Table 4.

Recommendations for Professional Medical Societies to Consider for Supporting Implementation Science

Create an organizational home for implementation science and provide financial and staffing support

Link front-line clinicians with implementation scientists to rigorously study innovations in care delivery, and use existing quality improvement programs as laboratories to study novel implementation approaches

Prioritize the use of rigorous methods to develop clinical practice guidelines that explicitly rate the quality of evidence and the strength of recommendations, and prioritize targets for implementation that are strong recommendations based on high-quality evidence (low risk of bias) (65)

Seek opportunities to be active collaborators in the conduct of implementation science studies (e.g., society-driven comparative implementation studies, convening stakeholders to prioritize evidence, and identify opportunities to disseminate study results)

Advocate with funding agencies to set the research agenda for implementation science in their field

Assist individual implementation researchers in obtaining grants, and form a consortium for investigators to share strategies and methods

Assist external stakeholders in collaborating on the planning and conduct of implementation science studies

Collaborate with fiscal bodies that are responsible for health care delivery, seeking opportunities to link science with care improvement

Consider implementation science studies when making internal funding decisions

Create implementation science programming at professional society conferences (e.g., scientific symposia and postgraduate courses)

Promote implementation science through scientific journals (e.g., American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine and Annals of the American Thoracic Society), and encourage journal editors to explicitly seek articles in implementation science

Link successful implementation strategies with toolkits that promote local adoption (e.g., websites, protocols, order sets, and videos)

Teach the next generation about implementation science through continuing medical education, workshops, and other media, and support their research through internal funding mechanisms