We face critical challenges in translating the benefits of biomedical discovery into improvements in clinical care and public health, and in ensuring that marginalized populations benefit equally. Addressing these challenges is essential to improving health and achieving health equity.
Implementation science offers a range of methods to achieve better health outcomes through increased translation of best practices. We support healthcare and public health leaders in using these methods to better understand what needs to change, how to make change happen and why desired outcomes were or were not achieved for their key health priorities. We support others doing similar work through seminars, courses, training programs and consultation services.
Partnerships
We strengthen collaborations between implementation science researchers, public health practitioners and healthcare quality improvement teams. To foster partnerships, the PRISE Center will provide institutional support for creating “collaboratories” including researchers and receptive units in partner organizations. Our approach is to optimally position implementers and researchers to co-produce “practice-based evidence” primed to inform real-life “evidence-based practice.” Our current partnerships are described below.
San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH). The mission of the SFDPH is to protect and promote the health of all San Franciscans. SFDPH strives to achieve its mission through the work of two main Divisions – Population Health and the San Francisco Health Network (SFHN). PRISE Center faculty will work with SFDPH operational and clinical leaders to co-develop priority projects in Primary Care, Specialty Care, Hospital Care, Population Health and Behavioral Health.
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center (HDFCC). The HDFCC conceived of and helps support the San Francisco Cancer Initiative (SF CAN), the first public-private cancer plan for a major city. The goal of SF CAN is to reduce the cancer burden across the city by harnessing innovative science, new technologies and our knowledge of needs of all the citizens of San Francisco. PRISE Center faculty will support SF CAN’s efforts to reduce cancer disparities and increase uptake of cancer prevention programs among vulnerable populations.
The PRISE Center will continue to seek additional strategic partnerships locally, nationally and internationally to advance the use of implementation science to improve health and health equity.
Current Projects
Social and Economic Barriers to Public Health and Clinical Interventions for COVID-19 in Vulnerable Populations
Lead investigators: Neeta Thakur (UCSF) and Priya Shete (UCSF)
Funding: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected economically disadvantaged communities and communities of color as demonstrated by greater rate of infection and mortality from COVID-19. PRISE faculty are leading a multi-site research study to help us better understand the impact of the pandemic across ten unique geographic regions in the U.S., oversampling in communities at greater risk of exposure to COVID19 and reduced access to healthcare. The goal of this work is to inform and prioritize intervention targets that can improve health across vulnerable communities (low-income communities, non-US born communities, and predominantly Black/African American, Latinx, and Indigenous communities). The goals are to: (1) collect clinical, demographic, behavioral, and socio-economic measurements from 1000 participants (100/site); (2) identify key intervention targets represented by drivers of barriers to both health care access, with special attention to barriers to COVID-19 testing and treatment; telemedicine; and shelter in place regulation adherence; and (3) apply the COM-B model to inform intervention development. The findings will generate intervention content which can facilitate care access and reduce the socioeconomic impact of the pandemic in vulnerable communities.
Identifying modifiable barriers to prevent COVID-19 in high-risk populations participating in the San Francisco Contact Tracing program
Lead investigators: Margaret Handley and Lucia Abascal (UCSF); Susan Philip and D Sanchev (SFDPH)
Funding: PRISE Center and UCSF DEB Research Enhancement Fund
Increasing uptake of COVID-19 prevention measures is a key priority for the San Francisco Department of Public Health Contact Tracing and Case Investigation (CT-CI) Program. To address this priority, PRISE faculty and CT-CI Program leadership co-designed a prospective study consisting of in-depth interviews based on implementation science frameworks with 50 contacts, oversampling Spanish speakers as Latinx groups are disproportionality affected by COVID-19. The goals are to: (1) identify modifiable barriers and potential enablers of adherence to COVID-19 prevention recommendations among contacts, including self-isolation/quarantine, testing and vaccine uptake and (2) develop specific strategies to enhance uptake of COVID-19 prevention recommendations that align with contacts’ needs and preferences. To achieve these goals, The findings will generate actionable information to guide ongoing efforts to trace and support contacts of COVID-19 cases, and their social and community networks.
