Identifying strategies to promote team science in dissemination and implementation research

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:sec id="S2059866119004138_as1" sec-type="other"><jats:title>Introduction:</jats:title><jats:p>Scientific endeavors are increasingly carried out by teams of scientists. While there is growing literature on factors associated with effective science teams, little is known about processes that facilitate the success of dissemination and implementation (D&amp;I) teams studying the uptake of healthcare innovations. This study aimed to identify strategies used by D&amp;I scientists to promote team science.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S2059866119004138_as2" sec-type="other"><jats:title>Methods:</jats:title><jats:p>Using a nominal group technique, a sample of 27 D&amp;I scholars responded to the question, “What strategies have you or others used to promote team science?” Participants were asked to individually respond and then discuss within a small group to determine the group’s top three strategies. Through a facilitated consensus discussion with the full sample, a rank-ordered list of three strategies was determined.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S2059866119004138_as3" sec-type="other"><jats:title>Results:</jats:title><jats:p>A total of 126 individual responses (<jats:italic>M</jats:italic> = 9; SD = 4.88) were submitted. Through small group discussion, six groups ranked their top three strategies to promote team science. The final ranked list of strategies determined by the full sample included: (1) developing and maintaining clear expectations, (2) promoting and modeling effective communication, and (3) establishing shared goals and a mission of the work to be accomplished.</jats:p></jats:sec><jats:sec id="S2059866119004138_as4" sec-type="other"><jats:title>Conclusions:</jats:title><jats:p>Because of its goal of translating knowledge to practice, D&amp;I research necessitates the use of team science. The top strategies are in line with those found to be effective for teams in other fields and hold promise for improving D&amp;I team cohesion and innovation, which may ultimately accelerate the translation of health innovations and the improvement of care quality and outcomes.</jats:p></jats:sec>

Collaborating with health economists to advance implementation science: a qualitative study

“…Our study identified the importance of effective communication and leadership across crossdisciplinary teams with health economists. These findings were consistent with a past study, which found that successful team science in implementation research was fostered when there were clear expectations and roles in conducting research, effective communication was promoted and modeled, and there was a shared goal and mission across team members [15]. Indeed, implementation researchers are frequently tasked with forming and leading large teams, which include community practitioners and researchers from multiple disciplines such as medicine, engineering, biostatistics, psychology, social work, anthropology, and economics.…”

“…Indeed, implementation researchers are frequently tasked with forming and leading large teams, which include community practitioners and researchers from multiple disciplines such as medicine, engineering, biostatistics, psychology, social work, anthropology, and economics. As opposed to learning each of these fields, implementation researchers can focus on gaining expertise in best practices in team science [14,15,23]. Many of the skills that facilitate other research partnerships can help to promote successful collaborations with health economists, including learning the "language" used in the field and clarifying that there is a shared understanding across researchers in terms of roles, expectations, and incentives.…”

“…Although implementation science lends itself to transdisciplinary work by its nature, a recent survey of dissemination and implementation researchers found a tendency for researchers to collaborate with individuals from within their own discipline (e.g., social work or psychology) [11]. Furthermore, the perspectives of health economists have not been included in past research on team science in dissemination and implementation research [15,18]. Given calls to increase economic evaluations within implementation research, the potential of collaborating with health economists, and the documented challenges in doing so, further understanding is needed on how to best facilitate these collaborations.…”

“…Transdisciplinary research is the most collaborative as it spans disciplinary bounds to develop new scientific frameworks and methodologies [13]. Aarons and colleagues [15] have identified crossdisciplinary dissemination and implementation science teams as a way "to expedite the translation process through having the most relevant and innovative perspectives come together to determine the most efficient…”

Introduction to the JCTS special issue on Dissemination and Implementation Sciences

“…Similarly, Hwang et al 5 propose utilization of novel implementation science methodologies to advance health in the US and worldwide, while Yousefi et al 6 discuss interactions between health equity research and D&I science, underlying the importance of translational research with the focus on equitable D&I. Bennett et al highlighted a need for research integration into Learning Health Systems (LHS). 7 Aarons et al 8 and Dolor et al 9 examined opinions of D&I researchers and CTSA leaders to identify strategies that could promote team science and improve population health. The importance of partnerships between academic and public health systems and organizations is examined by both Kilbourne et al 10 and Towfighi et al 11 This is further explored in terms of a broader engagement of specific participants, including stakeholder and workforce related issues.…”