Presented September 3, 2025 at the 2025 APSF Stoelting Conference on “Transforming Maternal Care: Innovations and Collaborations to Reduce Morbidity and Mortality”
SUMMARY
Meghan Lane-Fall, MD’s presentation defines Implementation Science as the discipline focused on solving the “last mile problem” in healthcare: bridging the gap between evidence and actual practice. It is a behavioral science that moves beyond asking if an intervention works (efficacy and effectiveness) to asking why people and institutions are not adopting proven best practices and how to get them to do so. Implementation science involves designing and testing specific implementation strategies to influence contextual factors and improve adherence to evidence-based maternal care protocols, ultimately improving patient outcomes at the bedside.
Key Points:
- Addressing the “Last Mile Problem”
Implementation science is the study of methods to bridge evidence-to-practice gaps. It addresses why evidence-based interventions known to improve maternal health are struggling to be deployed at the level of patient care [00:43, 01:06]. - Beyond Efficacy and Effectiveness
The science moves beyond traditional research questions: 1) Efficacy (Does it work in an ideal setting?) and 2) Effectiveness (Does it work in the real world?). Implementation science begins when we know something works, but people are still not doing it [01:46, 04:40]. - Focus on Context and Behavior
It is a behavioral science that seeks to understand the contextual factors influencing adherence to best practices. Researchers design and test implementation strategies to get people, places, and institutions to adopt the proven practices (e.g., protocols, safety bundles) [05:03, 05:17]. - Designing for Implementation
When developing new interventions or technologies, researchers should design for implementation from the inception. Interventions should be simple and avoid completely disrupting existing clinical workflow to ensure adoption [02:57, 03:34].
ABOUT THE SPEAKER(S)
Meghan Lane-Fall, MD
Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology,
Columbia University, Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Meghan B. Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP, FCCM is Professor and Chair of Anesthesiology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons. She is a practicing anesthesiologist whose research focuses on improving the uptake and effective use (i.e. implementation) of evidence-based communication in acute and perioperative care. Connect with her on LinkedIn @lanefall.
