Dr. Nicola McCleary is a Scientist in the Child Health Evaluative Sciences Program at SickKids Research Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She is an Implementation Scientist, focused on identifying effective ways to support the uptake of health evidence to improve health outcomes, including implementation of evidence-based practices and de-implementation of ineffective practices. She draws on her background in psychology by framing implementation problems in relation to behaviour change.
Her work focuses on i) elucidating barriers to and enablers of change in healthcare contexts to guide the selection of implementation strategies; ii) investigating mechanisms of action through which interventions operate to achieve intended impacts; and iii) exploring the cognitive processes underlying clinical practice behaviours. The latter includes work to better understand the role of ‘automaticity’ (e.g. cognitive heuristics, habit) such that this can be better incorporated into implementation efforts. Dr McCleary has led projects focused on a wide range of clinical topics, including improving the provision of asthma self-management support, reducing opioid prescribing in primary care, and reducing over-use of laboratory test-ordering in hospital settings.