DESCRIPTION
Designing for Dissemination, Sustainability, and Equity (“D4DSE”) refers to principles and methods for addressing the need for innovation ‘fit to context’ and early planning for active dissemination, sustainability, and equitable impact on health. In adopting a D4DSE perspective, scientists should start by considering who will ultimately benefit from uptake and use of the research product – and who may not, and if expected benefits are likely to be equitable. Understanding who will decide to use and pay for an innovation and the characteristics of the setting and potential adopters is needed to inform “innovation-context” fit. Innovation-context fit refers to the extent to which the products of research match the needs, resources, workflows, and contextual characteristics of the target audience and setting. Ensuring innovation-context fit happens at many phases of the research process, from conceptualization, to design, to dissemination, to impact. The Fit to Context Framework lays out a process for D4DSE in accordance with these phases. Methods for participatory co-design, context and situation analysis, systems science, business and marketing approaches, communication, and the arts can also be useful for D4DSE. Designing with a focus on health equity benefits from a “design justice” perspective, which requires strong partnerships with communities and systems. Recommendations for enhancing the culture, systems, and incentives for a D4DSE approach to research will be presented.
PRESENTER(S)
Director, ACCORDS Education Program; Associate Professor and Associate Vice Chair, Department of Emergency Medicine; Director of Dissemination and Implementation, CCTSI
University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus
Bethany Kwan, PhD, MSPH is an Associate Professor and Associate Vice Chair of Research in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, Anschutz Medical Campus.
She received her PhD in social psychology from the University of Colorado Boulder in 2010, following a MSPH from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 2005. She holds a BS in Chemistry and Psychology from Carnegie Mellon University (’01). As an investigator in the University of Colorado’s Adult & Child Consortium for Health Outcomes Research and Delivery Science (ACCORDS), she conducts pragmatic, patient-centered research and evaluation on health and health care in a variety of areas.
With an emphasis on stakeholder engagement and dissemination and implementation (D&I) methods, her work addresses the integration of physical and behavioral health, chronic disease self-management, improving processes and systems of care to achieve the Quadruple Aim, pragmatic trials using electronic health data, and enhancing quality of life for patients and care partners. She works with patients and other stakeholders at all phases of research, from prioritization, to design, implementation, and dissemination of research. She mentors and teaches students, trainees, and fellow faculty on Designing for Dissemination to ensure that research innovations are efficiently and effectively adopted, used, and sustained in real world settings to improve health and wellbeing for all. Dr. Kwan directs the ACCORDS Education program as well as the Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute (CCTSI) Dissemination & Implementation Research Core.
