The effectiveness of implementation strategies for promoting evidence informed interventions in allied healthcare: A Systematic Review
Abstract Background- Evidence based practice in health care has become increasingly popular over the last decades. Many guidelines have been developed to improve evidence informed decision making in health care organisations, however it is often overlooked that the actual implementation strategies for these guidelines are as important as the guidelines themselves. The effectiveness of these strategies is rarely ever tested specifically for the allied health therapy group. Objectives- To explore the evidence for implementation strategies within allied health. This review sought to explore the effectiveness of implementation strategies for promoting evidence informed interventions in allied healthcare. Data sources- Cochrane, Medline, Embase and Scopus were searched from 2000 onwards. Study eligibility : Level I and II studies were included if an evidence informed implementation strategy was tested in allied health personnel. Study appraisal and synthesis methods: The SIGN method was used to evaluate risk of bias. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) model was applied to evaluate the grade for recommendation. Results- A total of 490 unique articles were identified, with 6 primary studies meeting the inclusion criteria. Three different implementation strategies and three multi-faceted components strategies were described. We found moderate evidence for educational meetings, local opinion leaders and patient mediated interventions. We found stronger evidence for multi-faceted components strategies. Conclusion- Few studies describe the effectiveness of implementation strategies for allied healthcare, but evidence was found for multi-faceted components for implementing research in an allied health therapy group population.