Formative Evaluation in Implementation Research: Guideline Development

NCT00683540 | Completed

• 1 other identifier: SHP 08-156
• Study Type: observational
• Target: 9
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The Veterans Administration (VA) has embraced the use of implementation research as a critical way to improve care by facilitating the adoption of proven medical practices. Yet implementation science still remains rudimentary. Challenges exist in judging the success of an implementation project. Rather than relying solely on hard outcomes, an investigator must also assess how effectively an intervention is put into place at a site. This assessment comes via a formative evaluation (FE) plan. The FE plan can contain such diverse data elements as the number of fliers distributed about the intervention, how often an intervention advocate speaks to participants, the content derived from team meeting notes, and themes extracted from focus groups. The diversity of such data elements can appear foreign to investigators trained in traditional health services research. The FE plan can also lead to confusion about what to measure, when, and how to integrate the various measures into a unified whole. Complicating matters is the fact that FE is often qualitative--such as interviews, focus groups, and meeting notes which can make data difficult for investigators to interpret. Thus, there is a pressing need to provide clarity on how FE is to be used in implementation studies. This Short Term Project proposal offers a three-part approach toward specifying the best FE practices: first, a systematic review of the literature; second, qualitative interviews with VA implementation investigators; and third, a panel discussion of national experts, funded through a VA Implementation Collaborative Award. The panel discussion will outline FE guidelines based on the researchers expertise, the systematic review, and the qualitative interviews.

Conditions

Chronic Disease

Keywords

implementation; evaluation; research methodology; intervention

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (1)

• Investigators attitudes toward formative evaluation

  Current

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 18 Years+
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: No
• Age Groups: Adult (18-64), Older Adult (65+)
• Sampling Method: Non-Probability Sample

Study Population

VA health services investigators

You may qualify if:

• VA health services investigators

You may not qualify if:

• N/A

Sponsors & Collaborators

• VA Office of Research and Development: lead

Study Sites (1)

VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System University Drive Division, Pittsburgh, PA

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 15240, United States

Location

MeSH Terms

Conditions

Chronic Disease

Condition Hierarchy (Ancestors)

Disease Attributes; Pathologic Processes; Pathological Conditions, Signs and Symptoms

Study Officials

• Susan L. Zickmund, PhD

  VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System University Drive Division, Pittsburgh, PA

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Study Design

• Study Type: observational
• Observational Model: OTHER
• Time Perspective: PROSPECTIVE
• Sponsor Type: FED
• Responsible Party: SPONSOR

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: May 20, 2008
• First Posted: May 23, 2008
• Study Start: January 23, 2009
• Primary Completion: March 30, 2009
• Study Completion: March 31, 2009
• Last Updated: June 6, 2017

Record last verified: 2017-06

Locations

US (1)