Invited Address 4 - Evidence for Emergency and Disaster Response: We Need a Faster Lane for Science
Sunday, November 20, 2022
10:00 AM – 11:00 AM EST
Location: Broadway Ballroom, 6th Floor
Earn 1 CE Credit
Keywords: Implementation, Evidence-Based Practice, Translational Science Level of Familiarity: Moderate to Advanced Recommended Readings: Pilar, M, Elwy, A. Rani, Lushniak, Larissa, Huang, Grace. McLoughlin, Gabriella M., Hooley, Cole Hooley, Nadesan-Reddy, Nisha, Sandler, Brittney, Moshabela, Mosa, Alonge, Olakunle, Geng, Elvin Geng, Proctor, Enola. (in press). A Perspective on Implementation Outcomes and Strategies to Promote the Uptake of COVID-19 Vaccines. Frontiers. Proctor, E., Ramsey, A. T., Saldana, L., Maddox, T. M., Chambers, D. A., & Brownson, R. C. (in press). A Framework to Assess Speed of Translation of Health Innovations to Practice and Policy. Global Implementation Research and Applications. Proctor, E. K., & Geng, E. (2021). A new lane for science. Science, 374(6568), 659–659. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abn0184
Professor Emeritus Washington University in St. Louis St. Louis, Missouri
Health emergencies and disasters require rapid response. Front line providers, policy makers, and health system administrators need solid evidence of how to prepare and react, and they need that evidence in short order. Yet many emergencies are novel, as with the COVID-19 pandemic. How can we know what to do in situations never faced before? How can translational researchers more effectively move evidence from the lab into the real world even as evidence evolves? And how can cognitive and behavioral scientists tackle the fact that evidence-based recommendations are often met with indifference, resistance, and rage? This presentation addresses the challenge of how to accrue new, and how to act on existing, evidence more rapidly. The magnitude of this challenge is demonstrated in the fact that, even in the best of times, Americans receive about 55% of clinical interventions known to benefit health. Implementation science informs the use of evidence-based interventions in real world settings. However along with intervention development, implementation science has not met the challenge of equipping providers and systems for rapid response. Therefore, the presentation will address the importance of faster implementation, urging attention to capturing speed metrics in implementation studies and to identifying factors associated with faster or slower implementation. How fast can we implement? How fast should we implement? Finally, the presentation will identify research priorities for building a repository of ready-to-implement change techniques, especially those that tackle the mechanisms of attitude and behavior change in times of health emergency and disaster.
Outline: I. Disasters require application of evidence that is new and often incomplete. This challenge is made more daunting by the fact that in routine care, implementation of proven interventions is inequitable, slow, and incomplete.
a. Evidence is always evolving, and emergencies may demand answers that researchers do not yet have, as with COVID-19. b. The public often responds to novel crises with a mixture of hope for solutions and skepticism or doubt about science, especially fast science.
II. Implementation science offers a distince lane of science: one focused on ensuring that high quality care is available and delivered equitably. However along with intervention development, implementation science has not met the challenge of equipping providers and systems for rapid response. a. Speed of implementation is complex: what is fast enough? Is there a “too fast?” b. Metrics in intervention development and implementation research should capture speed along with the factors associated with faster or slower implementation.
III. Emergencies and disasters demand evidence: a. Cognitive, behavioral, and organizational change researchers should identify mechanisms of change associated with faster and more effective emergency response. b. Implementation researchers need to develop repositories of ready-to-implement change techniques, especially those that are effective for attitude, behavior, and system change in times of health emergency and disaster.
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the session, the learner will be able to:
Describe the importance of implementation science for emergency and disaster response.
Identify the complexities and importance of faster translational science.
Identify research priorities to build a repository of implementation strategies for emergency and disaster preparedness.