Sabina De Geest is a Professor of Nursing and Director of the Institute of Nursing Science and Chair of the Department of Public Health of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Basel (Switzerland). She is also a part time Professor of Nursing at the Academic Centre for Nursing and Midwifery of the Department of Public Health and Primary Care at the KU Leuven (Belgium). She obtained her Master’s Degree and PhD at the KU Leuven (Belgium). She has adjunct appointments at Schools of Nursing in the US (i.e. Johns Hopkins University, University of Pittsburgh, New York University) and in Australia (University of Technology, Sydney).

Sabina De Geest leads the Leuven Basel Research Group, an international, interdisciplinary research group focusing on improving outcomes in chronically ill  (e.g., solid organ & stem cell transplantation) and older patient populations. Driven by implementation science methodology, her research portfolio focuses on the development of innovative care models, partially also powered by eHealth.  In addition, research addressed psychosocial and behavioural pathways and their relation to outcomes in chronic illness and the development and testing of instruments to assess patient reported outcomes. Projects are conducted in Europe, Australia and North & South America.

Her research has been published in leading interdisciplinary journals. Prof De Geest has published over 300 international peer-reviewed papers resulting in 8500 citations (h-index Google Scholar = 57 / Scopus 46) and has been successful in attracting competitive project-related research (> €6.230.000) and non-project related (e.g. for education) funding (> €3.000.000).

Improving the speed and quality of empirical evidence’s implementation into real world settings is a top priority for health care systems. Indeed, suboptimal implementation not only increases research waste, it also keeps cutting-edge treatments and interventions from the patients who need them and, in the worst cases, leaves those patients exposed to ineffective or even harmful ones. To date, the most effective bridge between evidence generated in the trial world to outcomes in real world settings is implementation science. Defined as “the scientific study of methods to promote the integration of research findings and evidence-based interventions into healthcare policy and practice”, implementation science “seeks to understand the behaviour of healthcare professionals and support staff, healthcare organizations, healthcare consumers, and policymakers in context as key variables in the sustainable uptake, adoption, and implementation of evidence-based interventions”.[1] Accordingly, over the past decade, implementation science’s success at translating researchers’ results into meaningful actions across the full range of health care stakeholders has made it a leading methodology for proposals submitted to the EU’s Horizon 2020 programme.

[1] NIH Fogarty International Center https://www.fic.nih.gov/ResearchTopics/Pages/ImplementationScience.aspx (accessed Oct 2, 2018).                       

This course’s overall goal is to advance course participants’ knowledge and skills in view of implementation science, with a particular focus on implementation research designs, implementation science outcomes, contextual analyses, implementation strategies, patient and public involvement in research, and reporting of implementation science results as well as building implementation science infrastructures.

This implementation science course is relevant to all health care disciplines. It applies to a variety of health care settings for a broad set of interventions. Course participants will need a solid basis in clinical research methods (e.g. conceptual thinking, quantitative and qualitative methodology, statistical analysis).

Inaugural lecture: Implementation science: Making research findings more powerful for clinical use

Lecture in English
Friday 15 March 2019, 5-6 p.m., followed by a reception
Location: Campus Drie Eiken – Building Q – Promotiezaal – Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk

Lecture Series

Apart from the inaugural lecture, which is in English, all lectures are in Dutch.

Lecture 1: Implementation research aims & designs or how to develop a research project with clinical impact as the ultimate goal
Lecture in Dutch.
Friday 29 March 2019, 4-6 p.m.
Location: Campus Drie Eiken – Building O – Auditorium O.O2 – Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk

Lecture 2: Contextual analysis in implementation science: Making sense of complexity
Lecture in Dutch.
Friday 26 April March 2019, 4-6 p.m.
Location: Campus Drie Eiken – Building O – Auditorium O.O2 – Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk

