Implementation Past Present … and Future

Authors: Paul R Falzer

Publish Date: 2012/03/17

Volume: 40, Issue: 5, Pages: 345-347

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Abstract

Lomas 1993 defined implementation research and called for strategies to close the gap between science and service by changing the behavior of practitioners This idea remains current and resonates with views expressed by Grimshaw Proctor Chambers and other leaders Chambers 2008 Hutton et al 2008 Proctor et al 2009 However three years after his landmark paper Lomas argued that implementation as he described it was unlikely to achieve its aim Lomas and Lavis 1996 It was designed for practitioners who persisted in using interventions that were likely to be ineffective or harmful in lieu of evidencebased alternatives After compiling studies from nine areas of medicine he concluded that these instances are rather infrequent The studies indicated that about onethird of potential interventions fell into what he called the “white zone” which are comprised of situations in which there is good evidence that an intervention is likely to do more good than harm Another

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