Positioning the field to elucidate how, why, and under what circumstances implementation strategies work for whom to achieve more effective and sustained implementation.

By engaging our core group we intend to generate research, policy, and practice priorities for a research agenda to guide the study of implementation mechanisms. The products of these conference meetings will position the field to elucidate how, why, and under what circumstances implementation strategies work for whom, with an emphasis on AHRQ priority populations, to achieve more effective and sustained implementation. Below we detail our specific aims in these efforts.


SPECIFIC AIMS

Aim 1: To generate research, policy, and practice priorities for a research agenda to
guide the study of implementation mechanisms.
The MNoE will be divided into Strategic Workgroups reflecting major conceptual and
methodological areas: Design & Analysis; Measurement; Strategy→Mechanism→Outcome
linkages; and Causal Theory & Context. The workgroups will attend to gaps, inconsistencies,
and theoretical and methodological issues in their initial brainstorming to yield a matrix
mapping extant knowledge of mechanisms across priority populations based on their
expertise. The MNoE will code presentations at the first conference for the target problem,
EBP, priority population, setting, and implementation strategy (Yr 1) and interview policy and
practice partners regarding their priorities to further populate the matrix (Yr 2). The items
generated from brainstorming, coding, and interviews will seed the concept mapping, which
will identify conceptually distinct categories of research, practice, and policy priorities. The
MNoE will finalize and operationalize these priorities at the 2nd conference to develop an
agenda to advance mechanistic health services implementation research.

Aim 2: To actively disseminate the research agenda to research, policy, and practice
audiences.
The MNoE will deliver plenary sessions and workshops at the 3rd conference (open to the
public) and share recordings via relevant listservs (e.g., Implementation Science News), social
media (e.g., Twitter, ResearchGate), and on the website. We will develop an open access
special issue of a journal targeting our research audience. We will develop plain language
brief reports targeting our policy partners and short videos for our practice audience that will
be reviewed by attendees of the 3rd conference and revised based on their feedback before
disseminating internationally.

This proposal aligns with AHRQ’s goal of promoting implementation mechanisms evaluation
with the potential to close the quality and access gap for priority populations via an
innovative 3-year Deep Dive conference series that interfaces implementation science, health
services research, and health disparities research to inform a research agenda for widespread
dissemination to research, policy, and practice audiences.


Year 1 – 2019 Year 2 – 2020 Year 3 – 2021
Quarterly Meetings
March
June
Sept
Dec
Q1: Williams & Lewis host webinar
Q2: Matrix Mapping exercise
Q3: SIRC 2019 coding discussed
Q4: Workgroups discuss gaps and generate skeletal roadmap
Q1: Review evaluation; Partner interviews discussed
Q2: Cull list of statements for CM
Q3: Finalize research agenda
Q4: Discuss manuscripts
Q1: Review evaluation; Assign disemmination products
Q2: Prep workshops and plenaries
Q3: SIRC 2021 presentations
Q4: Revise disseminate materials
In-Person Deep Dive Activities
Seattle (overlap w SIRC) Friday Harbor Seattle (overlap w SIRC)
Day 1
(Evening)
Review SIRC program and assign MNoE to talks to align with workgroup docus areas Powell to present overview of concept mapping analysis and interpretation procedures; Results pre-sented MNoE lead workshops
Day 2
(Full Day)
MNoE engage w SIRC in IDWs
MNoE engage in coding SIRC talks
Finalize concept mapping solution
Operationalize priority clusters & items to inform strategic actions steps
MNoE deliver plenary sessions
MNoE engage w SIRC in IDWs
Day 3
(Full Day)
MNoE lead think tanks on each focus area
MNoE engage incoding SIRC talks
Generate strategies for addressing priorities
Developm dissemination plan, including manuscript #1, short course material, policy briefs, and videos
MNoE present dissemination products and solicit feedback in focused sessions with SIRC members