A Non-research Social Worker Finds Joy at a Research Conference

By Maureen Rigney

I am fortunate to attend a variety of professional conferences as a part of my job. When I present, it’s generally on our programs, projects and survey results. After 18 years at my organization, I keep up reasonably well at even the highest-level scientific presentations. But when I look at the definitions of “researcher” and “scientist,” I find that while I may meet the basic qualifications of both, I certainly do not consider myself either.

Imagine then, my excitement to find so much joy last August at the 23rd annual meeting of the International Psychosocial Oncology Society (IPOS) in Toronto. The aim of IPOS is to, “foster international multidisciplinary communication about clinical, educational and research issues” in the realm of psycho-oncology.

My first joy was at the fair amount of lung cancer-specific research included. Then, after finding inspiration in several presentations, it was a keynote by esteemed Australia researcher, Dr. Nicole Rankin on implementation science that literally blew my mind. AOSW research members are likely familiar with the concept but it was new to me and I am happy to share it.

Rankin described what implementation science is, from a definition initially introduced by Eccles in 2006. It is, “the scientific study of the methods that we use to promote the uptake of research findings into practice.” A particularly striking point, from an article by Balas in the Yearbook of Medical Informatics is that it takes, on average 17 years for evidence-based practices to move only 14% of innovations into practice! This means few of the evidence-based interventions shown to benefit people with cancer ever move from research to practice.

And that’s what implementation science thinks about: how to move an intervention beyond studying effectiveness into clinical practice in a formal, thoughtful way. It draws on many disciplines, including psychology, behavior change, and behavioral science and is, importantly, influenced by change management. Implementation science includes evidence-based practices, interventions, programs and innovations developed and tested and brings them into routine practice.

So. You find an evidence-based intervention, want to show you’re using the best strategies to implement it and that you are showing good stewardship of finite resources and funds. The “science” part is the focus on the means, or mechanisms of delivery.

This non-scientist plans on giving implementation science a spin. I do not have Dr. Rankin’s communication gifts but if this information makes you want to learn more, a great start are:

Rankin, Nicole et al. 2019. An implementation science primer for psycho-oncology: translating robust evidence into practice. Journal of Psychosocial Oncology Research and Practice.

Bauer, M.S. et al. 2015. An introduction to implementation science for the non-specialist. BMC Psychology.

Eccles MP, Mittman BS. Welcome to Implementation Science. Implement Sci 2006;1:1–11.

Balas EA, Boren SA. Managing Clinical Knowledge for Health Care Improvement. Yearb Med Inform. 2000;(1):65-70. PMID: 27699347.