Implementation and scale up

Project title: Methods and metrics for moving from best practice prevention to implementation and scale up

Start date: September 2018

Estimated end date: September 2021

What is the issue?

Much scientific evidence has been generated around chronic disease prevention, but many studies are small scale and in selected participants. To improve overall health in Australia, programs which have been proven to work in prevention need to be scaled up to reach larger populations.

This project will research implementation and scale up in the real world. It aims to enhance the population reach of effective prevention programs, understand more about when implementation happens, and provide methods, frameworks and practice guides for implementing and scaling up evidence-based chronic disease prevention practice.

How is the project addressing the issue?

This project will work with our policy and practitioner partners in five jurisdictions across Australia to develop and test tools to help them assess the feasibility and barriers for scale up. We will apply these tools across several real-world projects. This will provide unique development of the field of pragmatic population health approaches to implementation and scale up (ISU).

Our research and evaluation will build on the expertise of the previous Rapid Response Evaluation Capacity of the Prevention Centre. The research will use both qualitative and quantitative methods and approaches.

This project will carry out work in the following major thematic areas:

1. Review progress in scaled up prevention research, and research into understanding the lack of translation in preventive practice; research to inform the concepts, frameworks and models of implementation and scale-up of chronic disease prevention programs
2. Review available tools and develop and test new scale up methods and tools for use in preventive practice
3. Conduct and support scaled up evaluations and assess programs being implemented at scale, working with stakeholders in the design and conduct of the evaluation of their programs
4. Conduct specific projects with stakeholders.

Relevance for policy and practice

This project will allow policymakers to understand scale up methods, understand the barriers to scale up, and will allow new approaches to be implemented.

An essential component of this work is the co-creation of knowledge between researchers and stakeholders from the Prevention Centre’s partner agencies.

Our team will support our partners and provide advice to new projects. We will also support work in other areas of the Prevention Centre, such as implementation research in the health care system, in synthesising existing research around scale up, undertaking new work around scale up and dissemination methods, and working with stakeholders to support policy relevant research.

What are the expected outcomes?

At the end of this project, we will have developed and tested tools for policymakers to assess the feasibility of scale up and assess the barriers and potential for scale up. These tools will be applied across several projects. We will also contribute to real-world scale up projects across Australia.