August 1, 2024
Dr. Arianna Means lends expertise at NICHD staff training on best practices in implementation science research methods
A key trait of Global WACh researchers is their willingness to lend their expertise and share what they know to support academic, scientific, and personal development of scientists, fellows, and students at all levels. Dr. Arianna Means, Assistant Professor in UW Global Health, who is a trained epidemiologist and implementation scientist, was one of three speakers invited to present on fundamentals of implementation science methods at an internal staff training at the National Institute of Child Health and Development (NICHD).
Implementation science (IS) seeks to systematically close the gap between what scientists know can optimize health and what they do in practice (often referred to as “the know-do gap”) by identifying and addressing the barriers that slow or halt the uptake of proven health interventions and evidence-based practices. As IS grows as a discipline, many scientific institutes support training and educational activities to increase the field’s capacity to conduct rigorous implementation science research, which can help advance global health solutions that are critical for decision-making and priority setting.
Dr. Means is recognized in the scientific community as an expert in integrating evaluations of implementation outcomes into clinically oriented research to ensure that findings translate into the evidence needed to inform policy and guidelines. She is currently the IS lead for the DeWorm3 Project, a series of large hybrid cluster randomized trials in Benin, India, and Malawi. She also leads IS activities for a number of hybrid clinical trials that include both clinical and implementation endpoints and teaches several courses at UW, including the annual Fundamentals of Implementation Science course and Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) Implementation Science mini-course. Dr. Means is a core faculty member within the UW Global Health’s IS Program, which hosts an online information hub with resources and consultation services for UW researchers wanting to include or focus on IS in research studies.