Welcome

One of the most critical issues impeding improvements in public health today is the enormous gap between what we know can optimize health and health care and what actually gets implemented in everyday practice. The science of dissemination and implementation (D&I) seeks to address this gap by understanding how best to ensure that evidence-based strategies to improve health and prevent disease are effectively delivered in clinical and public health practice.

D&I research draws from a variety of behavioral and social science disciplines and employs approaches and methods that in the past have not been taught comprehensively in most graduate degree programs.
Though this field of research has gained incredible momentum in recent years, the need remains to grow a cadre of both new and established scientists who are prepared to (1) address the complex process of bridging research and practice in a variety of real-world settings and (2) conduct research that balances rigor with relevance and employs study designs and methods appropriate for the complex processes involved in D&I.

What is Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) Research?

Dissemination Research

Dissemination research is the systematic study of processes and factors that lead to widespread use of an evidence-based intervention by the target population. Its focus is to identify the best methods that enhance the uptake and utilization of the intervention.¹

Implementation Research

Implementation research seeks to understand the processes and factors that are associated with successful integration of evidence-based interventions within a particular setting (e.g., a worksite or school). Implementation research assesses whether the core components of the original intervention were faithfully incorporated into the real-world setting (i.e., the degree of fidelity of the disseminated and implemented intervention with the original study) and also is concerned with the adaptation of the implemented intervention to the local context.¹

Institute Goals

The National Cancer Institute, National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, and Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research—all at the National Institutes of Health—and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs are hosting this training institute to provide participants with a thorough grounding in conducting D&I research in health across all areas of health and health care. In 2016, the institute will utilize a combination of a 3-month online course (six webinars with related assignments held bi-weekly) between September 16 and December 7, 2016, and a 2-day in-person training to be held December 12–13, 2016, in Washington, DC. Faculty and guest lecturers will consist of leading experts (practitioners and teachers) in theory, implementation, and evaluation approaches to D&I; creating partnerships and multilevel, transdisciplinary research teams; research design, methods, and analyses appropriate for D&I investigations; and conducting research at different and multiple levels of intervention (e.g., clinical, community, policy).

Participants will be expected to return to their home institutions prepared to share what they have learned at the institute to help further the field of D&I research (e.g., giving talks, leading seminars, forming new collaborations, mentoring, submitting D&I grant proposals, etc.).

For a background on the training institute, please see this article published January 24, 2013: "The U.S. training institute for dissemination and implementation research in health." Implementation Science 2013 8:12.

For questions concerning the training or application process please contact Cynthia Vinson at cvinson@mail.nih.gov.