EvidenceNOW: Balancing Primary Care Implementation and Implementation Research

Area of Science:

• Health Services Research
• Implementation Science
• Primary Care Practice Transformation

Background:

• The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) is dedicated to improving healthcare quality through evidence generation and dissemination.
• In 2015, AHRQ launched EvidenceNOW, its largest primary care research initiative to date, with a $112 million investment.
• EvidenceNOW aimed to disseminate patient-centered outcomes research evidence to over 1,500 primary care practices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To study how quality-improvement support can enhance primary care practices' capacity to implement evidence-based care.
• To evaluate the effectiveness of external quality-improvement support in disseminating and implementing research evidence.
• To develop a blueprint for investing in and strengthening the primary care delivery system.

Main Methods:

• EvidenceNOW funded seven implementation research grants for external quality-improvement support.
• Practices received support to implement evidence-based cardiovascular care.
• Rigorous internal evaluations and an overarching external evaluation with harmonized outcome measures were conducted.

Main Results:

• The initiative involved over 1,500 primary care practices.
• It addressed the complexities of balancing implementation and research goals.
• The project generated insights into designing large-scale clinical practice transformation initiatives.

Conclusions:

• EvidenceNOW is expected to provide a model for strengthening the primary care system and improving evidence-based care delivery.
• Understanding the initiative's design offers valuable insights for future implementation research and policy.
• The findings aim to improve the timeliness and impact of research investments on American health.