Making sense of implementation theories, models and frameworks

Background Implementation science has progressed towards increased use of theoretical approaches to provide better understanding and explanation of how and why implementation succeeds or fails. The aim of this article is to propose a taxonomy that distinguishes between different categories of theori...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Implementation science : IS Vol. 10; no. 1; p. 53
Main Author: Nilsen, Per
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: London BioMed Central 21.04.2015
BioMed Central Ltd
Subjects:
Debate
Evidence-Based Medicine - methods
Health Administration
Health Informatics
Health Policy
Health Promotion and Disease Prevention
Health Services Research
Humans
Medicine
Medicine & Public Health
Models, Organizational
Program Development - methods
Public Health
Translational Research, Biomedical - methods
Context
Model
Evaluation
Theory
Framework
ISSN:1748-5908, 1748-5908
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Background Implementation science has progressed towards increased use of theoretical approaches to provide better understanding and explanation of how and why implementation succeeds or fails. The aim of this article is to propose a taxonomy that distinguishes between different categories of theories, models and frameworks in implementation science, to facilitate appropriate selection and application of relevant approaches in implementation research and practice and to foster cross-disciplinary dialogue among implementation researchers. Discussion Theoretical approaches used in implementation science have three overarching aims: describing and/or guiding the process of translating research into practice (process models); understanding and/or explaining what influences implementation outcomes (determinant frameworks, classic theories, implementation theories); and evaluating implementation (evaluation frameworks). Summary This article proposes five categories of theoretical approaches to achieve three overarching aims. These categories are not always recognized as separate types of approaches in the literature. While there is overlap between some of the theories, models and frameworks, awareness of the differences is important to facilitate the selection of relevant approaches. Most determinant frameworks provide limited “how-to” support for carrying out implementation endeavours since the determinants usually are too generic to provide sufficient detail for guiding an implementation process. And while the relevance of addressing barriers and enablers to translating research into practice is mentioned in many process models, these models do not identify or systematically structure specific determinants associated with implementation success. Furthermore, process models recognize a temporal sequence of implementation endeavours, whereas determinant frameworks do not explicitly take a process perspective of implementation.
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ISSN:1748-5908
1748-5908
DOI:10.1186/s13012-015-0242-0