290-02-0017 to the Stanford University-UCSF Evidence-based Practices Center). AHRQ Publication No. 04-0051-1. Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. August 2004.
1. Foy R, Eccles M, Grimshaw J. Why does primary care need more implementation research?
Fam Pract 2001;18(4):353-5. Click here for a link to this article
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