Commentary on RTI International and the Consortium for Implementation Science’s “Harnessing Implementation Science to Promote Health Equity.”
Happy 2021! For the first Consortium newsletter of the year, I wanted to highlight an event that occurred this past November, sponsored by RTI International and the Consortium for Implementation Science. Over 400 attendees from across the country joined the virtual webinar entitled “Harnessing Implementation Science to Promote Health Equity”. Drs. Ana Baumann and Cory Bradley kicked it off with an overview of the infusion of implementation science (IS) with an equity lens, including the application of Critical Race Theory as a framework with potential use in IS to achieve health equity, and the newly formed Anti-Racism ImpSci Community of Practice (CoP). Next, Dr. Eva Woodward talked about her work modifying existing IS determinant frameworks to account for health equity (e.g., societal context, cultural factors, and clinical encounter). Dr. Sara Jacobs followed up with an interesting look at how the CFIR could be integrated into a culturally responsive evaluation approach of strategies aimed at managing type 2 diabetes within underserved communities. Lastly, Dr. Lori Carter-Edwards and Pastor James Guilliard discussed the intersection of community engagement and IS within faith settings, and their current project to develop and evaluate effective strategies promoting risk communication for COVID-19 within rural, Black faith communities using systems mapping, human centered-design, and the RE-AIM framework.
We would like to sincerely thank everyone for joining this event and your active engagement in the discussion. If you were not able to attend, a recording of the webinar and slide presentations can be found here. I also wanted to highlight several of the articles from the presentations that may be of interest to our readers:
- Baumann A. and Cabassa LJ. (2020). Reframing implementation science to address inequities in healthcare delivery. BMC Health Services Research.
- Woodward EN, Matthieu MM, Uchendu US, et al. (2019). The health equity implementation framework: proposal and preliminary study of hepatitis C virus treatment. Implementation Science.
- Eslava-Schmalbach J, Garzon-Orjuela N, Elia V, et al. (2020). Conceptual framework of equity-focused implementation research for health programs (EquIR). International Journal for Equity and Health.
- Etherington N, Rodrigues I, Giangregorio L, et al. (2020). Applying an intersectionality lens to the theoretical domains framework: a tool for thinking about how intersecting social identities and structures of power influence behaviour. BMC Medical Research Methodology.
We hope that these resources may be of use to you and inform your implementation efforts in the new year. Stay tuned for our next CIS webinar, and we welcome any suggestions you have on what may be good topics to feature for future events.