Browsing by Author "Sperber, Nina"

Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
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    Adapting to CONNECT: modifying a nursing home-based team-building intervention to improve hospital care team interactions, functioning, and implementation readiness
    (BMC, 2022-07-29) Wang, Virginia; D’Adolf, Joshua; Decosimo, Kasey; Robinson, Katina; Choate, Ashley; Bruening, Rebecca; Sperber, Nina; Mahanna, Elizabeth; Van Houtven, Courtney H.; Allen, Kelli D.; Colón-Emeric, Cathleen; Damush, Teresa M.; Hastings, Susan N.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Clinical interventions often need to be adapted from their original design when they are applied to new settings. There is a growing literature describing frameworks and approaches to deploying and documenting adaptations of evidence-based practices in healthcare. Still, intervention modifications are often limited in detail and justification, which may prevent rigorous evaluation of interventions and intervention adaptation effectiveness in new contexts. We describe our approach in a case study, combining two complementary intervention adaptation frameworks to modify CONNECT for Quality, a provider-facing team building and communication intervention designed to facilitate implementation of a new clinical program. Methods: This process of intervention adaptation involved the use of the Planned Adaptation Framework and the Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications, for systematically identifying key drivers, core and non-core components of interventions for documenting planned and unplanned changes to intervention design. Results: The CONNECT intervention's original context and setting is first described and then compared with its new application. This lays the groundwork for the intentional modifications to intervention design, which are developed before intervention delivery to participating providers. The unpredictable nature of implementation in real-world practice required unplanned adaptations, which were also considered and documented. Attendance and participation rates were examined and qualitative assessment of reported participant experience supported the feasibility and acceptability of adaptations of the original CONNECT intervention in a new clinical context. Conclusion: This approach may serve as a useful guide for intervention implementation efforts applied in diverse clinical contexts and subsequent evaluations of intervention effectiveness.
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    Coincidence analysis: a new method for causal inference in implementation science
    (BMC, 2020-12-11) Garr Whitaker, Rebecca; Sperber, Nina; Baumgartner, Michael; Thiem, Alrik; Cragun, Deborah; Damschroder, Laura; Miech, Edward J.; Slade, Alecia; Birken, Sarah; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: Implementation of multifaceted interventions typically involves many diverse elements working together in interrelated ways, including intervention components, implementation strategies, and features of local context. Given this real-world complexity, implementation researchers may be interested in a new mathematical, cross-case method called Coincidence Analysis (CNA) that has been designed explicitly to support causal inference, answer research questions about combinations of conditions that are minimally necessary or sufficient for an outcome, and identify the possible presence of multiple causal paths to an outcome. CNA can be applied as a standalone method or in conjunction with other approaches and can reveal new empirical findings related to implementation that might otherwise have gone undetected. Methods: We applied CNA to a publicly available dataset from Sweden with county-level data on human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination campaigns and vaccination uptake in 2012 and 2014 and then compared CNA results to the published regression findings. Results: The original regression analysis found vaccination uptake was positively associated only with the availability of vaccines in schools. CNA produced different findings and uncovered an additional solution path: high vaccination rates were achieved by either (1) offering the vaccine in all schools or (2) a combination of offering the vaccine in some schools and media coverage. Conclusions: CNA offers a new comparative approach for researchers seeking to understand how implementation conditions work together and link to outcomes.
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    Correction to: Coincidence analysis: a new method for causal inference in implementation science
    (BMC, 2021-01-12) Garr Whitaker, Rebecca; Sperber, Nina; Baumgartner, Michael; Thiem, Alrik; Cragun, Deborah; Damschroder, Laura; Miech, Edward J.; Slade, Alecia; Birken, Sarah; Emergency Medicine, School of Medicine
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    Effects of Implementation of a Supervised Walking Program in Veterans Affairs Hospitals : A Stepped-Wedge, Cluster Randomized Trial
    (American College of Physicians, 2023) Hastings, Susan N.; Stechuchak, Karen M.; Choate, Ashley; Van Houtven, Courtney Harold; Allen, Kelli D.; Wang, Virginia; Colón-Emeric, Cathleen; Jackson, George L.; Damush, Teresa M.; Meyer, Cassie; Kappler, Caitlin B.; Hoenig, Helen; Sperber, Nina; Coffman, Cynthia J.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    Background: In trials, hospital walking programs have been shown to improve functional ability after discharge, but little evidence exists about their effectiveness under routine practice conditions. Objective: To evaluate the effect of implementation of a supervised walking program known as STRIDE (AssiSTed EaRly MobIlity for HospitalizeD VEterans) on discharge to a skilled-nursing facility (SNF), length of stay (LOS), and inpatient falls. Design: Stepped-wedge, cluster randomized trial. (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT03300336). Setting: 8 Veterans Affairs hospitals from 20 August 2017 to 19 August 2019. Patients: Analyses included hospitalizations involving patients aged 60 years or older who were community dwelling and admitted for 2 or more days to a participating medicine ward. Intervention: Hospitals were randomly assigned in 2 stratified blocks to a launch date for STRIDE. All hospitals received implementation support according to the Replicating Effective Programs framework. Measurements: The prespecified primary outcomes were discharge to a SNF and hospital LOS, and having 1 or more inpatient falls was exploratory. Generalized linear mixed models were fit to account for clustering of patients within hospitals and included patient-level covariates. Results: Patients in pre-STRIDE time periods (n = 6722) were similar to post-STRIDE time periods (n = 6141). The proportion of patients with any documented walk during a potentially eligible hospitalization ranged from 0.6% to 22.7% per hospital. The estimated rates of discharge to a SNF were 13% pre-STRIDE and 8% post-STRIDE. In adjusted models, odds of discharge to a SNF were lower among eligible patients hospitalized in post-STRIDE time periods (odds ratio [OR], 0.6 [95% CI, 0.5 to 0.8]) compared with pre-STRIDE. Findings were robust to sensitivity analyses. There were no differences in LOS (rate ratio, 1.0 [CI, 0.9 to 1.1]) or having an inpatient fall (OR, 0.8 [CI, 0.5 to 1.1]). Limitation: Direct program reach was low. Conclusion: Although the reach was limited and variable, hospitalizations occurring during the STRIDE hospital walking program implementation period had lower odds of discharge to a SNF, with no change in hospital LOS or inpatient falls.
