Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (R01, R03, and R21)

Additional Information:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-10-038.html (R01)

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-10-039.html (R03)

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/pa-files/PAR-10-040.html (R21)

 

Description:

Dissemination and implementation research intends to bridge the gap between public health, clinical research, and everyday practice by building a knowledge base about how health information, interventions, and new clinical practices are transmitted and translated for public health and health care service use in specific settings. Unfortunately, there continues to be great variation in how these terms are used. Dissemination and implementation have both been used to represent the complete process of bringing "evidence" into practice, originally defined as "diffusion." While using the terms dissemination and implementation to cover such a wide area can be very helpful in facilitating discussion, it does not allow for the division of this very complex diffusion process into smaller, more easily addressed research questions that can develop a robust knowledge base. We are inviting applications that will continue to break down the complexity of bridging research and practice.

For the purpose of this FOA, we make a distinction between "dissemination" and "implementation."

• Dissemination is the targeted distribution of information and intervention materials to a specific public health or clinical practice audience. The intent is to spread knowledge and the associated evidence-based interventions.
• Implementation is the use of strategies to adopt and integrate evidence-based health interventions and change practice patterns within specific settings.

This distinction needs to be made because interventions developed in the context of efficacy and effectiveness trials are rarely transferable without adaptations to specific settings. Therefore, research is needed to examine the process of transferring interventions into local settings, settings that may be similar to but also somewhat different from the ones in which the intervention was developed and tested.