Passionate healthcare researchers spend years to determine the best practices for patients, in order to ensure that they are delivering the most evidence-based care.  The Information Age presents clinicians with more pressure than ever to know the latest and best practices and implement them for their patients.  But consider this:

More clinical studies are registered every year than there were the year before.¹

So far this year, there have been over 320,000 clinical studies registered in the U.S.¹

There is an increasing number of authors each year, which means more medical journal publications and an increasing number of clinical trials.

It takes an average of 17 years for health research to become standard clinical practice.²

How do we bridge this gap between clinical research and practice, so that the quality of the care we deliver is in tune with what is being discovered in the current clinical research? 

Answer: Agile Implementation

How does Agile Implementation (AI) bridge this gap?

Agile Implementation is the modern-day formula for healthcare quality improvement, and it was developed by clinicians, for clinicians.  Physicians don’t receive much training in organizational change management, and yet a hospital or physician’s office is just as much of an organization as any other—with its workforce and resources, operations and challenges.  Many would agree that healthcare systems are even more complex than other organizations or industries.  Implementing best practices, especially in new value-based systems, requires skills in change management.  Agile Implementation is the simple process that helps clinicians and healthcare leaders navigate through making change in the clinical setting.  It integrates evidence-based research and innovations into practice in a human-centered way.

“When we consider the challenge of enabling change, we must remember that evidence-based solutions are often created and tested in controlled settings or within specific patient populations.  Implementers can sometimes find it difficult to adapt these tailored approaches to meet the needs of a specific facility or system, especially if variables differ between the populations or circumstances to the original solution applied to” (Boustani, Azar, Solid, 2020, p. 44). 

Why is Agile Implementation so special?

For starters, the AI process:

1. Is based on human-centered implementation science, so it allows for the uniqueness of the setting and individuals involved
2. Allows for the complexities of the healthcare delivery system
3. Leverages the interactions of individuals implementing the evidence-based solutions. (Boustani, Azar, Solid, 2020, p. 44)

Are you passionate about implementing evidence-based practices to improve the quality and value of the care that you provide?  Do you have clinical staff who would benefit from training in change management?  Learn more about the foundations of Agile Implementation so that you can apply them in your health system by visiting http://www.hii.iu.edu/.  Here you will be connected to resources and training from the IU School of Medicine’s Center for Health Innovation and Implementation Science, such as our 3-day Agile Implementation Boot Camp, the book: Agile Implementation, and our professional certificate in Health Innovation & Implementation Science.

References

• S. National Library of Medicine - ClinicalTrials.gov: Trends, Charts, and Maps. (2019, October 23). U.S. National Library of Medicine - ClinicalTrials.gov: Trends, Charts, and Maps. Retrieved from https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/resources/trends
• Morris, Z. S., Wooding, S., & Grant, J. (2011). The answer is 17 years, what is the question: understanding time lags in translational research. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 104(12), 510–520. doi:10.1258/jrsm.2011.110180
• Boustani, M., Azar, J., & Solid, C. A. (2020). Agile Implementation. New York, NY: Morgan James Publishing.