When is a practice-based intervention ready for dissemination? Center for Training and Research Translation's process for evaluating interventions

Only a limited number of effective obesity prevention interventions are available for use in public health. This is particularly true for interventions that target change at the levels of the environment and policy. One approach to expanding the base of available evidence is to draw on interventions developed in practice (i.e., practice-based interventions). This presentation provides an overview of the methods (review criteria and process) that the CDC-funded Center for Training and Research Translation (Center TRT) uses to determine whether practice-based interventions are promising and ready for dissemination. The Center's approach incorporates elements of Swinburn et al's obesity prevention framework and Glasgow et al's RE-AIM framework. A fundamental premise of both is that an intervention's promise is a function of its “public health impact,” which extends beyond effectiveness to also assess potential to reach broadly and be adopted, implemented, and maintained in practice. The Center reviews both research-tested and practiced-based interventions and has developed two tools to guide the process. Two expert reviewers use the tools to review interventions against three categories of criteria: (1) potential public health impact, (2) readiness for dissemination, and (3) effectiveness at improving outcomes. The Center TRT has developed an innovative approach to evaluating effectiveness, the category of criteria that presents the greatest challenge when reviewing practice-based interventions. When review criteria are met, the Center packages interventions with the information practitioners need to implement them and disseminates them via our website (www.center-trt.org), thereby contributing to the pool of “best available evidence” to guide practice.