Once a month, the Office of Spread and Scale (OSS) hosts an online discussion group that provides an opportunity for people to discuss a key topic or paper with peers and experts in the field of implementation science. No experience or expertise in implementation science is necessary as we will always have a place for people who are new to the field

This year we are moving away from the previously used Remo platform, to Zoom. The discussion group will follow the format of:

• 5 min - Intro
• 10 min - Presentation by Author/Speaker
• 30 min - Q&A and Discussion (with possible breakout rooms)

2022-2023 Schedule

Times are in EDT

May 9th: ImpRes Tool & Guide

This session will feature Dr. Louise Hull

Louise will discuss the development and application of the implementation science research development (ImpRes) tool as it relates to conducting high-quality implementation research.

More details to come.

June 28th: The Evaluation of ‘Less than Desirable’ Innovation Effects: From the Methodological to the Political

This session will feature Dr. Betty Onyura

Betty’s talk examines issues at the intersection of evaluation practices and evaluative scrutiny of unfavourable innovation effects. She will unpack the emerging concept of innovation-precipitated harm in relation to both how undesirable innovation effects manifest – and how they are reported in evaluative studies. Betty’s talk will share ongoing research on this issue, that is situated within the context of health professions education. Ultimately, Betty will discuss how both methodologies and socio-political factors shape the ways in which evaluation practices attend to the less favourable effects of innovations.

More details to come.

Past Sessions

October 25th, 2022: Behaviour Change

Dr. Andrea Patey discussed Implementation Science and Health Professional behaviour change: what they are and the value of using a behaviour science perspective in implementation science.

Dr. Andrea Patey is a Senior Clinical Research Associate within the Centre for Implementation Research at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an Adjunct Professor at both School of Epidemiology and Public Health, University of Ottawa and School of Rehabilitation Therapy, Queen’s University. She holds a PhD in Health Psychology from City, University of London. Her research sits at the intersection of behaviour sciences and implementation research applying psychological theory and methods to explain and change health professional behaviours across a range of clinical settings.

November 14th, 2022: Planning for Sustainability

Dr. Celia Laur & Zeenat Ladak discussed the nuances of sustaining interventions.

Celia Laur, PhD, works at the intersection of research and practice. She is Scientific Lead of the Office of Spread and Scale at Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV), and Assistant Professor (Status) at the University of Toronto, Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. In these roles she works to advance and apply implementation science, focusing on how to sustain, spread and scale effective interventions.

Zeenat Ladak is a Health System Impact Fellow at Women’s College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care (WIHV) and a PhD student at the University of Toronto. At WIHV, Zeenat is involved in the national scale of initiatives at different stages of development, from initial design through to established networks. Her research and career interests surround maternal and child care and implementation-science informed strategies to put research into practice.

December 7th, 2022: Adaptations

Dr. Jodi Summers Holtrop discussed the nuances and complexities of adaptations, and described considerations to better capture and characterize the impact of intervention adaptations.

Jodi Summers Holtrop, PhD, MCHES, is Professor and Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Family Medicine and a Senior Implementation Scientist and Associate Director of the Dissemination and Implementation Research Program at the Adult and Child Center for Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS) at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. She has extensive experience as an implementation scientist, qualitative and mixed methods researcher, health educator and practice-based research director. She has been the Principal Investigator on numerous National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 and R18, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation grants and Co-Investigator and methods lead for many NIH and Patient Centered Outcomes Research Institute grants. Her research focus includes methods development in implementation research as well as interventions to promote healthy behaviors in primary care. Her current research includes studies on obesity prevention and management, diabetes management, and integrated behavioral and mental health care.

January 25th: Longevity of Innovations

Dr. Deena M. Hamza discussed the Eco-Normalization framework and its application in the longevity of innovations and they will describe the importance of reflexive monitoring to adapt innovations to social and cultural influences.

Dr. Deena M. Hamza is an Implementation and Health Professions Education Scientist and the Research & Evaluation Lead for Postgraduate Medical Education in the Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. She has an extensive program of research that centers on how and why innovations, such as new tools, programs, guidelines, and policies evolve to reach the ambitions of the change, devolve problematically, or are summarily halted. In addition to her program of research, she is the creator and lead for RESEARCH+: A Community of Practice for Scholars within her institution, which integrates opportunities for mentorship and collaboration across disciplines, and demonstrable skill-building in research and evaluation. Dr. Hamza is also the Vice-Chair of Canadian Association for Medical Education Foundation where she is working to create new grant opportunities for early career researchers.

February 10th: Rural Spread & Scale

Dr. Sam Petrie discussed the considerations of spreading and scaling interventions in a rural healthcare setting.

Samuel Petrie is a CIHR Health System Impact Fellow at the University of Toronto and the Ted Rogers Centre for Heart Research. Originally from Halifax, he completed his Bachelor’s of Knowledge Integration at the University of Waterloo in 2016, and his PhD in Health Sciences at Carleton University in 2022. His research interests include the scalability of pilot projects, the demographics of high cost health users, and the implementation of tele-health / eHealth technologies to better serve rural communities.

March 13th: ERIC Sustainability Glossary

Drs. Nicole Nathan & Alix Hall discussed the development and significance of a refined Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) sustainability glossary.

Dr Hall is a public health researcher, statistician and Methods Editor for Cochrane Public Health. She holds a Bachelor of Psychology with honours, a Master of Medical Statistics with Distinction, and a PhD in Behavioural Science in Relation to Medicine. She has over ten years’ experience as a behavioural and implementation researcher, and has spent time working as a consulting statistician. She currently works as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Newcastle, a Methods Editor for Cochrane Public Health and is associated the National Centre Of Implementation Science. Her current research focuses on sustainability and methods to assessing and understanding sustainability.

Dr Nicole Nathan is a highly qualified health promotion research practitioner with over 20 years of experience. She is the Director of the Priority Centre for Health Behaviour at the University of Newcastle and holds several key positions including the Deputy Director of the Hunter Medical Research Institute Population Health Program and co-Director of the NSW Health Prevention Research Support Program. With a PhD in Health Behaviour and a focus on implementation research, Dr Nathan leads a team of researchers and practitioners conducting translational research and has developed several successful health promotion interventions in community settings. She is globally ranked as one of the top 0.1% of researchers in school research with a high number of publications and grant funding. Dr Nathan also co-leads the U.S. National Institute of Health’s Training Institute for Dissemination & Implementation Research in Health and is the program lead for the NHMRC CRE National Centre of Implementation Science. Her research has had a significant impact on the health promotion support provided to schools in NSW, leading to the development of a unique implementation model and a surveillance system used by NSW Health to monitor implementation of best practice health promoting environments.