_2025-03-27 _{#implementation-science #key-terms #glossary} _{[[maps-of-content]]} # Implementation Science - Key Terms - **Implementation Science:** A multidisciplinary field that seeks to understand and improve the uptake of [[implementation-and-evidence|evidence-based interventions]] into usual care. - **Theory:** An explanation for why an event or events occurred, often proposing causal relationships. - **Model:** A deliberate simplification of a more complex phenomenon, often used to describe steps or stages in a process. - **Framework:** A structure, outline, or set of categories used to describe or classify phenomena, often without necessarily explaining causal relationships. - **Process Model:** A type of model that specifies the steps or stages involved in an implementation effort, aiming to describe and/or guide the process of translating research into practice. - **Action Model:** A process model that provides explicit guidance and specific steps for practitioners to take during an implementation effort. - **Non-Action Model:** A process model that specifies steps or stages of implementation but does not offer prescriptive guidance on what actions to take. - **Determinants Framework:** A framework that identifies and categorizes factors (determinants) that may act as barriers or facilitators to successful implementation outcomes. - **Classic Theories:** Theories that originate from academic disciplines outside of [[implementation-science|implementation science]] (e.g., psychology, sociology, organizational studies) and are applied to understand implementation. - **Implementation Theories:** Theories developed by implementation scientists specifically to explain variations in implementation processes and outcomes. - **Evaluation Framework:** A framework that provides a structure for assessing the success and impact of implementation efforts, often by defining key dimensions or outcomes to be measured. - **Implementation Outcomes:** The effects of specific [[implementation-strategies|implementation strategies]] on relevant outcomes such as adoption, fidelity, and sustainability. - **Service Outcomes:** Outcomes related to the quality and effectiveness of the services delivered as a result of the implemented innovation (e.g., efficiency, safety, equity). - **Client Outcomes:** The ultimate outcomes experienced by the recipients of the innovation or service (e.g., patient health status, satisfaction). - **Implementation Climate:** The shared perception among organizational members that the organization values, supports, and rewards the implementation of innovations. - **Organizational Readiness for Change:** The shared psychological state of organizational members reflecting their collective resolve to implement a change (change commitment) and their shared belief in their capability to do so (change efficacy). - **Normalization Process Theory (NPT):** An implementation theory that explains the factors influencing the embedding and integration (normalization) of new interventions into routine practice through four key mechanisms: coherence, cognitive participation, collective action, and reflexive monitoring. - **Fidelity:** The extent to which an intervention is delivered as it was intended or protocolized. - **Sustainability:** The long-term maintenance and continuation of an implemented innovation within an organization or system. - **Diffusion of Innovation Theory:** A classic communication theory that explains how, why, and at what rate new ideas and technology spread through cultures. This is detailed in [[diffusion-of-innovations-theory|Diffusion of Innovations]]. -- Reference: