CCIT Dissemination/Implementation Initiatives

The Center for Collaborative and Interactive Technologies (CCIT) has long-supported an array of initiatives to drive the dissemination and implementation (D&I) of evidence-based practice into care. Current work includes clinical decision support initiatives such as The Passport for Care, and quality collaboratives, such as the Emergency Medical Services for Children Improvement and Innovation Center, and more recently the Pediatric Pandemic Network(both funded by the Health Resources & Services Administration). Descriptions of these and more initiatives can be found in Tools and Resources Spotlight.

For nearly 8 years, CCIT served as the home of the John M. Eisenberg Center for Clinical Decisions and Communications Science, which led the translation of evidence and research findings from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s (AHRQ) Effective Healthcare (EHC) Program into succinct, practical tools that support the health care decision making of clinicians, researchers, patients, and the wider community. This broad portfolio included a rich array of educational products, leading-edge mobile technologies that are integrated with the electronic health record, and other tools designed to engage at-risk, vulnerable patients and their providers in shared decision-making.

Many Eisenberg Center products were disseminated through the EHC Program site, which was developed by CCIT, and shared in additional collaboration with medical and professional associations, journals, health systems, and professional medical education organizations. The Center also produced state-of-the-art symposia in health communications published: Medical Decision Making, Journal of Health Communication, Medical Care Research and Review, BMC Medical Informatics and Decision Making, and Patient Education and Counseling. During its tenure, CCIT led the development of over 440 dissemination products and two websites serving over 14 million users across the US and abroad.

Additionally, with funding from AHRQ, CCIT led the development of CHAINOnline, a website that supports the dissemination mission of the AHRQ Centers for Education and Research in Therapeutics (CERTs) Educational Consortium. Further, with funding from the Patient-Centered Outcomes and Research Institute(PCORI) and in collaboration with the American Institutes for Research, CCIT supported the PCORI Translation Center in sharing research findings with clinicians and patients, while leading separate funding complementary initiatives for continuing education of physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals to disseminate PCORI research and methodology standards for implementation. CCIT’s D&I portfolio also has included collaborations with the University of Alabama in online initiatives designed to support training dissemination and implementation of tools through a National Center for High-Impact Clinical Trials and a national coordinating center for the Medical Rehabilitation Research Network (funded by the National Institutes of Health).