Dissemination, Implementation and Improvement

What is Dissemination and Implementation Science?

Despite the demonstrable benefits of many new medical discoveries, there has been a gap in translating research breakthroughs into practice.

Dissemination and implementation science can solve the complex challenge of bringing health innovations to practice through the development of evidence-based strategies that facilitate quality improvement, organizational change within health systems, and policy implementation.

Definition

In the FOA PAR-10-040, the National Institutes of Health provided the following definitions of dissemination and implementation.

Dissemination is the targeted distribution of information and intervention materials to a specific public health or clinical practice audience. The intent is to spread and sustain knowledge and the associated evidence-based interventions. Implementation is the use of strategies to adopt and integrate evidence-based health interventions and change practice patterns within specific settings.

The Improvement Science Research Network states that the “overriding goal of improvement science is to ensure that quality improvement efforts are based as much on evidence as the best practices they seek to implement.” (1) Simply put, “strategies for implementing evidence-based quality improvement need an evidence base of their own.”(2)

1. Shojania KG, Grimshaw JM. Evidence-Based quality improvement: the state of the science. Health Aff (Millwood) 2005; 24(1): 138-50.
2. Improvement Science Research Network. What is Improvement Science? Accessed August 14, 2013.