It takes an estimated 17 years for only 14% of published evidence intended to benefit patients to be adopted into routine care.¹ Fortunately, actively addressing the implementation of medical advances can accelerate improvements to patients’ lives.

What Is Implementation Science?

Delays in the adoption of medical advancements are due to a variety of factors or barriers,
such as resistance to change, lack of awareness, and limited accessibility. Implementation science offers a scientific approach to identifying barriers and developing and testing strategies to overcome them.

Implementation research is the scientific study of methods to promote the systematic uptake of research findings and other evidence-based practices into routine practice, and, hence, to improve the quality and effectiveness of health services. It includes the study of influences on healthcare professional and organizational behaviors.²

The goal is to close gaps between what is known and what is done through healthcare policy and practice, the lynchpin to impacting public health.³

The Role of Medical Affairs Professionals

Medical affairs professionals play a strategic role in connecting company research to clinical practice, placing them in an ideal position to use implementation science to improve appropriate uptake of the medicines, vaccines, and devices they support.

Applying a familiar scientific approach to implementation science, medical affairs professionals can facilitate the adoption of care advances through 4 key phases:

Importantly, this approach can be used during integrated evidence generation planning at every stage in the product lifecycle. For example, implementation science can be applied to effectively inform Phase I study design during research and development through successful management of the product in real-world scenarios after regulatory approval.^2,4-6

Implementation Science Doesn’t End With Implementation

Imagine a medical affairs professional working to implement a phamarcotherapy for alcohol use disorders in primary care clinics. They already know that gaps in provider knowledge need to be overcome to accelerate adoption, and they begin an implementation trial.

As the trial progresses, ongoing evaluations inform a change in strategy to include marketing for increased patient demand, in addition to the focus on provider education. Using this information, they overcome barriers to adoption and successfully implement the new therapy in primary care, where a significant number of patients will benefit. This is a true story based on actual studies^7-10, and it illustrates an important final point:

…no matter how carefully an implementation strategy is planned in advance, the experience of actual implementation leads to insights which can be utilized to improve the strategy even further.⁷

Conclusion

The gap that exists between generating research evidence and translating it into routine practice has been a significant challenge in healthcare. Implementation science offers medical affairs professionals a scientific approach to ensure medical advances are not only evidenced, but also effectively implemented to ultimately improve patient outcomes.

The time is now to harness implementation science no matter where a product is in its lifecycle.