King’s Improvement Science (KIS) researchers led a range of sessions on the Implementation Science Masterclass 2021, which this year was held online in response to Covid-19.
The Masterclass – now in its seventh year – was held over three consecutive Thursdays in June and July 2021, attracting 72 delegates from eight countries, including Australia, Ethiopia, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, The Netherlands, and the UK.
The interactive course is for health professionals, social care practitioners, researchers, and patients and service users who aim to ensure health and social care services routinely offer treatment and care that is based on the best research evidence and quality improvement principles.
The Masterclass included lectures from world-renowned experts in the field, and small group workshops facilitated by leading researchers. The course also included an advanced stream for those with more experience in the field or who have previously attended the course.
Professor Nick Sevdalis, principal investigator at King’s Improvement Science, introduced the field of implementation science, exploring its history and relationship to improvement science. Other advanced lectures covered theories, models and frameworks, complex interventions, hybrid designs which measure effectiveness and implementation concurrently, and learning healthcare systems.
Researchers at KIS delivered a range of interactive workshops including:
- An introduction to the ImPres Tool, a practical resource developed by Dr Louise Hull and the KIS team to help apply implementation science concepts, principles and methods to applied health and social care research – delivered by Dr Hull and Barbora Krausova
- An evaluation roadmap for service improvement projects in healthcare settings, delivered by Dr Kia-Chong Chua, drawing on his work with South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust
- A workshop exploring implementation issues in global mental health, led by Professor Sir Graham Thornicroft.
Other workshops included an evaluation of Stockholm’s healthcare response to the Covid-19 pandemic, how to engage stakeholders and how to publish implementation research.
Delegates from the 2021 Masterclass said:
- “Brilliantly put together, informative, with heaps of consolidated knowledge”
- “The masterclass had a good coverage of both theoretical and practical considerations in implementation science”
- “I thoroughly enjoyed it and felt confident to interact with key speakers who were very receptive and open for follow up contact as people's projects developed”
- “I liked the clarity with which everything was delivered, the speakers were exceptional. Really enjoyed this course, probably one of best I have done in a long time (both face to face and online!)”
The Masterclass was held online (17 June, 24 June and 1 July) and was part of a programme of online events on implementation and improvement science organised by the Centre for Implementation Science, King’s Improvement Science and NIHR ARC South London in 2021. This included the fourth Implementation Science Research Conference, held on 15 and 16 July, which explored the theme 'Supporting the pandemic response? Implementation science in the time of Covid-19'. At the conference, KIS researcher Dr Louise Hull launched the Implementation Outcome Repository, a new online resource developed by implementation and improvement science researchers in King's Improvement Science and the Centre for Implementation Science, working with other colleagues.
