As health and community settings grapple with resource-constrained conditions, the use of evidence-based strategies in routine practice will be critical to maximizing the value of care and improving health outcomes. Implementation science research plays a critical role in promoting uptake of these strategies. Penn is home to a rich network of implementation science expertise and activities across many fields in health care. Activities include grant-funded projects, an education program, an annual Implementation Science Institute, and regular works-in-progress meetings.

Leadership

Meghan Lane-Fall

Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP

Executive Director, PISCE@LDI; David E. Longnecker Associate Professor, Anesthesiology and Critical Care; Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Perelman School of Medicine

Amanda Bettencourt

Amanda Bettencourt, PhD

Director, Acute Care Implementation Science; Assistant Professor, Family and Community Health, Penn Nursing

Christopher Bonafide

Christopher Bonafide, MD, MSCE

Director, Pediatric Implementation Research; Associate Professor, Pediatrics, Perelman School of Medicine

Katharine Rendle, PhD, MPH

Director, Cancer Implementation Research; Assistant Professor, Family Medicine and Community Health; Assistant Professor, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics, Perelman School of Medicine

Courtney Benjamin Wolk, PhD

Director, Mental Health Implementation Research; Assistant Professor, Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine


Staff

Meghan Lockman

Meghan Lockman, MS, MBA

Managing Director, PISCE@LDI

Isabelle Kaminer, MS

Coordinator, PISCE@LDI

Kathryn O’Boyle

Certificate Coordinator, PISCE@LDI

Melinda Stanfield

Melinda Stanfield

Administrative Assistant, PISCE@LDI

History

  • In 2018, PISCE@LDI was launched by Founding Director Rinad Beidas, PhD, and Director of Acute Care Implementation Research, Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, expanding and replacing the Implementation Science Workgroup. The Center has grown to include dedicated staff members and five Directors with unique implementation specialties.
  • PISCE@LDI has since supported the development of research to guide the implementation of evidence-based interventions across a range of healthcare settings. Past activities include a conference and speaker series, and bi-monthly works-in-progress meetings focusing on research proposals, ongoing projects, manuscripts, and pilot grant funding.
  • After Dr. Beidas’ appointment as the Director of Medical and Social Sciences at Northwestern University, Dr. Lane-Fall was named Executive Director of PISCE@LDI in September 2022.
  • In 2022, PISCE@LDI had over 500 members, a 22% increase since 2021, with members from 10 schools and more than 50 different departments, centers and institutes across Penn.
  • The Center’s research portfolio is robust—in FY 2022, Penn has 43 active NIH grants with over 42 million dollars in direct costs with a number of center grants dedicated to implementation science.
  • From 2012–June 2022, over 500 individuals have received training in implementation science through our educational offerings, including the MSHP courses and the Institute.

Year-in-Review Report

PISCE@LDI Partners

Education, Training, and Fellowships

Course:  Implementation Science in Health and Health Care

  • Taught by Danielle Cullen, MD, MPH, Clinical Instructor, Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.
    • Offered as part of Penn’s Master of Science in Health Policy Research, this course is a survey of implementation science theory, design, and measurement, and its applications in health. This course is included in the curriculum for the Implementation Science Certificate.

Course: Advanced Topics in Implementation Science

Taught by Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, Associate Professor, Perelman School of Medicine

Offered as part of Penn’s Masters of Science in Health Policy Research, this course offers an opportunity for students to advance their understanding of the thorniest methodological challenges in implementation science.

Implementation Science Institute

This annual meeting on Penn’s campus offers a unique opportunity to learn the tools to design and execute rigorous implementation science research. During the institute, implementation science experts also provide tips for writing specific aims for Implementation Science grants.

The 2023 Implementation Science Institute will be offered from June 6-9, 2023.

Resources to Find Additional Education, Trainings, and Fellowships

Get Involved

  • Interested in becoming more involved in implementation science at Penn/CHOP? Sign up to become a member of PISCE@LDI.
  • Membership is open to the Penn/CHOP community and the larger implementation science community. Most of our offerings are available to all our members. However, a small subset are only available to members of the Penn /CHOP communities, like our monthly works-in-progress meetings. We will always specify who is eligible to attend an event—if you have any questions please email our Coordinator, Isabelle (Izzy) Kaminer.
  • Connect with us on Twitter @PISCE_LDI

Events

Upcoming Events:

Invited Speakers:

Rosaura Orengo-Aguayo, PhD will be joining us on Wednesday, February 1, 2023 from 11:00 a.m.–12:00 p.m. (ET).

