Bridges and Mechanisms: Integrating Systems Science Thinking into Implementation Research.

We present a detailed argument for how to integrate, or bridge, systems science thinking and methods with implementation science. We start by showing how fundamental systems science principles of structure, dynamics, information, and utility are relevant for implementation science. Then we examine the need for implementation science to develop and apply richer theories of complex systems. This can be accomplished by emphasizing a causal mechanisms approach. Identifying causal mechanisms focuses on the "cogs and gears" of public health, clinical, and organizational interventions. A mechanisms approach focuses on how a specific strategy will produce the implementation outcome. We show how connecting systems science to implementation science opens new opportunities for examining and addressing social determinants of health and conducting equitable and ethical implementation research. Finally, we present case studies illustrating successful applications of systems science within implementation science in community health policy, tobacco control, health care access, and breast cancer screening.

Influences of specialty identity when implementing a new emergency department in Denmark: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The Danish Health Authority recommended the implementation of new types of emergency departments. Organizational changes in the hospital sector challenged the role, identity, and autonomy of medical specialists. They tend to identify with their specialty, which can challenge successful implementation of change. However, investigations on specialty identity are rare in implementation science, and how the co-existence of different specialty identities influences the implementation of new emergency departments needs to be explored for the development of tailored implementation strategies. The aim of this study was to examine how medical specialty identity influences collaboration between physicians when implementing a new emergency department in Denmark. METHODS: Qualitative methods in the form of participants' observations at 13 oilcloth sessions (a micro-simulation method) were conducted followed up by 53 individual semi-structured interviews with participants from the oilcloth sessions. Out of the 53 interviews, 26 were conducted with specialists. Data from their interviews are included in this study. Data were analysed deductively inspired by Social Identity Theory. RESULTS: The analysis yielded three overarching themes: [1] ongoing creation and re-creation of specialty identity through boundary drawing; [2] social categorization and power relations; and [3] the patient as a boundary object. CONCLUSIONS: Specialty identity is an important determinant of collaboration among physicians when implementing a new emergency department. Specialty identity involves social categorization, which entails ongoing creation and re-creation of boundary drawing and exercising of power among the physicians. In some situations, the patient became a positive boundary object, increasing the possibility for a successful collaboration and supporting successful implementation, but direct expressions of boundaries and mistrust were evident. Both were manifested through a dominating power expressed through social categorization in the form of in- and out-groups and in an "us and them" discourse, which created distance and separation among physicians from different specialties. This distancing and separation became a barrier to the implementation of the new emergency department.

On-the-Go Adaptation of Implementation Approaches and Strategies in Health: Emerging Perspectives and Research Opportunities.

In many cases, implementation approaches (composed of one or more strategies) may need to change over time to work optimally. We use a literature review to inform a mechanistic analysis of such on-the-go adaptations. We suggest that such adaptations of implementation strategies consist of three necessary steps. The first component is the initial effect of the implementation approach on intended implementation, service delivery, or clinical outcomes. Second, these initial effects must in turn be used to modify, alter, intensify, or otherwise change the implementation approach. Third, the modified approach itself has effects. Conceiving of adaptation as all three steps implies that a full understanding of adaptation involves (a) a sense of initial effects, (b) conceptualizing and documenting content and rationale for changes in approach (e.g., alteration, intensification), and (c) the effects of the changed approach (including how the latter effects depend on initial effects). Conceptualizing these steps can help researchers ask questions about adaptation (e.g., thresholds for change, dosing, potentiation, sequencing) to advance our understanding of implementation strategies.

