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The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) is a global health initiative launched in 2003 with the goal of comprehensively combating the devastation due to HIV/AIDS around the world. Implementation science is the study of methods to improve the uptake, implementation, and translation of research findings into routine and common practices (the "know-do" or "evidence to program" gap). The scope of implementation science is broader than typical biomedical research; it seeks to improve program effectiveness and optimize efficiency, including the effective transfer of interventions from one setting to another. The methods of implementation science facilitate making evidence-based choices between competing or combined interventions and improving the delivery of effective and cost-effective programs. A rigorous implementation science research agenda is needed to improve program delivery in PEPFAR and to increase the global impact of proven HIV/AIDS modalities in prevention, treatment, and care. While scientific knowledge to prevent and treat HIV/AIDS has expanded substantially, scientific advances regarding the implementation of effective interventions have not kept pace. There is an unmet need for implementation science research to inform approaches and investments for public health programming and policy making. For example, research is needed to improve the dissemination and uptake of effective interventions, to deliver effective interventions most efficiently, to improve the transfer of interventions from one setting or population to another, to test the effectiveness of “at scale” combination prevention interventions, and to conduct comparative effectiveness studies to better inform choices between competing interventions. The answers to these questions should improve the operations and efficiency of a proven prevention, treatment or care intervention, and should be applicable across a broader range of targets, strategies, settings, and populations.

There is substantial expertise in the scientific community to address implementation science research questions, including questions in the fields of operations research, epidemiology, sociology, health economics, health services research, anthropology, statistics, political science, policy analysis, and ethics.

EpiSurveyor is a web- and mobile- tool to allow organizations to gather research, management, and other data from the field using common mobile phones, and winner of the 2009 Wall Street Journal Award for Technology Innovation in the category of healthcare. It is not limited to health-related data, and is attracting users from a variety of other fields.

As easy as Gmail, free to 99% of users, with 3000 users in 150+ countries worldwide. If you are collecting data using paper and clipboard, you could probably be using EpiSurveyor to do real-time mobile electronic data collection.

This handbook provides practical guidance to clinical trial staff and research partners on how to anticipate and respond to the special communications challenges posed by the conduct of clinical research. Using context-specific case studies and practical insights culled from actual communications experience in clinical trials from around the world, this essential new resource covers the spectrum of communications planning, activities, and strategies involved in the implementation of a clinical trial. Organized to correspond to the chronological steps involved in conducting research, this guide focuses on the various communications skills that are needed throughout the course of a trial.

Designed to be accessible and relevant to a wide audience, Communications Handbook for Clinical Trials will make your job easier, whether you are a researcher, a study coordinator, or a communications professional. The handbook contains diagnostic tools, sample templates, and materials that research sites can adapt for use in their communications planning and implementation. Communications Handbook for Clinical Trials includes:

Sample communication plans for clinical trials
Communications and crisis-planning templates and checklists
Scenario-planning tools to facilitate planning for the release of trial results
Ideas on delegating communications tasks to reduce demands on key site personnel
Tips and techniques on how to communicate effectively in interviews, in meetings, and with the media
Communications Handbook for Clinical Trials contains more than 40 contributed pieces by researchers and communications experts who share their ideas, lessons learned, and advice based on their experiences with trials in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the United States, and Europe