According to Megan Roberts, Ph.D., it takes about 17 years for 14 percent of research to benefit patient care.
Roberts, an assistant professor and director of Implementation Science in Precision Health and Society at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy began to ask questions about the statistic. “How can we make sure that our research benefits patients? How do we ensure that health systems implement quality care to patients?”
On a quest to fill the gap between groundbreaking research and patients, Roberts created the School’s first course on implementation science to promote the translation of evidence into practice.
The course, called “PHRS 815: Foundations in Implementation Science,” will launch the spring semester of 2020, is worth 1.5 credits, and is available to Pharm.D., Ph.D. and master’s students at the School.
During the course, Roberts will use real-world practice and research examples in precision medicine, such as treatment approaches that account for a patient’s lifestyle and environment and/or genetics, to understand how implementation science can improve research and pharmacy practice.
“Too often, evidence-based practices fail to be implemented into clinical practice despite their known effectiveness for improving health,” Roberts said. “Implementation science allows us to study the integration of innovations and evidence-based practices into clinical settings to improve patient health. This field of research is relevant both to pharmacy practitioners and researchers and offers an opportunity for students to learn from each other and consider how this transdisciplinary field relates to their own work.”
She said after speaking with other implementation scientists, she realized there was an opportunity and need to familiarize students with implementation science.
Roberts spent the last year developing the course, starting with an audit of similar courses and implementation science webinars by the National Cancer Institute to determine the best topics to include in the course.
“Whether students of this course become practicing pharmacists, administrators, or researchers, I hope this course provides them with a foundational understanding of implementation science so that they can identify opportunities to engage in implementation science and apply it to their own work through transdisciplinary teams,” she said. “Together, we can advance the translation of life-saving treatment and prevention strategies to benefit patient health.”