Implementation Science Hubs play a primary role in the Ending the HIV Epidemic in the U.S. initiative (EHE). Hubs offer key services to assigned groups of EHE projects (awardees) throughout the year such as tailored consultations, webinars, peer-led learning opportunities as well as supporting the projects with progress reporting to the National Institutes of Health (NIH), enabling harmonization of implementation outcomes.
The UCLA Rapid, Rigorous, Relevant (3R) Implementation Science (IS) Hub aims to provide leadership and support for 3R HIV-related implementation research emphasizing pragmatic study designs and methods addressing health equity and producing sustainable solutions. The 3R IS Hub provides consultation, coaching and technical assistance and reports having success with awardee participation and collaboration.
“We’ve gotten pretty regular with our bi-monthly calls with individual awardees, and we also really enjoy our quarterly all-awardee meetings,” said Dr. Alison Hamilton, Principal Investigator for the 3R IS Hub. “The all-awardee meetings have gone so well that, for the most part, they have extended into a two-part meeting because the awardees really get into sharing with each other.” Dr. Hamilton states that the Hub usually gives the all-awardee meetings a theme; this gives participants an opportunity to think about items they may want to bring up for discussion, thus ensuring a successful meeting where colleagues can have lingering questions answered, get feedback and gain partnerships.
Along with these meetings, the 3R IS Hub provides awardees with ad hoc consultations offering assistance with reporting requirements, providing feedback to awardees on proposals, papers and more. From September 2020 to March 2023, 22 awardees have received expert technical assistance, coaching and/or consultation and 23 new implementation science proposals have been supported. Methods Workshops hosted by the Hub have been very well received; the “Strategies for Selecting and Using Dissemination & Implementation Theories, Models, and Frameworks” workshop had 175 participants and the “Designing Semi-Structured Interview Guides for Implementation Research” workshop had 199 participants.
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Two of the bigger activities that the 3R IS Hub coordinates are their Methods Workshop and Beachside Chats; these webinar series provide presentations and discussions with an array of topics in implementation science. The webinars also feature experts in implementation science and are aimed at sharing generalizable knowledge for awardees and others involved in the field.
To date the 3R IS Hub has hosted 9 Method Workshops and 11 Beachside Chats, which can be found on their YouTube playlist for easy access. Their most viewed Method Workshop, Rapid Qualitative Analysis, has a total of 2,853 views as of April 11, 2023. As of that same date, the workshop is #3 when users do a general search for “rapid qualitative analysis” on YouTube; not only is that impressive, but it lets us know that the knowledge, tools and resources Hubs share are relevant and important to the field of HIV implementation science.
According to Dr. Hamilton, the 3R IS Hub has proposed an equity-centered implementation science technical assistance model for the upcoming funding cycle and is always excited to work with other Hubs and lend the expertise of her team for these collaborative sessions and projects.
“As you can see in the graphic provided, we have the breadth of knowledge represented by the petals,” says Hamilton. “But we are really taking an equity centered approach and emphasizing equity related theories, models frameworks, measures, study designs, etc. and making that the focal point of our efforts.”
To learn more about the UCLA Rapid, Rigorous, Relevant (3R) Implementation Science Hub, other Hubs, supplement projects (awardees) and EHE harmonization efforts visit the page on ISCI’s website: EHE Supplement Harmonization.
View Equity Model Visit the UCLA 3R IS Hub YouTube Channel