Section on Methodologies for Advancing Implementation Research (MAIR)

Many instruments have been developed to improve the fit of an evidence-based intervention for its context. However, tools that address implementation outcomes (e.g., acceptability, feasibility, appropriateness, adoption, sustainability, and scalability) have not been readily adapted to low- and middle-income countries. Moreover, as the field continues to evolve, there is an opportunity and need to develop strategies that can assist researchers/policy makers/practitioners to identify the best evidence for implementation in global settings.

The research that the MAIR Section undertakes has a core mission of developing tools, instruments, and methodologies to advance the field of implementation science by either creating and/or adapting available tools/methods in a context-specific manner for low resource settings. This includes novel processes to evaluate the quality of evidence to produce the optimal intervention and/or implementation strategies to address our core research priority areas, including maternal health, sickle cell disease, HIV/AIDS, noncommunicable diseases, and mental health. The core of MAIR is evidence generation to guide the development of hybrid implementation studies that assess the clinical effectiveness of evidence-based interventions focused on our core priority research areas. MAIR underpins the research of the ISEE Lab, and its tools and methods interdigitate with all our Sections.

Ongoing Projects:

1. Implementation Research Handbook 
   • The goal of this project is to document and externalize best practices for reviews including scoping, systematic, and umbrella reviews in implementation research in a codified handbook.
2. Evaluating Implementation Research 
   • The goal of this project is to investigate the quality of implementation research and to make recommendations for conducting appropriate research.
3. Updating Implementation Outcomes
   • The goal of this project is to systematic identify tools and assessments for all implementation outcomes and to evaluate new outcomes that may need to be incorporated into the implementation science field.

Past Projects:

1. A comprehenSive tool to Support rEporting and critical appraiSal of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods implementation reSearch outcomes (ASSESS Tool)
   • A comprehensive tool to describe studies focused on implementation that use qualitative, quantitative, and/or mixed methodologies and assess risk of bias of implementation outcomes
2. Critical Appraisal Checklist for Implementation Research
   • Critical appraisal checklists help determine if a study is valid, determine the results, and to determine if the results can be applied to a clinical or research question.

Section Leader: John Pateña, MPH, MA (john.patena@nyu.edu)