Implications for implementation science

Abstract

Implementing evidence into healthcare practice is essential to maximize the benefits of research and billions of dollars spent generating new knowledge. Implementation science is the investigation of methods, interventions (strategies), and variables to influence adoption of evidence-based healthcare practices by individuals and organizations to improve clinical and operational decision making, and includes testing the effectiveness of interventions to promote and sustain use of evidence-based healthcare practices. Estabrooks and her research team are to be applauded not only for the excellent contributions to the understanding of research utilization but also for setting forth a series of articles to stimulate thinking and comments across national boundaries and lines of inquiry. Described here are the implications for implementation science with regard to conceptual frameworks, measurement issues, and research designs, stimulated by the papers of the Estabrooks investigative team set forth in this special issue.