Implementation Science: Linking Research to Practice

Catalog description

Implementation science is an exciting and emerging field whose approach offers broad and novel insights into the gap between research and practice. Implementation science is commonly defined as the study of methods and strategies to promote the uptake of interventions that have proven effective in routine practice, with the aim of improving population health. Therefore, implementation research is used to understand the approaches that work best to translate research to the real world, and implementation practice applies and adapts these approaches in different settings to achieve outcomes. Often, interventions tested in traditional research studies that are found to be effective do not translate into positive outcomes in practice or cannot be practically applied. Alternatively, other interventions that have potential to improve care will not be effectively implemented without practical tools to aid the implementation. Integrating research into practice is a major challenge, both during the period of a study and beyond.