The new resource, the Implementation Outcome Repository, brings together 55 instruments that have been developed and tested in physical healthcare settings to assess the success of new ways of delivering healthcare services.
The 55 instruments were identified through a systematic review of the research literature. The researchers then carefully evaluated each instrument, assessing its precision and accuracy and how easy it is to use in practice.
The repository is designed for anyone working on projects to implement changes in healthcare, including researchers, healthcare staff, managers, patients and service users, who want to quantitatively measure the outcomes of implementation.
Each instrument has been carefully assessed, for its psychometric and methodological strength, as well as its usability evaluated. We hope this resource will help a wide range of implementation stakeholders to select the most appropriate, rigorous and usable, instrument, to apply in their implementation project
We hope this repository will broaden the use of validated instruments through this easily accessible online format, compared with trawling through the academic literature.
The repository includes instruments that measure factors that influence implementation, for example, how acceptable an intervention or service is to staff and patients and how feasible it is to implement, and instruments that measure the effectiveness of implementation efforts, for example, the extent to which a change has been adopted across an organisation.
The repository allows users to:
The Implementation Outcome Repository provides implementation researchers with an easy to navigate tool for guiding measure selection – with information and resources all in one place. It is a timely and welcome resource for researchers and implementation practitioners
Based on a rigorously conducted systematic review of implementation outcomes in physical healthcare settings, the open-access repository provides a user-friendly way of identifying measures and assessing their psychometric strength and usability. This will aid implementation researchers and other stakeholders who wish to evaluate the effectiveness of implementation efforts, and will also signal areas in which further measure development is sorely needed
The Implementation Outcome Repository has been developed by implementation and improvement science researchers at the NIHR ARC South London, based in the Centre for Implementation Science and King's Improvement Science, King’s College London, working closely with researchers based in the Behavioural and Implementation Science research group at the University of East Anglia, with support from the NIHR ARC East of England.