Lecture 3: Getting your intervention implemented in the real world: State of science of implementation strategies
Lecture in Dutch.
Friday 3 May 2019, 4-6 p.m.
Location: Campus Drie Eiken – Building O – Auditorium O.O2 – Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk

Lecture 4: Listen to all the voices: Methods for stakeholder involvement in implementation science
Lecture in Dutch.
Friday 10 May 2019, 4-6 p.m.
Location: Campus Drie Eiken – Building O – Auditorium O.O2 – Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk

Lecture 5: Reporting of implementation science studies and developing implementation science infrastructures
Lecture in Dutch.
Co-lecturer: Dr Karim Berkouk, Acting Head of the Unit for Non Communicable Diseases and the Challenge of Healthy Ageing at the Directorate-General for Research and Innovation of the European Commission
About Dr Karim Berkouk
Friday 17 May 2019, 4-6 p.m.
Location: Campus Drie Eiken – Building O – Auditorium O.O2 – Universiteitsplein 1, 2610 Wilrijk

Inaugural lecture: Implementation science: Making research findings more powerful for clinical use - 15 March 2019

• Peters et al. Implementation research: what it is and how to do it.  BMJ 2013;347:f6753 doi: 10.1136/bmj.f6753
• Zullig et al. Moving from the trial to the real world: Improving medication adherence using insights of implementation science. Annual Review of Pharmacology and Toxicology 2018 Aug 20. doi: 10.1146/annurev-pharmtox-010818-021348. [Epub ahead of print]

Lecture 1: Implementation research designs or how to develop a research project with impact in the clinical setting as ultimate goal - 29 March 2019

• Curran et al. Effectiveness-implementation Hybrid Designs. Combining Elements of Clinical Effectiveness and Implementation Research to Enhance Public Health Impact. Medical Care 2012; 50(3): 217-226.
• Proctor et al. Outcomes for implementation research: conceptual distinctions, measurement challenges, and research agenda. Adm Policy Ment Health 2011; 38(2):65-76.

Optional readings:

• Peters et al. Implementation research in health. A practical guide. WHO 2013.
• Craig et al. MRC framework paper Developing and evaluating complex interventions: the new Medical Research Council guidance. BMJ 2008 337: a1655

Lecture 2: Contextual analysis in implementation science: making sense of complexity - 26 April 2019

• Pfadenhauer et al. Making sense of complexity in implementation science: The context and Implementation of Complex Interventions (CICI framework). Implementation Science 2017; 12:21
• Li et al. Organizational contextual features that influence the implementation of evidence based practices across health care settings: a systematic integrative review. Systematic Reviews 2018; 7:72., 2013:8:22.

Optional readings:

• Watson et al. Defining the external implementation context: an integrative systematic literature review. BMC Health Services Research 2018; 18:209.
• Chaudoir et al. Measuring factors affecting implementation of health interventions: a systematic review of structural, organizational, provider, patient and innovation level measures. Implementation Science 2013, 8:22

Lecture 3: Getting your intervention implemented in the real world: state of science of implementation strategies - 3 May 2019

• Waltz et al. Use of concept mapping to characterize relationships among implementation strategies and assess their feasibility and importance: results from the Expert Recommendations for Implementing Change (ERIC) study. Implementation Science 2015;10:109
• Bunger et al. Tracking implementation strategies: a description of a practical approach and early findings. Health Research Policy and Systems 2017; 15:15.

Lecture 4: Listen to all the voices: methods for Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) in implementation science - 10 May 2019

• National Institute for Health Research. INVOLVE. Briefing notes for researchers: involving the public in NHS, public health and social care research. Eastleigh. 2012.

Optional readings:

• Value plus EU

Lecture 5: Reporting of implementation science studies and developing implementation science infrastructures - 17 May 2019

• Pinnock et al. Standards for Reporting Implementation Studies (StaRI) Statement. BMJ 2017; 356:i6795

Optional readings:

• Crable et al. Standardizing an approach to the evaluation of implementation science proposals. Implementation Science (2018) 13:71