Implementation Science: The Key Concepts

This accessible textbook introduces a wide spectrum of ideas, approaches, and examples that make up the emerging field of implementation science, including implementation theory, processes and methods, data collection and analysis, brokering interest on the ground, and sustainable implementation.

Containing over 60 concise essays, each addressing the thorny problem of how we can make care more evidence-informed, this book looks at how implementation science should be defined, how it can be conducted, and how it is assessed. It offers vital insight into how research findings that are derived from healthcare contexts can help make sense of service delivery and patient encounters. Each entry concentrates on an important concept and examines the idea’s evidence base, root causes and effects, ideas and applications, and methodologies and methods. Revealing a very human side to caregiving, but also tackling its more complex and technological aspects, the contributors draw on real-life healthcare examples to look both at why things go right in introducing a new intervention and at what can go wrong. Implementation Science: The Key Concepts provides a toolbox of rich, contemporary thought from leading international thinkers, clearly and succinctly delivered.

This comprehensive and enlightening range of ideas and examples brought together in one place is essential reading for all students, researchers, and practitioners with an interest in translating knowledge into practice in healthcare.

Frances Rapport is Professor of Health Implementation Science at Macquarie University’s Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, Sydney, Australia, is Academic Lead, MD Research, Macquarie University, and holds an Honorary Chair as Professor of Qualitative Health Research at Swansea University’s Medical School, UK. She currently leads a team of implementation scientists examining new models of implementation to support the translation of research outcomes into practical solutions for healthcare delivery and improvement. Rapport has a visiting professorship in Bournemouth University, UK, and was previously a visiting professor at Harvard University (Psychiatry), Texas University, Galveston (Medical Board), and the University of Tromsø (Medical Humanities) in Norway.

Robyn Clay-Williams is Associate Professor of Human Factors and Resilience and an internationally regarded health services researcher, who leads a research stream at the Australian Institute of Health and Innovation (AIHI), Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. Her expertise is in creating health systems that can function effectively in the presence of complexity and uncertainty. Dr Clay-Williams’ research bridges the gap between theory and practice by developing products and processes that are usable and ready for implementation. She has a background in aviation and, prior to her academic career, was a military test pilot with the Royal Australian Air Force.

Jeffrey Braithwaite is Founding Director of the AIHI, Director of the Centre for Healthcare Resilience and Implementation Science, and Professor of Health Systems Research, Faculty of Medicine, Health and Human Sciences, Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. He has appointments at six other universities internationally, and he is a board member and President of the International Society for Quality in Health Care (ISQua) and consultant to the World Health Organization (WHO). Working with 152 countries on their reform initiatives, his research on safer, higher quality, and more resilient care examines health systems and their capacity to implement change and improvement, attracting funding of more than AUD 171 million. He is particularly interested in healthcare as a Complex Adaptive System and applying complexity science to healthcare problems.