Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science Launches

Sara Becker, PhD, the Alice Hamilton Professor of Psychiatry and the inaugural director of Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science, who spoke about the center’s vision, goals and opportunities for collaboration. Courtesy of Randy Belice for Northwestern University.

Feinberg and the Institute for Public Health and Medicine (IPHAM) have established the Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CDIS), which aims to bridge the gap between public health knowledge and public health practice to improve healthcare quality and equity.

The center is directed by Sara Becker, PhD, the Alice Hamilton Professor of Psychiatry, who recently welcomed a multidisciplinary gathering of faculty from across the medical school to discuss the new center’s launch and how dissemination and implementation science can enhance all areas of public health practice and research.

“Our center has been really intentional in articulating that there are multiple gaps that we need to be addressing…with a relentless focus on equity and methods that are translatable across conditions and settings,” Becker said.

The meeting, held November 15 at the Hyatt Centric Hotel in Chicago, included opening remarks given by Eric G. Neilson, MD, vice president for medical affairs and Lewis Landsberg Dean, and Ronald Ackermann, MD, MPH, senior associate dean for public health and director of IPHAM.

Feinberg faculty attendees participate in a group exercise at the CDIS strategic planning meeting. Courtesy of Randy Belice for Northwestern University.

Becker, addressing the gathering, expanded on her vision for the center, which is to bridge the gap between public health knowledge (“what we know”) and public health practice (“what we do”).

The center’s training and support activities will include grant consultations, education in key concepts of dissemination and implementation science, technical assistance, and design of research tools for center collaborators. In addition, the center’s collaboratively designed research and implementation projects will be deployed across a range of service environments.

Becker also outlined how the center’s strategic pillars — scientific leadership, support and service, and training and education — will have a foundation of multidisciplinary collaboration across Feinberg and beyond.

“We hope to be scientific leaders in this space,” Becker said.

Lisa Hirschhorn, MD, MPH, associate professor of Medical Social Sciences and of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, presents her team’s ideas to fellow attendees. Courtesy of Randy Belice for Northwestern University.

During the interactive meeting, attendees participated in a series of group exercises to identify their department’s unique strengths, strategies for coordinating existing assets, and prioritization of resources that can allow for further growth, collaboration and success.

The Center for Dissemination and Implementation Science (CDIS) is an interdisciplinary center within IPHAM at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. CDIS aims to connect public health research and practice by integrating strategies for both patient-focused dissemination and provider- and organization-focused implementation that can be used across diverse service settings and conditions.

Faculty can apply to become a member of the new center via the IPHAM center membership form.