Table 2.

Specific objectives of the QUERI evaluative project on facilitation

1. Provide insights based on accumulated experiences regarding the following:

a. The operational nature of external and internal facilitation, across multiple sites and across multiple implementation research projects, within the VA.

b. The differentiation of facilitation from other change agent-related implementation activities, such as opinion leadership, as well as other relevant implementation interventions.

c. Facilitators of and barriers to facilitation.

d. The potential role of facilitation (both external and internal) as a distinctly separate implementation intervention.

e. The essence of facilitation as a role or function.

i. Within a QUERI implementation study: Is it one function among many played by an Implementation Research Coordinator*? Do others on the study team also play that function?

ii. Within a VISN:** Is it a role or function that might conceivably support the routine uptake of evidence?

2. Identify critical research questions regarding facilitation relative to the above insights.

*Implementation Research Coordinator: The QUERI team member whose primary responsibility it is to ensure inclusion of educational, social, behavioral, and organizational sciences when the team is planning and executing implementation research. This person also often plays the role of the external facilitator.

**VISN: Veterans Integrated Service Networks; the regionalized, clinical structural organization of the Veterans Administration's health care delivery system; there are 23 such Networks.