Core implementation strategies for improving cirrhosis care in the Veterans Health Administration.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) provides care for more than 80,000 veterans with cirrhosis. This longitudinal, multimethod evaluation of a cirrhosis care quality improvement program aimed to (1) identify implementation strategies associated with evidence-based, guideline-concordant cirrhosis care over time, and (2) use qualitative interviews to operationalize strategies for a manualized intervention. APPROACH AND RESULTS: VHA providers were surveyed annually about the use of 73 implementation strategies to improve cirrhosis care in fiscal years 2018 (FY18) and 2019 (FY19). Implementation strategies linked to guideline-concordant cirrhosis care were identified using bivariate statistics and comparative configurational methods. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 12 facilities in the highest quartile of cirrhosis care to specify the successful implementation strategies and their mechanisms of change. A total of 106 VHA facilities (82%) responded at least once over the 2-year period (FY18, n = 63; FY19, n = 100). Facilities reported using a median of 12 (interquartile range [IQR] 20) implementation strategies in FY18 and 10 (IQR 19) in FY19. Of the 73 strategies, 35 (48%) were positively correlated with provision of evidence-based cirrhosis care. Configurational analysis identified multiple strategy pathways directly linked to more guideline-concordant cirrhosis care. Across both methods, a subset of eight strategies was determined to be core to cirrhosis care improvement and specified using qualitative interviews. CONCLUSIONS: In a national cirrhosis care improvement initiative, a multimethod approach identified a core subset of successful implementation strategy combinations. This process of empirically identifying and specifying implementation strategies may be applicable to other implementation challenges in hepatology.

Acceptability and user experiences of a patient-held smart card for antenatal services in Nigeria: a qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: Poor maternal, newborn and child health outcomes remain a major public health challenge in Nigeria. Mobile health (mHealth) interventions such as patient-held smart cards have been proposed as effective solutions to improve maternal health outcomes. Our objectives were to assess the acceptability and experiences of pregnant women with the use of a patient-held smartcard for antenatal services in Nigeria. METHODS: Using focus group discussions, qualitative data were obtained from 35 pregnant women attending antenatal services in four Local Government Areas (LGAs) in Benue State, Nigeria. The audio-recorded data were transcribed and analyzed using framework analysis techniques such as the PEN-3 cultural model as a guide. RESULTS: The participants were 18-44 years of age (median age: 24 years), all were married and the majority were farmers. Most of the participants had accepted and used the smartcards for antenatal services. The most common positive perceptions about the smartcards were their ability to be used across multiple health facilities, the preference for storage of the women's medical information on the smartcards compared to the usual paper-based system, and shorter waiting times at the clinics. Notable facilitators to using the smartcards were its provision at the "Baby showers" which were already acceptable to the women, access to free medical screenings, and ease of storage and retrieval of health records from the cards. Costs associated with health services was reported as a major barrier to using the smartcards. Support from health workers, program staff and family members, particularly spouses, encouraged the participants to use the smartcards. CONCLUSION: These findings revealed that patient-held smart card for maternal health care services is acceptable by women utilizing antenatal services in Nigeria. Understanding perceptions, barriers, facilitators, and supportive systems that enhance the use of these smart cards may facilitate the development of lifesaving mobile health platforms that have the potential to achieve antenatal, delivery, and postnatal targets in a resource-limited setting.

An Examination of Factors Affecting State Legislators' Support for Parity Laws for Different Mental Illnesses.

Mental health parity legislation can improve mental health outcomes. U.S. state legislators determine whether state parity laws are adopted, making it critical to assess factors affecting policy support. This study examines the prevalence and demographic correlates of legislators' support for state parity laws for four mental illnesses- major depression disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), schizophrenia, and anorexia/bulimia. Using a 2017 cross-sectional survey of 475 U.S. legislators, we conducted bivariate analyses and multivariate logistic regression. Support for parity was highest for schizophrenia (57%), PTSD (55%), and major depression (53%) and lowest for anorexia/bulimia (40%). Support for parity was generally higher among females, more liberal legislators, legislators in the Northeast region of the country, and those who had previously sought treatment for mental illness. These findings highlight the importance of better disseminating evidence about anorexia/bulimia and can inform dissemination efforts about mental health parity laws to state legislators.

Mechanism mapping to advance research on implementation strategies.

Elvin Hsing Geng and colleagues discuss mechanism mapping and its utility in conceptualizing and understanding how implementation strategies produce desired effects.

Co-designing implementation strategies for the WALK-Cph intervention in Denmark aimed at increasing mobility in acutely hospitalized older patients: a qualitative analysis of selected strategies and their justifications.

