A case study in dissemination: lessons learned from a pilot study involving the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service.

ABSTRACT

The Cancer Information Service Research Consortium (CISRC) was funded by the National Cancer Institute to disseminate as a pilot study a longitudinally tailored print intervention to promote the 5 A Day for Better Health program among callers to the National Cancer Institute's Cancer Information Service (CIS). Using a one-group (intervention-only) study design, 1,022 eligible CIS callers were enrolled to receive the intervention consisting of four mailings of tailored print materials over a 3-month period. Program evaluation focused on process and implementation evaluation, including adherence to the baseline interviews by CIS information specialists based on live-call monitoring (n = 55 eligible callers), and the timeliness of the intervention mailouts (4,088 scheduled mailouts). Adherence to the baseline interviews by CIS information specialists was extremely high, exceeding 90% for all indicators of quality control. Of the 4,088 intervention mailings, 75% occurred on or before the target date, while 95% occurred within 21 days of the target date. All delays in the scheduled mailouts occurred in the first mailing, due to changes made in the production process (batch printing of all tailored print materials at baseline). This change required additional system upgrades and more intensive and time-consuming quality control than originally anticipated, which was exacerbated by the faster-than-expected accrual of eligible participants. Based on this pilot study, the CIS is now positioned for widespread dissemination of the 5 A Day tailored print intervention. Several key lessons learned are also identified to facilitate the transition from research to dissemination.