Building the Next Generation of Researchers: Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Science

Abstract

Problem: Dissemination and implementation (D&I) science provides the tools needed to close the gap between known intervention strategies and their effective application. The authors report on the Mentored Training for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (MT-DIRC) program-a D&I training program for postdoctoral or early-career cancer prevention and control scholars.

Approach: MT-DIRC was a 2-year training institute in which fellows attended 2 annual Summer Institutes and other conferences and received didactic, group, and individual instruction; individualized mentoring; and other supports (e.g., pilot funding). A quasi-experimental design compared changes in 3 areas: mentoring, skills, and network composition. To evaluate mentoring and D&I skills, data from fellows on their mentors' mentoring competencies, their perspectives on the importance of and satisfaction with mentoring priority areas, and their self-rated skills in D&I competency domains were collected. Network composition data were collected from faculty and fellows for 3 core social network domains: contact, mentoring, and collaboration. Paired t tests (mentoring), linear mixed models (skills), and descriptive analyses (network composition) were performed.

Outcomes: Mentors were rated as highly competent across all mentoring competencies, and each mentoring priority area showed reductions in gaps between satisfaction and importance between the 6 and 18 months post-first Summer Institute. Fellows' self-rated skills in D&I competencies improved significantly in all domains over time (range: 42.5%-52.9% increase from baseline to 18 months post-first Summer Institute). Mentorship and collaboration networks grew over time, with the highest number of collaboration network ties for scholarly manuscripts (n = 199) in 2018 and for research projects (n = 160) in 2019.

Next steps: Building on study findings and existing literature, mentored training of scholars is an important approach for building D&I skills and networks, and thus to better applying the vast amount of available intervention evidence to benefit cancer control.

Figure 1

Changes in Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer fellows’ self-rated dissemination and implementation (D&I) skills over time, grouped by 4 competency domains, 2014–2018. Valid responses from survey participants on skills data for the different time points were: baseline (n = 55), 6 months post-first Summer Institute (n = 52), and 18 months post-first Summer Institute (n = 53). Competencies were rated on a 5-point anchored Likert scale (where 1 = not at all skilled and 5 = extremely skilled).

Figure 2

Mentoring and collaboration networks among Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer fellow and faculty participants, 2015 and 2019. The arrows point in the direction of those who received mentorship; it was possible to have bidirectional mentoring. For mentorship, nodes (members) are sized by the number of members to whom they provided mentoring. For collaboration, nodes are sized by the number of members with whom they are connected. Faculty (black nodes) tended to provide more mentorship and have more collaborations than fellows (gray nodes), leading to more central positions in the networks. Network sizes for the different time points were: 2015 (n = 38) and 2019 (n = 68).

Figure 3

Collaboration networks for the 3 most common types of collaboration (joint research projects, scholarly manuscripts, and grant writing) among Mentored Training in Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer participants by collaboration type and year, 2015–2019. Nodes (members) are sized by the number of members with whom they are connected. Publishing or writing a scholarly manuscript had the most network ties for all years, with the exception of 2019 when engaging in a joint research project had more network ties. Network sizes for the different time points were: 2015 (n = 38), 2016 (n = 55), 2017 (n = 68), 2018 (n = 68), and 2019 (n = 68).