Pay It Forward: Dissemination of Evidence-Informed Interventions to Public Health Practitioners

The Center of Excellence for Training and Research Translation (Center TRT) works in partnership with the WISEWOMAN and Obesity Prevention Programs to reduce risk and prevent chronic disease, specifically heart disease, stroke and obesity. The goal of the Center TRT's translation process is to identify, translate and disseminate both research-tested and practice-based interventions that meet review criteria for effectiveness and potential public health impact. The review and dissemination of practice-based interventions, which are those interventions developed and evaluated in the field, is a relatively unexplored area in translation work and may help to build upon “the best evidence available.”

One component of the Center's translation work is to determine how to effectively disseminate interventions that have been reviewed and recommended for translation. The Center TRT, with input from our primary user groups and the CDC, developed a web-based dissemination “template.” The intervention template communicates the practice-relevant information including the core elements, resources required, evidence of effect and potential public health impact. The template also links practitioners to intervention materials that have been used in the field. The intervention templates are key, as they communicate not only what to implement, but how to implement the intervention, allowing practitioners to assess if an intervention is plausible and feasible for their community. Future plans for the templates include linking practitioners to training related to the intervention.

Funding for the Center TRT is provided by a cooperative agreement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.