Global WACh

December 20, 2018

Researchers complete intensive grant writing workshop for dissemination and implementation science

Global WACh researchers, Drs. Kristin Beima-Sofie (Acting Assistant Professor, Global Health) and Anjuli Wagner (Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Global Health), and UW School of Nursing’s Dr. Erin Blakeney (Research Assistant Professor) recently returned from Bethesda, MD, where they completed their training with the National Institute of Health’s Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health (TIDIRH) program.  The three investigators were among a cohort of 50 investigators with varying levels of research experience and interests in studying dissemination and implementation (D&I) across health care, public health, and community settings.  They shared their training experience at Global WACh’s latest Working in Implementation Science (WISE) Working Group meeting.
Since 2011, TIDIRH has utilized a combination of a 4-month online course (webinar sessions with related homework assignments and facilitated Q&A) between mid-August and November, and a 2-day in-person training in Bethesda in early December.  The program’s goals are to train new investigators in D&I research, support the design of new D&I research proposals, to train the trainers in D&I, and to create new collaborations.

TIDIRH trainees at the two-day in person training in Bethesda, MD

The in-person training held interactive activities with representatives from NIH institutes including NCI, NINR, NIAAA, NHLBI, NIMH, FIC, NIDA, NIDDK, and OBSSR; a panel discussion around the question of how much evidence is needed to implement an approach; and guest speakers focusing on topics, such as de-implementation (stopping practices that are not evidence-based), community/stakeholder engagement and partnerships, and sustainable scaled-up interventions.  Drs. Blakeney, Beima-Sofie, and Wagner felt their participation in TIDIRH was valuable in their continued learning of how best to ensure that evidence-based strategies to improve health and prevent disease are effectively delivered in clinical and public health practice.

From the training, Dr. Beima-Sofie has gained confidence in using current implementation science language and developed an interest in designing more effectiveness-implementation hybrid trials.  The training has helped her revise and strengthen her study aims and methods for her in-progress R21 Targeted Implementation Science to Achieve 90/90/90 Goals for HIV/AIDS Prevention and Treatment grant proposal due on January 7th, 2019.  The proposed study will expand Global WACh’s ATTACH study’s adolescent to adult HIV transition intervention—adapting an effective US-based chronic disease transition tool for use in Kenya in combination with a HIV disclosure toolkit—towards a hybrid implementation-effective trial, which could potentially speed the translation of ATTACH’s research findings into routine practice in real world settings.

Dr. Wagner’s in-progress K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development grant proposal (due on January 7th, 2019) also benefitted greatly from the training.  The proposed study will study determinants of successful implementation and test implementation strategies to improve PrEP delivery for pregnant and postpartum women in Kenya.  It will also study the affordability of these strategies in a budget impact analysis. The training taught her new ideas and approaches for adding implementation science supplements to ongoing Global WACh studies, as well as for practical adaptation tracking for ongoing implementation science projects in which she is a collaborator.

Dr. Blakeney is a current K12 scholar in the new UW Implementation Science Training Program, a mentored research and career development program led by multidisciplinary clinical and research experts.  The TIDIHR training helped refine her current project’s aims and methods to focus more on assessing adaptation and fidelity (looking at the intervention in practice) of structured interdisciplinary bedside rounds (SIBR)—a care model that encourages staff communication with patients and their family members—and barriers to sustainment in hospital settings.  Energized by TIDIRH, she is planning a K23 Mentored Patient-Oriented Research Career Development grant submission in 2019.

We are pleased to hear how helpful TIDIHR was for our researchers and we wish them luck on their proposals!

Interested in learning more about TIDIHR and other implementation science training opportunities?  

  • TIDIRH applications are due in June each year. Subscribe to the NIH mailing list to receive announcements on the next TIDIRH application cycle.
  • The NIH Training Institute for Dissemination and Implementation Research in Cancer (TIDIRC) is accepting applications through January 16th, 2019. Click here for more details.
  • The NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR), in collaboration with the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI), will hold the 19th Annual Summer Institute on Randomized Behavior Clinical Trials on July 7-18, 2019 in Bethesda, MD. Click here for more details. Applications are due on February 22nd, 2018.
  • Stanford University will hold the “Designing Your Mixed Methods Research Project: An Interactive Workshop” on March 28-30th, 2019.  Registration is open.  Groups of 5 or more receive a discounted cost of $800 per person rather than the standard $1,200 per person cost.  Click here for more details