Works-in-Progress Meetings (Penn/CHOP communities only):

Danielle Cullen, MD, MPH will be presenting at our next WIP meeting on January 17, 2023 from 12:00–1:00 p.m. (ET).  

If you’d like to present at a WIP meeting, please sign up here.

Past Events:

PISCE@LDI Leadership Talk, 12/15/2022. Drs. Lane-Fall and Bettencourt present Educational Opportunities in Implementation Science—recording available here or on YouTube.

PISCE@LDI Invited Speaker, 11/10/2022. Dr. Christian Helfrich presents Overcoming Challenges in De-implementing Low-Value Care: Routines, Asymmetry of Outcomes, and Psychological Reactance—resources from this talk are available here; slides are available here.

PISCE@LDI and Penn CMH co-sponsored talk, 5/11/2022. Dr. Eva Woodward presents Six Mindsets to Reduce Health Disparities and Improve Health Equity Using Implementation Science—available here or on YouTube.

Fireside Chat, 5/2/2022. Drs. Kristin Linn & Alisa Stephens Shields present SMILE for Implementation Science: Statistical Methods for Innovation, Learning, and Experiments—available here or on YouTube.

Featured Projects

Robert Burke

Dr. Robert Burke was awarded an NIA R01—with Penn coinvestigators Drs. Rachel M. Werner and Atul Gupta— to evaluate the first pay-for-performance program targeted directly at skilled nursing facilities. In a pay-for performance program, facilities can lose up to 2% of Medicare revenues or gain up to a 2% bonus based on their 30-day hospital readmission rates. However, preliminary analyses suggest the program may not be having this intended purpose (). As nursing home care quality continues to be a primary focus following the COVID pandemic, it is important to create policies that drive improved care practices. This study will use an implementation science lens to understand important aspects of context and culture in nursing homes that improved in the program. The ultimate goal of this project is to discover ways to shape policy to achieve a better balance of intended and unintended effects.

Drs. Kevin VolppDan Rader and Rinad Beidas (Northwestern) were awarded an NHLBI R61 in partnership with the Family Heart Foundation to use insights from behavioral economics to equitably implement cascade screening in individuals with familial hypercholesterolemia. Cascade screening is an evidence-based practice of contacting and screening first-degree biological relatives of FH probands, and improves timely diagnosis and reduces morbidity cost-effectively. This study will contain two phases; in the R61 phase of the study, investigators will co-design health system- and Family Heart Foundation-mediated implementation strategies using behavioral economics in partnership with the Family Heart Foundation and key stakeholders from diverse backgrounds, and then pilot those strategies to ascertain feasibility, acceptability, and appropriateness of the intervention. In the R33 phase, this study aims to 1) compare the effect of health system-mediated, Family Heart Foundation-mediated, and usual care approaches on reach, number of family members screened, number of family members diagnosed with FH, and proband LDL-C levels; and 2) identify implementation strategy mechanisms focusing on health equity. The team looks forward to conducting this work at the intersection of behavioral economics and implementation science in partnership with the FHF. Other Penn investigators include Drs. Jinbo Chenand Tamar Klaiman.

Drs. Surbhi Grover and Katharine Rendle, in partnership with Dr. Doreen Ramogola-Masire and other colleagues at the University of Botswana, have been awarded funding from the National Cancer Institute to study the effectiveness of adaptive strategies on timely treatment adoption for women with cervical cancer in Botswana. Delays and missed opportunities for timely treatment contribute significantly to global disparities in cervical cancer in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) compared to high-income countries, yet little is known about how best to increase adoption of evidence-based cancer care in LMICs. This project will use a Sequential Multiple Assignment Randomized Trial (SMART) design and evaluate contextual mechanisms contributing to the success or failure of each adaptive strategy using qualitative comparative analysis. The adaptive strategies are designed to target individual- and system-level determinants identified in preliminary work and are supported by systematic evidence of the effectiveness of nudge strategies in clinical care. The primary implementation outcome will be adoption, defined as the initiation of treatment within 90 days. Secondary implementation outcomes include fidelity (i.e., completion of recommended treatment), reach, acceptability, implementation costs, and cancer and HIV-related clinical outcomes. The rationale for the study is that enhancing coordination, communication, and navigation through centralized outreach will both increase timely treatment adoption and be scalable and sustainable after the project is completed. The results of this project will yield fundamental knowledge about how to improve and sustain timely cancer care in Botswana, and, if successful, identify strategies that can be easily translated to address other areas of cancer control across LMICs.

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