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    Establishing the value of genomics in medicine: the IGNITE Pragmatic Trials Network.
    (Springer, 2021-07) Ginsburg, Geoffrey S.; Cavallari, Larisa H.; Chakraborty, Hrishikesh; Cooper-DeHoff, Rhonda M.; Dexter, Paul R.; Eadon, Michael T.; Ferket, Bart S.; Horowitz, Carol R.; Johnson, Julie A.; Kannry, Joseph; Kucher, Natalie; Madden, Ebony B.; Orlando, Lori A.; Parker, Wanda; Peterson, Josh; Pratt, Victoria M.; Rakhra-Burris, Tejinder K.; Ramos, Michelle A.; Skaar, Todd C.; Sperber, Nina; Steen-Burrell, Kady-Ann; Van Driest, Sara L.; Voora, Deepak; Wiisanen, Kristin; Winterstein, Almut G.; Volpi, Simona
    PURPOSE: A critical gap in the adoption of genomic medicine into medical practice is the need for the rigorous evaluation of the utility of genomic medicine interventions. METHODS: The Implementing Genomics in Practice Pragmatic Trials Network (IGNITE PTN) was formed in 2018 to measure the clinical utility and cost-effectiveness of genomic medicine interventions, to assess approaches for real-world application of genomic medicine in diverse clinical settings, and to produce generalizable knowledge on clinical trials using genomic interventions. Five clinical sites and a coordinating center evaluated trial proposals and developed working groups to enable their implementation. RESULTS: Two pragmatic clinical trials (PCTs) have been initiated, one evaluating genetic risk APOL1 variants in African Americans in the management of their hypertension, and the other to evaluate the use of pharmacogenetic testing for medications to manage acute and chronic pain as well as depression. CONCLUSION: IGNITE PTN is a network that carries out PCTs in genomic medicine; it is focused on diversity and inclusion of underrepresented minority trial participants; it uses electronic health records and clinical decision support to deliver the interventions. IGNITE PTN will develop the evidence to support (or oppose) the adoption of genomic medicine interventions by patients, providers, and payers.
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    Supporting teams to optimize function and independence in Veterans: a multi-study program and mixed methods protocol
    (BMC, 2018-04-20) Wang, Virginia; Allen, Kelli; Van Houtven, Courtney H.; Coffman, Cynthia; Sperber, Nina; Mahanna, Elizabeth P.; Colón-Emeric, Cathleen; Hoenig, Helen; Jackson, George L.; Damush, Teresa M.; Price, Erika; Hastings, Susan N.; Medicine, School of Medicine
    BACKGROUND: Successful implementation of new clinical programs depends on effectively establishing, reorganizing, or enhancing team structures and processes to coordinate the work of individuals who are interdependent in their tasks, manage relationships, and share responsibility for outcomes. However, a one-size-fits-all approach is rarely effective. In partnership with VA national clinical leaders and local clinical champions, the Optimizing Function and Independence VA Quality Enhancement Research Initiative program (Function QUERI) will evaluate efforts to implement team-based clinical programs for Veterans at risk for functional decline and disability. METHODS: Function QUERI will implement and evaluate three innovative, evidence-based clinical programs in VA medical centers: (1) a group physical therapy program for knee osteoarthritis (Group PT); (2) assisted early mobility for hospitalized older veterans (STRIDE), a supervised walking program for hospitalized older veterans; and (3) implementation of helping invested family members improve veteran experiences study (iHI-FIVES), a skills training program for caregivers of disabled Veterans. A common reason for clinical care gaps in these populations is poor communication and coordination among the many interdisciplinary providers involved in their care. To facilitate the implementation of the clinical programs, Function QUERI will evaluate the impact of complexity science-based implementation intervention to promote team readiness (CONNECT), an implementation intervention designed as a bundle of interaction-oriented activities to promote team function and readiness for change, on the implementation of clinical programs across multiple sites. The evaluation will use a mixed methods design. Group PT is a local, single-site quality improvement project where a modified CONNECT intervention will be tested to inform the remaining program implementation projects. For STRIDE and iHI-FIVES projects, we will randomize participating sites to implement the clinical program, with the CONNECT intervention or not, and will use a stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial design. DISCUSSION: Function QUERI will translate its findings across its projects to identify the contextual factors and components from CONNECT that improve team processes and function to optimize effective implementation for future rollout of VA clinical programs. Synthesizing findings within and across projects, we will specify dimensions of team characteristics and function that enhance capacity for clinical innovation and uptake of evidence-based programs.