Reconnecting the Research to Policy Pipeline with D&I Science

Overview:

The fields of dissemination and implementation science (D&I) and knowledge translation share a common aim of accelerating the public health impact of evidence-based interventions. D&I has grown rapidly over the last 30 years, but has insufficiently investigated the role of policy – and its inseparable politics, polity structures, and policymakers – in the implementation and sustainment of evidence-based care. Policies can serve as pre-conditions, determinants, implementation strategies, the evidence-informed “thing” to be implemented, an outcome, or another variable in the causal pathway to healthcare access, quality, and patient outcomes. Meaningful conceptualization of the multifaceted roles that policy plays in D&I research is critical to resolving persistent knowledge gaps about when, how, and why policymakers use evidence to inform policy, how evidence-driven policies are implemented and sustained, and methods to de-implement policies that can harm individuals or society. This presentation will discuss recommendations for meaningfully identifying the role of policy in guiding frameworks and research aims. The presentation will also highlight interdisciplinary methods to rigorously investigate policy-relevant factors influencing implementation outcomes, and highlight approaches for building relationships with policy decision-makers based on trust and data. Examples will draw from current D&I research that aims to increase access and quality of substance use treatment.

This talk is being organized by Dr. Carolyn Steele Gray, a faculty member at IHPME, and a Canada Research Chair at Mount Sinai.

Speaker Bio:

Dr. Erika Crable is a health services researcher and implementation scientist. Currently, she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California San Diego. Her additional training includes fellowships with the Implementation Research Institute and the Miriam Lifespan/Brown University Criminal Justice Research Training Program. Dr. Crable has been working in applied health services and health policy research for 10+ years. Her research agenda is focused on:

1. Increasing access to and the quality of substance use treatment services for safety-net and justice-involved populations.
2. Advancing the study of dissemination and implementation science methods to promote systematic uptake of evidence-based practices across policy and systems levels.
3. Using mixed methods to enhance our understanding of policy and health systems changes.
4. Improving health equity for safety-net and justice-involved populations.

Prior to joining the Department of Psychiatry at UC San Diego, Dr. Crable was a Research Fellow at the Evans Center for Implementation Science at Boston University. She also worked as a Research Leader at IBM Watson Health and consulted for a variety of federal agencies including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Research (SAMHSA), and the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).

Sponsors:

• Science of Care Institute
• Health System Performance Network
• Sinai Health