BACKGROUND: Selecting appropriate strategies to target barriers to implementing interventions represents a considerable challenge in implementation research and practice. The aim was to investigate what categories of implementation strategies were selected by health care practitioners and their managers in a co-design process and how they justified these strategies aimed at facilitating the implementation of the WALK-Cph intervention. METHODS: The study used a qualitative research design to explore what implementation strategies were selected and the justifications for selecting these strategies. Workshops were used because this qualitative method is particularly well suited for studying co-design processes that involve substantial attention to social interaction and the context. Data were 1) analyzed deductively based on the Proctor et al. taxonomy of implementation strategies, 2) categorized in accordance with the ERIC compilation of implementation strategies by Powell et al., and 3) analyzed to examine the justification for the selected strategies by the Proctor et al. framework for justifications of implementation strategies. RESULTS: Thirteen different types of implementation strategies were chosen across two hospitals. The deductive analysis showed that selection of implementation strategies was based on pragmatic and theoretical justifications. The contents of the two types of justifications were thematized into nine subthemes. CONCLUSION: This study contributes with knowledge about categories and justification of implementation strategies selected in a co-design process. In this study, implementation strategies were selected through pragmatic and theoretical justifications. This points to a challenge in balancing strategies based on practice-based and research-based knowledge and thereby selection of strategies with or without proven effectiveness.

Implementing a new emergency department: a qualitative study of health professionals' change responses and perceptions.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study is two-fold. It explores how managers and key employees at the Emergency Department (ED) and specialist departments in a university hospital in the Capital Region of Denmark respond to the planned change to a new ED, and how they perceive the change involved in the implementation of the new ED. The study investigates what happens when health professionals are confronted with implementation of policy that changes their organization and everyday work lives. Few studies provide in-depth investigations of health professionals' reactions to the implementation of new EDs, and particularly how they influence the implementation of a nationwide organizational change framed within a political strategy. METHODS: The study used semi-structured individual interviews with 51 health professionals involved in implementation activities related to an organizational change of establishing a new ED with new patient pathways for acutely ill patients. The data was deductively analyzed using Leon Coetsee's theoretical framework of change responses, but the analysis also allowed for a more inductive reading of the material. RESULTS: Fourteen types of responses to establishing a new ED were identified and mapped onto six of the seven overall change responses in Coetsee's framework. The participants perceived the change as particularly three changes. Firstly, they wished to create the best possible acute patient pathway in relation to their specialty. Whether the planned new ED would redeem this was disputed. Secondly, participants perceived the change as relocation to a new building, which both posed potentials and worries. Thirdly, both hopeful and frustrated statements were given about the newly established medical specialty of emergency medicine (EM), which was connected to the success of the new ED. CONCLUSIONS: The study showcases how implementation processes within health care are not straightforward and that it is not only the content of the implementation that determines the success of the implementation and its outcomes but also how these are perceived by managers and employees responsible for the process and their context. In this way, managers must recognize that it cannot be pre-determined how implementation will proceed, which necessitates fluid implementation plans and demands implementation managements skills.

Oilcloth sessions as an implementation strategy: a qualitative study in Denmark.

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to explore healthcare professionals, managers, and other key employees' experiences of oilcloth sessions as a strategy when implementing new emergency departments in Denmark, based on their participations in these sessions. The study addresses the importance of securing alignment in implementation strategies. Too often, this does not get enough attention in the literature and in practice. In this study, alignment among components was achieved in an educational implementation strategy called oilcloth sessions. METHODS: The study is based on participants' observations of 13 oilcloth sessions and follow-up via 53 semi-structured interviews with the board of directors, managers, and key employees from the present emergency department and different specialty departments. Data were analysed deductively using Biggs and Tang's model of didactic alignment. RESULTS: The analysis showed the complexity of challenges when using oilcloth sessions as a strategy when implementing a new emergency department described in terms of three phases and nine main themes (a-i): the preparation phase: (a) preparing individually and collectively, (b) objectives, (c) involving participants, (d) selecting cases; the execution phase: (e) using materials, (f) facilitating the sessions, (g) temporal structures; evaluation: (h) following up on the sessions, (i) adapting to the context. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that it is important to ensure alignment among elements in implementation strategies. Thus, oilcloth sessions with high alignment are useful if the challenges experienced are to be overcome and the strategy will be experienced as a useful way to support the implementation of a new emergency department from the participants' point of view. Bigg and Tang's didactic model is useful as an analytical framework to ensure alignment in implementation strategies in general.

State Policies that Impact the Design of Children's Mental Health Services: A Modified Delphi Study.

