Fundamentals of Implementation Science in Global Health Course- University of Washington

Course Dates & Hours:
Sep 16, 2019 to Dec 01, 2019 11 weeks, 6-9 hours per week
Hosting Institution:
University of Washington, Department of Global Health E-learning
Faculty:
Prof. Arianna Means, MPH, PhD

Overview
In the United States, it’s estimated that it takes an average of 17 years from discovery of an intervention to its implementation at scale. This is called the know-do gap. For interventions outside of the US, this know-do gap is even larger. The goal of implementation science is to close the know-do gap.
In this course, you will learn how to use a systematic, scientific approach to find out what works and translate this information into on-the-ground policies and programs for those who need it.

By the end, you will know how to apply high quality evaluation and assessment methods to your health interventions and identify and address the barriers to effective replication and scale-up of
evidence-based interventions. The purpose of this course is to provide practical implementation science training for health professionals working in global health settings, particularly low and middle income country settings.

The course has recently been updated and revised, with new lectures and additional case studies developed by implementation science experts at the University of Washington.

Format
This online course has video lectures, readings, discussion forums, quizzes, and a group project.
You can participate in this course as an independent participant or as part of a local site. We encourage participation as a local site because most of the coursework is group-based. Your site will meet weekly to discuss topics taught in the course and to develop your group project. If you won’t be taking this course as part of a local site, you’ll be connected with other independent participants to work on the group project.
The course is taught in English. Participants should be comfortable with written and spoken English.

Eligibility
To be admitted to the course you must have a master’s degree in a health-related field or in the social sciences, or equivalent professional experience.

Syllabus
Learning Objectives
This course explores the current literature on implementation science; introduces strategies for using innovative scientific methods and tools of diverse disciplines to understand and overcome impediments to implementation and facilitate scale-up; and uses applied case studies to identify and contextualize implementation successes and failures. At the end of this course the student should be able to:

•  Identify the major factors that limit the translation of high-quality evidence into effective health programs and describe the role of complementary implementation science research methods in the development of evidence-based health programs and policies.
•  Explain appropriate research and evaluation methods to overcome impediments to implementation and facilitate timely scale-up of proven interventions with high levels of fidelity and effectiveness.
• Contextualize and explain real-world examples where sound interventions failed or succeeded.
• Describe at least one framework for designing successful implementation strategies and apply the framework to a real-world health problem.

Topics
Module 1: Introduction to Implementation Science (IS) and IS Data Sources
 ✔ Describe why implementation science is important to global health; and summarize a framework for using implementation science to facilitate the translation of knowledge to successful program implementation.
✔ Recognize the value of core systems of information collection to monitor disease and health programs in developing countries; and identify barriers to implementing health information systems.

Module 2: Impact Evaluation and IS Study Designs
✔ Describe common impact evaluation methods and study designs used to evaluate the effects of programs at scale; Differentiate between randomized designs used for specific interventions or treatments, versus randomized designs for large-scale programs;
Identify types of health metrics and sources of data for health metrics; and
✔ Recognize the importance of impact evaluations in the design of public health policies.

Module 3: Economic Evaluation
✔ Provide an overview of different economic evaluation methods; and provide an overview of how to apply different economic evaluation methods.

Module 4: Qualitative Health System Research
✔ Identify qualitative data collection methods and sampling approaches, and describe their implications for analysis and interpretation of data in implementation science studies;
✔ Identify how qualitative research design and methods can be developed to maximize rigor, validity, and reliability of findings in implementation studies; and
✔ Describe the benefits and limitations of mixing qualitative and quantitative methods in operational and implementation science study designs.

Module 5: Operations Research as a Contributing Discipline
✔ Identify basic lean implementation and its application to healthcare settings: waste and time, value steam mapping, process improvement/Kaizen; and
✔ Recognize the use of simulation modeling (model development, model verification and validation, what-if analysis).

Module 6: Quality Improvement as a Management Tool
✔ Define Plan – Do –Study – Act cycles and how they can be used in continuous quality improvement; and demonstrate how quality improvement can be used to facilitate broad scale-up of health programs.

Module 7: Stakeholder and Policy Analysis
✔ Describe the stages of policy development and how empirical information can be used at each stage; and identify and map key stakeholders in a policy issue.

Module 8: Dissemination Research and Implementation Science Frameworks
✔ Familiarize yourself with implementation science frameworks for dissemination of evidence based health promotion practices; and discuss the need for dissemination research and describe the roles that researchers play in dissemination.

Module 9: Implementing Change – Social Marketing and Organizational Readiness
✔ Explain the theory behind and importance of organizational readiness; Explain the process of developing an effective social marketing strategy; and Assess the incremental value of social
marketing strategies in health program development and execution.

Module 10: Course Synthesis
✔ Justify the need for an implementation science framework and summarize its main attributes; and
✔ Apply appropriate public health methods and strategies to develop and implement successful, large-scale public health programs.

Certification
For those who successfully completed the course will receive a formal printed Certificate of Completion on vellum paper with University of Washington seal mailed to them via courier services. We will ship them all together to your Site Coordinator for distribution.

Sample of certificate of completion

Further Information
For further details about the program you should contact Dr. Mohamed Y. Dualeh, MD via his email:info@drmohameddualeh.com and if possible discourse with his on phone:(+252 63 4417945 by texting him in WattsApp) regarding how to register, getting assistance in application
process while he is exercising as an official local resource for our participants acting as Site Coordinator for Somalia, UW Global Health Department

Official website for the University of Washington, Department of Global Health E-Learning: www.edgh.washington.edu

PS: We are currently running Economic Evaluation in Global Health course and will be also be offering another course in these Global Health series named Leadership and Management in Health course concurrently. It is advised to enroll just only one course at a time to not overwhelming participants as these are graduate academic activities which need sufficient time and attention.