Story by Timothy Poor, Publications Editor.
A few years ago, Niko Verdecias-Pellum was a post-doctorate researcher at the Brown School who was interested in creating interventions to deliver diabetes education to people in marginalized communities. She wanted to build programs that were feasible and addressed the social needs of at-risk populations, but needed additional training to make the best case possible for funding programs likely to be successful.
Enter the Institute for Implementation Science Scholars (IS-2), a mentored training program led by the Center for Diabetes Translation Research and the Prevention Research Center at the Brown School for investigators interested in applying strategies to reduce the burden of chronic disease and address health inequities. Verdecias-Pellum was one of 58 scholars from around the U.S. accepted in two-year cohorts for the program, which ends this year. Now an assistant professor of population health at Arizona State University, she credits IS-2 with giving her the skills to apply dissemination and implementation methods to her work in successfully applying for grants to back her efforts.
“Being an IS-2 scholar helped me to get the tools, the knowledge, and the practice that I needed to tell the story and support the goals of my research and how it impacts communities,” she said. “It gave me an ‘aha moment’ in my career to to marry intervention science, implementation science and community engagement. I want to be able to see not only if an intervention works, but how it works, and what makes it work, as part of a complete picture I need for my work to be sustainable and adoptable in a variety of settings.”
Funded by the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the IS-2 program was designed to train investigators interested in applying dissemination and implementation (D&I) methods and strategies to reduce the burden of chronic disease and address health inequities, and is funded through the end of this calendar year. Ross Brownson, the director of the PRC who co-led the program, said that while implementation science is still a relatively young field, it has grown dramatically in recent years and the demand for training has outpaced available programs like IS-2. “We need to continue to grow this field and build out the next generation of scholars,” he said.
“Implementation science expertise resonates well with our partners in public health and clinical settings who are looking for solutions to the challenges they’re seeing in their communities and patients, as well as with researchers who want to make a difference,” said Brownson, the Steven H. and Susan U. Lipstein Distinguished Professor at the Brown School. The most dramatic example of the importance of implementation science, he said, was the rapid and scaled-up response to the COVID pandemic, which saved millions of lives.
Translating diabetes research into action and impact is another example of the power of implementation science, according to Debra Haire-Joshu, who holds the Joyce and Chauncy Buchheit Professorship in Public Health at the Brown School and who co-led IS-2. She cited work with Parents as Teachers, the nationwide home-visitation program for parents that was adapted to include delivering diabetes-prevention tips for women at high risk. “IS-2 showed a way to do that, to scale up interventions and see which strategies worked,” she said. “It makes it quicker to move to real impact and ensure quality.”
She said a key part of IS-2 was the scholars’ work with senior mentors, as well as with each other, which drew many applicants. “The people who wanted to do this were really excited by the opportunity to train and have a network of colleagues for years to come,” she said. She added that the relationships were built despite the advent of COVID, which hit just as the project was starting, forcing a limitation on in-person meetings, which continued on Zoom.
Shelly Kannuthurai, the project coordinator for IS-2, said working with scholars and their mentors was rewarding, as the training focused on scholars being able to advance their own research ideas. “The training grounds their work and helps make it more applicable and you get to see tangible results.” Now a senior research manager for the Brown School’s Center for Diabetes Translation Research, Kannuthurai said the mentorship provided to the scholars through the IS-2 program was critical. “They didn’t just meet one time, but have a point person they can connect with and meet monthly for years,” she said.
Verdecias-Pellum’s mentor was Karen Emmons, a Harvard professor whom she said was “instrumental in providing feedback and more opportunities to learn the nuances of implementation science.” In addition to the mentorship, she appreciated the peer support from other scholars. “We kind of co-mentored each other, and I appreciated the opportunity to network,” she said.
Another post-doc scholar at the Brown School, Gabriella McLoughlin, is now an assistant professor in the Temple University College of Public Health. She said the training helped with her research in working with school districts for healthier school meals. Emmons was also her mentor. “She reviewed a grant I was writing and gave me feedback and advice on career-building,” she said. “The program boosted my dissemination skills and gave me a network of amazing people to call on if I needed advice.”
“I feel like the IS-2 program was one of the biggest boosts for my career.”
The Institute for Implementation Science Scholars (IS-2) is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research (OBSSR) and Office of Disease Prevention, administered by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disorders (R25DK123008, R25DK123008-S1) and the U.S. Department of Veterans Administration.