To identify the state-level policies and policy domains that state policymakers and advocates perceive as most important for positively impacting the use of children's mental health services (CMHS). We used a modified Delphi technique (i.e., two rounds of questionnaires and an interview) during Spring 2021 to elicit perceptions among state mental health agency officials and advocates (n = 28) from twelve states on state policies that impact the use of CMHS. Participants rated a list of pre-specified policies on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = not important, 7 = extremely important) in the following policy domains: insurance coverage and limits, mental health services, school and social. Participants added nine policies to the initial list of 24 policies. The "school" policy domain was perceived as the most important, while the "social" policy domain was perceived as the least important after the first questionnaire and the second most important policy domain after the second questionnaire. The individual policies perceived as most important were school-based mental health services, state mental health parity, and Medicaid reimbursement rates. Key stakeholders in CMHS should leverage this group of policies to understand the current policy landscape in their state and to identify gaps in policy domains and potential policy opportunities to create a more comprehensive system to address children's mental health from a holistic, evidence-based policymaking perspective.

Strengthening methods for tracking adaptations and modifications to implementation strategies.

BACKGROUND: Developing effective implementation strategies requires adequate tracking and reporting on their application. Guidelines exist for defining and reporting on implementation strategy characteristics, but not for describing how strategies are adapted and modified in practice. We built on existing implementation science methods to provide novel methods for tracking strategy modifications. METHODS: These methods were developed within a stepped-wedge trial of an implementation strategy package designed to help community clinics adopt social determinants of health-related activities: in brief, an 'Implementation Support Team' supports clinics through a multi-step process. These methods involve five components: 1) describe planned strategy; 2) track its use; 3) monitor barriers; 4) describe modifications; and 5) identify / describe new strategies. We used the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change taxonomy to categorize strategies, Proctor et al.'s reporting framework to describe them, the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research to code barriers / contextual factors necessitating modifications, and elements of the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications-Enhanced to describe strategy modifications. RESULTS: We present three examples of the use of these methods: 1) modifications made to a facilitation-focused strategy (clinics reported that certain meetings were too frequent, so their frequency was reduced in subsequent wedges); 2) a clinic-level strategy addition which involved connecting one study clinic seeking help with community health worker-related workflows to another that already had such a workflow in place; 3) a study-level strategy addition which involved providing assistance in overcoming previously encountered (rather than de novo) challenges. CONCLUSIONS: These methods for tracking modifications made to implementation strategies build on existing methods, frameworks, and guidelines; however, as none of these were a perfect fit, we made additions to several frameworks as indicated, and used certain frameworks' components selectively. While these methods are time-intensive, and more work is needed to streamline them, they are among the first such methods presented to implementation science. As such, they may be used in research on assessing effective strategy modifications and for replication and scale-up of effective strategies. We present these methods to guide others seeking to document implementation strategies and modifications to their studies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: clinicaltrials.gov ID: NCT03607617 (first posted 31/07/2018).

An actionable needs assessment for adolescents and young adults with cancer: the AYA Needs Assessment & Service Bridge (NA-SB).

PURPOSE: In the USA, many of the nearly 90,000 adolescents and young adults (AYAs) diagnosed with cancer each year do not receive services to address the full scope of needs they experience during and after cancer treatment. To facilitate a systematic and patient-centered approach to delivering services to address the unmet needs of AYAs with cancer, we developed the AYA Needs Assessment & Service Bridge (NA-SB). METHODS: To develop NA-SB, we leveraged user-centered design, an iterative process for intervention development based on prospective user (i.e., provider and AYA) engagement. Specifically, we conducted usability testing and concept mapping to refine an existing tool-the Cancer Needs Questionnaire-Young People-to promote its usability and usefulness in routine cancer practice. RESULTS: Our user-centered design process yielded a need assessment which assesses AYAs' physical, psychosocial, and practical needs. Importantly, needs in the assessment are grouped by services expected to address them, creating an intuitive and actionable link between needs and services. CONCLUSION: NA-SB has the potential to improve care coordination at the individual level by allowing cancer care programs to tailor service delivery and resource provision to the individual needs of AYAs they serve.

Mapping the road to elimination: a 5-year evaluation of implementation strategies associated with hepatitis C treatment in the veterans health administration.