Evaluating San Francisco's Street Crisis Response Team as a model for mental health and substance-use treatment for adults experiencing homelessness
Lead Investigators: Matthew Goldman, MD, MS (SFDPH), and Phillip Coffin, MD, MIA (SFDPH) and Janet Myers, Christina Mangurian and Margaret Handley (UCSF)
Funding: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Mental illness and substance use disorders are highly prevalent among adults experiencing homelessness in San Francisco, yet access to appropriate services is limited. To help address this gap, the Street Crisis Response Team (SCRT) was implemented in December 2020 as part of the Mental Health San Francisco initiative. We will use an interrupted time series design to evaluate the impact of this program on post-crisis episode outcomes such as linkage to outpatient treatment, reutilization of crisis services, assessment for housing placement, and jail entry. An additional analysis stratified by race and ethnicity will examine potential disparities in crisis service outcomes before and after the SCRT intervention. Semi-structured interviews will be conducted with clients who have positive or negative post-crisis outcomes to identify facilitators and barriers to effective care. This research is being conducted in close collaboration between researchers based at SFDPH and faculty based at the PRISE Center and the UCSF Clinical and Translational Science Institute, as well as with Heluna Health (a fiscal sponsor).
Training and Career Development
Through the UCSF Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, we offer a variety of training and career development programs in implementation science - including the Implementation Science Certificate Program - for researchers, clinicians and public health practitioners.
In March 2023, the PRISE Center was awarded a T32 grant from The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). The goal of the Partnerships for Research in Implementation Science for Equity in Heart and Lung Diseases (PRISE-HL) T32 program is to provide support to outstanding post-doctoral scholars with interdisciplinary training in implementation science and health equity approaches to help transform the uptake and delivery of evidence-based interventions for heart and lung diseases in clinical and community settings. Trainees will benefit from a team-based approach to mentoring through a career development committee that includes one faculty member with content expertise in clinical or translational research in heart and lung diseases, one faculty member with methodological expertise in implementation science-based methods, and one faculty member with expertise in health equity research (if not already covered).
We have 3 open positions in the PRISE Center sponsored T32, to start by July 1, 2024. The location for this postdoc position is University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) or University of California, Irvine (UCI). The position may be fully remote or hybrid depending on research scope.
One-year training slots are available on a competitive basis to trainees proposing implementation science research in NHLBI priority areas (heart, lung, blood, and sleep disorders), with a focus on health disparities.
Applications are due by March 1, 2024. Please send documents to Tiese Etim-Inyang, PRISE Center Program Coordinator (Tiese.Etim-Inyang@ucsf.edu). The deadline to submit applications is March 1, 2024, and applicants can expect to receive a decision by May 1, 2024. Please contact Tiese.Etim-Inyang@ucsf.edu with any questions.
Implementation Science Mini-course
This self-directed, online mini-course provides a brief introduction to the field of implementation science through short video lectures, readings and case studies. These introductory materials provide high-level insight into what implementation science is and briefly introduce a few frameworks commonly used in the field.
Implementation Science Certificate Program
The Online Certificate in Implementation Science is a part-time program focused on theories and methods relevant to designing strategies to facilitate the uptake of health interventions. Scholars can choose to take individual courses or complete four required and two elective courses in order to obtain the certificate. The courses and certificate program are designed for people from a broad range of professional settings, both in the U.S. and globally, who are currently engaged in the development, implementation and evaluation of strategies to promote and improve health and health care quality. The target audience includes clinical and public health researchers, quality improvement officers, community-based clinic staff, public health and public policy practitioners and clinicians.
Implementation Science Intensive
This two-day course, now held in an online interactive format, is an introduction to understanding and applying key concepts of Implementation Science in a small group setting with individualized attention. The Short Course provides a one-of-a-kind opportunity for learners to advance their in-depth understanding of the growing field of Implementation Science, while simultaneously advancing their own work and research ideas in this space.
Research in Implementation Science for Equity (RISE)
RISE is an all-expenses-paid training opportunity for junior faculty who belong to groups underrepresented in the biomedical sciences. RISE is designed to train competitive scientists and enhance the diversity of the biomedical research workforce. The program involves a two-week Summer Institute focused on implementation science and career mentoring, followed by monthly works-in-progress sessions and a second institute the following summer.
IMPACT (Implementation Science for Pulmonary And Cardiac Research Training) K12 is a career development program for junior faculty interested in improving the delivery of interventions proven to improve heart and lung health. The program provides $100,000 in salary support and $30,000 in research funds annually for up to three years.
Seminars, Workshops and Consultation
We conduct a range of interactive online and in-person workshops and seminars on essential topics in implementation research. Click the link above to see our upcoming seminars and workshops.
Our team also provides expert advice at every stage of inquiry to investigators and practitioners whose goal is to improve health equity using implementation science research. Our Implementation Science Consultation Services can be requested through the UCSF CTSI Consultation Service under “Study Design and Implementation.”