Call for Papers
Implementation science for healthcare quality and safety
Advancing knowledge about how to improve the quality and safety of healthcare is a priority of BMJ Quality and Safety. Accordingly, we frequently publish studies that evaluate the effectiveness of quality improvement interventions. Methodologic advances in implementation science have had wide-spread positive impacts on healthcare delivery over the last 20 years. While many of these methods have been applied to improving quality and safety, others have rarely been applied or could be applied more often.
Collection Editors
Bryony Dean Franklin, BPharm BA MSc PhD FFRPS FRPharmS
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust & UCL School of Pharmacy
London, UK
Eric J. Thomas, M.D., M.P.H., F.A.C.P.
McGovern Medical School at UTHealth
Texas, USA
BMJ Quality and Safety would like to publish a series of papers on the topic of “Accelerating uptake of advances in implementation science to improve the quality and safety of patient care.” We therefore invite submissions of original research, viewpoint, review, and methodology papers related to this topic. We especially welcome submissions from implementation scientists who have not previously published in our journal – our Information for Authors pages is here.
This themed call will include submissions in the following categories:
- Original Research: these will report research using implementation science methods to address problems with the quality and safety of health care. Manuscripts can be submitted under the ‘Original Research’, ‘Quality Improvement Report’ or ‘Short Report’ article type categories. They may present high quality evidence describing how implementation science principles and methods were used to implement an intervention and improve healthcare quality or safety. We are also interested in research that advances knowledge about measuring implementation outcomes such as acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, feasibility, fidelity, implementation cost, penetration, scaling interventions and sustainability as related to efforts to improve quality and safety. These may or may not be studies that also show improvements in care.
- Viewpoints: these will be essays presenting a perspective or viewpoint on implementation science. These should add a new argument to a debate or present a new perspective, as well as appropriately drawing on the existing international literature. Viewpoints that compare and contrast implementation science to quality improvement/improvement science are especially welcome if they also suggest how to integrate the approaches or how to pick one approach over another.
- Reviews: these will be any literature review relating to this topic that brings together quantitative or qualitative evidence and adds something that is more than the ‘sum of the parts’ of the included studies.
- Research and Reporting Methodologies: articles that aim to advance research methodology or reporting standards related to implementation science in patient safety and quality improvement.
Original Research
Factors affecting implementation of a National Clinical Programme for self-harm in hospital emergency departments: a qualitative study (8 October 2024)
Selena O'Connell, Grace Cully, Sheena McHugh, Margaret Maxwell, Anne Jeffers, Katerina Kavalidou, Sally Lovejoy, Rhona Jennings, Vincent Russell, Ella Arensman, Eve Griffin
Browse previously published articles on this theme
- Richard J Lilford Implementation science at the crossroads BMJ Quality & Safety Apr 2018, 27 (4) 331-332; DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2017-007502
- Annette McQuillan, Jane Carthey, Ken Catchpole, Peter McCulloch, Deborah A Ridout, Allan P Goldman Creating a safe, reliable hospital at night handover: a case study in implementation science BMJ Quality & Safety Jun 2014, 23 (6) 465-473; DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2013-002146
- Beth Prusaczyk, Robert E Burke It’s time for the field of geriatrics to invest in implementation science BMJ Quality & Safety Dec 2023, 32 (12) 700-703; DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2023-016263
- Paul Wilson, Roman Kislov Learning how and why complex improvement interventions work: insights from implementation science BMJ Quality & Safety Aug 2023, 32 (8) 438-440; DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2023-016008
- M Grimshaw, Noah Ivers, Stefanie Linklater, Robbie Foy, Jill J Francis, Wouter T Gude, Sylvia J Hysong Reinvigorating stagnant science: implementation laboratories and a meta-laboratory to efficiently advance the science of audit and feedback BMJ Quality & Safety May 2019, 28 (5) 416-423; DOI: 10.1136/bmjqs-2018-008355
- Schnipper JL, Reyes Nieva H, Yoon C MARQUIS2 Site Leaders for the MARQUIS2 Study Group, et al. What works in medication reconciliation: an on-treatment and site analysis of the MARQUIS2 study. BMJ Quality & Safety 2023;32:457-469.
- Moyal-Smith R, Etheridge JC, Turley N, et al. CheckPOINT: a simple tool to measure Surgical Safety Checklist implementation fidelity. BMJ Quality & Safety Published Online First: 21 September 2023. doi: 10.1136/bmjqs-2023-016030
- van Bodegom-Vos L, Davidoff F, Marang-van de Mheen PJ. Implementation and de-implementation: two sides of the same coin? BMJ Quality & Safety 2017;26:495-501.