BACKGROUND: While few countries and healthcare systems are on track to meet the World Health Organization's hepatitis C virus (HCV) elimination goals, the US Veterans Health Administration (VHA) has been a leader in these efforts. We aimed to determine which implementation strategies were associated with successful national viral elimination implementation within the VHA. METHODS: We conducted a five-year, longitudinal cohort study of the VHA Hepatic Innovation Team (HIT) Collaborative between October 2015 and September 2019. Participants from 130 VHA medical centers treating HCV were sent annual electronic surveys about their use of 73 implementation strategies, organized into nine clusters as described by the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change taxonomy. Descriptive and nonparametric analyses assessed strategy use over time, strategy attribution to the HIT, and strategy associations with site HCV treatment volume and rate of adoption, following the Theory of Diffusion of Innovations. RESULTS: Between 58 and 109 medical centers provided responses in each year, including 127 (98%) responding at least once, and 54 (42%) responding in all four implementation years. A median of 13-27 strategies were endorsed per year, and 8-36 individual strategies were significantly associated with treatment volume per year. Data warehousing, tailoring, and patient-facing strategies were most commonly endorsed. One strategy-"identify early adopters to learn from their experiences"-was significantly associated with HCV treatment volume in each year. Peak implementation year was associated with revising professional roles, providing local technical assistance, using data warehousing (i.e., dashboard population management), and identifying and preparing champions. Many of the strategies were driven by a national learning collaborative, which was instrumental in successful HCV elimination. CONCLUSIONS: VHA's tremendous success in rapidly treating nearly all Veterans with HCV can provide a roadmap for other HCV elimination initiatives.

Strategy Configurations Directly Linked to Higher Hepatitis C Virus Treatment Starts: An Applied Use of Configurational Comparative Methods.

BACKGROUND: The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) cares for more patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) than any other US health care system. We tracked the implementation strategies that VA sites used to implement highly effective new treatments for HCV with the aim of uncovering how combinations of implementation strategies influenced the uptake of the HCV treatment innovation. We applied Configurational Comparative Methods (CCMs) to uncover causal dependencies and identify difference-making strategy configurations, and to distinguish higher from lower HCV treating sites. METHODS: We surveyed providers to assess VA sites' use of 73 implementation strategies to promote HCV treatment in the fiscal year 2015. CCMs were used to identify strategy configurations that uniquely distinguished higher HCV from lower HCV treating sites. RESULTS: From the 73 possible implementation strategies, CCMs identified 5 distinct strategy configurations, or "solution paths." These were comprised of 10 individual strategies that collectively explained 80% of the sites with higher HCV treatment starts with 100% consistency. Using any one of the following 5 solution paths was sufficient to produce higher treatment starts: (1) technical assistance; (2) engaging in a learning collaborative AND designating leaders; (3) site visits AND outreach to patients to promote uptake and adherence; (4) developing resource sharing agreements AND an implementation blueprint; OR (5) creating new clinical teams AND sharing quality improvement knowledge with other sites AND engaging patients. There was equifinality in that the presence of any one of the 5 solution paths was sufficient for higher treatment starts. CONCLUSIONS: Five strategy configurations distinguished higher HCV from lower HCV treating sites with 100% consistency. CCMs represent a methodological advancement that can help inform high-yield implementation strategy selection and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of future implementation efforts.

Defining sustainability in practice: views from implementing real-world innovations in health care.

BACKGROUND: One of the key conceptual challenges in advancing our understanding of how to more effectively sustain innovations in health care is the lack of clarity and agreement on what sustainability actually means. Several reviews have helped synthesize and clarify how researchers conceptualize and operationalize sustainability. In this study, we sought to identify how individuals who implement and/or sustain evidence-informed innovations in health care define sustainability. METHODS: We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with implementation leaders and relevant staff involved in the implementation of evidence-based innovations relevant to cancer survivorship care (n = 27). An inductive approach, using constant comparative analysis, was used for analysis of interview transcripts and field notes. RESULTS: Participants described sustainability as an ongoing and dynamic process that incorporates three key concepts and four important conditions. The key concepts were: (1) continued capacity to deliver the innovation, (2) continued delivery of the innovation, and (3) continued receipt of benefits. The key conditions related to (2) and (3), and included: (2a) innovations must continue in the absence of the champion or person/team who introduced it and (3a) adaptation is critical to ensuring relevancy and fit, and thus to delivering the intended benefits. CONCLUSIONS: Participants provided a nuanced view of sustainability, with both continued delivery and continued benefits only relevant under certain conditions. The findings reveal the interconnected elements of what sustainability means in practice, providing a unique and important perspective to the academic literature.

