Getting a piece of the action

Training, publishing, networking and funding opportunities are starting to blossom in the field of dissemination and implementation science. Some to consider:

• Funding and conference opportunities at the National Institutes of Health. These include links to NIH grant funding; to the NIH annual conference on dissemination and implementation research; to the Dissemination and Implementation Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health; and to research information and funding opportunities at the National Cancer Institute.

• A training program for early to midcareer doctoral-level psychologists and other investigators called the Implementation Research Institute. Housed at Washington University in St. Louis and funded by the NIMH, the program offers eight fellows two years of training, including a week of onsite training in implementation research, as well as bimonthly mentoring with experts, travel to research sites, pilot funding for a mentored study of real-world implementation processes, and funding to attend the annual NIH conference on dissemination and implementation research.

• An online journal, Implementation Science, which publishes empirical studies as well as articles on theories, methods, frameworks and conceptual issues related to implementation science. The journal recently received its first Impact Factor rating, a measure of a journal’s impact and value based on the average number of times each article is cited in future articles. Its rating of 2.49 places it in the top tier of related journals, notes the journal’s co-editor-in-chief, Brian Mittman, PhD. Contact e-mail.

• Dissemination and implementation tools and technical assistance for using them, offered by the Center for Health Implementation and Dissemination Research at Kaiser Permanente’s Colorado Institute for Health Research.

• Cancer Control P.L.A.N.E.T., a Web-based portal providing access to data and resources that can help planners, program staff, and researchers to design, implement and evaluate evidence-based cancer control programs.

• The Veterans Administration/Health Services Research & Development Service’s Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) program, which works to improve the quality of health care for veterans by implementing research findings into routine clinical practice. Visit QUERI, or its main coordinating center.

• A dissemination and implementation science interest group hosted by the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Its goals include helping members network; collaborating with people who have a potential stake in research outcomes such as mental health administrators and direct service providers; and communicating the benefits of evidence-based practices to consumers and providers. For more information, contact Brad J. Nakamura, PhD. Check other organizations for such groups, too.

—T. DeAngelis