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Table 1 Prerequisites to measuring implementation strategies

From: Implementation strategies: recommendations for specifying and reporting

Prerequisite

Requirements

Resource(s) & example(s)

1) Name it

Name the strategy, preferably using language that is consistent with existing literature.

Cochrane EPOC[25]

Mazza et al.[24]

Powell et al.[20]

2) Define it

Define the implementation strategy and any discrete components operationally

Abraham & Michie[38]

Powell et al.[20]

Michie et al.[26]

3) Specify it

  

a) The actor

Identify who enacts the strategy (e.g., administrators, payers, providers, patients/consumers, advocates, etc.).

Kauth et al.[39] describe the characteristics, qualifications, and roles of an external facilitator

b) The action

Use active verb statements to specify the specific actions, steps, or processes that need to be enacted.

Rapp et al.’s[40] operational definition of ‘leadership’

c) Action target

Specify targets according to conceptual models of implementation

Tabak et al.[41]

Damschroder et al.[42]

Identify unit of analysis for measuring implementation outcomes

Flottorp et al.[43]

Cane et al.[44]

Michie et al.[45]

Landsverk et al.[46]

Proctor et al.[47]

d) Temporality

Specify when the strategy is used

Magnabosco[21]

Chinman et al.[31]

Kilbourne et al.[33]

e) Dose

Specify dosage of implementation strategy

Atkins et al.[48] recorded frequency of support received by opinion leaders

f) Implementation outcome affected

Identify and measure the implementation outcome(s) likely to be affected by each strategy

Proctor et al.[47]

Proctor & Brownson[49]

Proctor et al.[50]

g) Justification

Provide empirical, theoretical, or pragmatic justification for the choice of implementation strategies.

Theoretical:

Eccles et al.[51]

Grol et al.[52]

Empirical:

Cochrane EPOC[53]

Grimshaw et al.[8]

Pragmatic:

Oxman et al.[54]

  

Wensing et al.[55] suggest brainstorming as a low-cost, low intensity method of linking strategies to identified barriers