Developing a Multi-Criteria Decision Analysis Tool to Support the Adoption of Evidence-Based Child Maltreatment Prevention Programs.

Decision-makers need to consider a range of factors when selecting evidence-based programs (EBPs) for implementation, which can be especially challenging when addressing complex issues such as child maltreatment prevention. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) frameworks and tools are useful for evaluating such complex decisions. We describe the development and testing of the first MCDA tool to compare EBPs for child neglect prevention. To develop the tool, we engaged stakeholders (n = 8) to define the problem and identify 13 criteria and associated weights. In a pilot study, we tested the MCDA tool with decision-makers (n = 11) who were asked to rank three evidence-based child neglect prevention interventions both with and without the tool. The MCDA's weighted sum intervention ranking differed from the ranking without the tool in the majority of the sample (55%). Decision-makers provided guidance on criteria that should be clarified or added, resulting in 16 criteria in an iterated tool. The most frequent criterion suggestions related to community acceptance of the intervention, health equity, implementation supports, and sustainability. Decision-maker feedback guided user interface refinements. The MCDA tool was generally well accepted by decision-makers due to their trust in the stakeholder engagement process. More research is needed to understand the acceptability of MCDA approaches in additional contexts and whether EBPs adopted with decision support have different population health impacts compared with EBPs adopted without support. MCDA tools could facilitate evidence-based responses to federal policy and funding opportunities such as the Families First Preventive Services Act.

Identifying Key Physical Activity Categories and Topics to Include in Health Professional Training Programs.

Phenomenon: Healthcare is an important sector in promoting physical activity (PA). However, few health professional training programs include PA, nor does standardized guidance exist on implementing it in the curriculum. This study aimed to consolidate health professional expert opinion on key PA categories and topics that should be included in the curriculum of health professional training programs. Approach: A three-round, modified e-Delphi process examined the opinions of 73 experts from seven health professions (clinical nutrition, exercise physiology, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, physician assistants). In Round 1, panelists reported importance, ranked, and scored five broad PA categories, and responded to open-ended prompts for additional categories. In Round 2, panelists received summary feedback, re-ranked and re-scored PA categories, and suggested key PA topics within the five categories. In the final round, panelists viewed, ranked, and scored the PA topics. Findings: Expert panelists felt that all PA categories were important, with Health Behavior Change ranking the highest (98.7%) followed by Cellular and Systemic Implications of Exercise, Clinical Exercise Physiology, and PA and Public Health. The Administrative Aspects of Integrating PA into Health Systems ranked least important (48.0%). A consensus on the key PA categories was considered reached after two rounds. Five to eight specific PA topics were generated within each PA category and ranked in order of importance. Insights: These findings highlight several key PA categories and topics that can serve as a foundation for a diverse number of health professional training programs.

Skills for Developing and Maintaining Community-Partnerships for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Children's Behavioral Health: Implications for Research Infrastructure and Training of Early Career Investigators.

By engaging with community partners, dissemination and implementation scholars can enhance research relevance and translation. We illustrate the skills needed for developing and maintaining community partnerships by presenting two case studies of partnerships between early-career investigators and child welfare systems to implement mental health interventions. The cases represent two models of partnership (investigator-led and agency-led), highlighting the value and difficulty of conducting community-engaged implementation research. The experiences described feature strategies for building and managing relationships, navigating rules and regulations, adaptation, and securing resources. We offer suggestions for improving training and research infrastructures to support community-engaged implementation scholars.

Determinants of Implementing Evidence-Based Trauma-Focused Interventions for Children and Youth: A Systematic Review.

A systematic review was conducted to identify determinants (barriers and facilitators) of implementing evidence-based psychosocial interventions for children and youth who experience emotional or behavioral difficulties due to trauma exposure. Determinants were coded, abstracted, and synthesized using the Exploration, Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment framework. Twenty-three articles were included, all of which examined implementation of Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or Cognitive-Behavioral Intervention for Trauma in Schools. This review identified multilevel and multiphase determinants that can be addressed by implementation strategies to improve implementation and clinical outcomes, and suggests how future studies might address gaps in the evidence base.