Table 1 Overview of PennISI components

Institution

University of Pennsylvania (Penn)

Penn Implementation Science Institute (PISCE)

Master of Science and Health and Policy Research (MSHP) program

Year

2022 for institute reported in manuscript

2017 for inaugural PennISI

Format

The PennISI is a 4-day institute totaling 20 h (5 h/day). Facilitated via Zoom, the institute includes daily didactic or panel presentations and 45–60 min small group discussions. In addition, optional office hours are available 2 h per day. All participants pay for the equivalent of half of a credit unit with the option of enrolling into a full credit unit.

Instructors

All members of the learning team have expertise in implementation science.

Course directors:

Rinad Beidas, PhD- former founder and director of PISCE@LDI, Professor and Chair of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University

Meghan Lane-Fall, MD, MSHP- current director of PISCE@LDI, Associate Professor of Anesthesiology and Critical Care and Epidemiology at Penn

Core faculty:

Emily Becker-Haimes, PhD- Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Penn

Amanda Bettencourt, PhD- Assistant Professor of Nursing at Penn

Chris Bonafide, MD, MSCE- Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Penn, Associate Director of PISCE@LDI

Danielle Cullen, MD, MPH, MSHP- Assistant Professor of Pediatric and Emergency Medicine at Penn and Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia

Rebecca Hamm, MD, MSCE- Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Penn

Katelin Hoskins, PhD, MSN, MBE- Postdoctoral fellow at time of PennISI, current Assistant Professor of Nursing at Penn

Katharine Rendle, PhD, MSW, MPH- Assistant Professor of Family Medicine and Community Health & Biostatistics, Epidemiology, and Informatics at Penn, Associate Director of PISCE@LDI

Sarita Sonalkar, MD, MPH- Assistant Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Penn

Rebecca Stewart, PhD- Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Penn

Amelia Van Pelt, PhD, MPH- postdoc at PISCE@LDI at time of PennISI, current postdoc in Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University

Visiting faculty:

Srinath Adusumalli, MD, MSHP- Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Penn

Alison Buttenheim, PhD, MBA- Associate Professor of Nursing and Health Policy at Penn, Scientific Director of the Center for Health Incentives and Behavioral Economics

Krisda Chaiyachati, MD, MPH, MSHP- Physician Lead for Value-Based Care and Innovation of Verily Health Platforms

Kate Courtright, MD, MSHP- Assistant Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary, and Critical Care at Penn

David Mandell, ScD- Professor of Psychiatry at Penn, Director of Penn Center for Mental Health

Yehoda Martei, MD, MSCE- Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

Nathalie Moise, MD, MS- Associate Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Jen Myers, MD- Professor of Clinical Medicine at Penn, Director of the Center for Health Care Improvement and Patient Safety

Michael Posencheg, MD- Professor Clinical Pediatrics at Penn, Chief Medical Office at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center

Byron Powell, PhD, LCSW- Associate Professor at Washington University, Associate Director for the Center for Dissemination and Implementation at WashU

Jonathan Purtle, DrPH, MSc- Associate Professor of Public Health Policy at New York University, Director of Policy Research at NYU’s Global Center for Implementation Science

Rachel Shelton, ScD, MPH- Associate Professor of Sociomedical Sciences at Columbia University

Rebecca Trotta, PhD, RN- Director of Nursing Research and Science at Penn

Keynote speaker:

Wynne Norton, PhD- Program Director of Implementation Science in the Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences at the National Cancer Institute

Application process

The PennISI is intended for scholars at all career levels interested in learning more about the foundation of implementation science for application to future research. Enrollment is open to all individuals (i.e., not exclusive to the Penn community). Applications open once per year for the annual institute. Applications do not require specific eligibility criteria. Interested participants submit an application via an online Penn platform, which are accepted on a first-come, first-served until capacity is reached.

Trainees

Full information about participant characteristics is provided in Table 2. Briefly, participants included researchers, practitioners, staff, and community partners. Training and areas of application varied

Course topics

The syllabus is available upon request before enrollment. Sessions incorporated various content areas to explain the following topics:

Introduction to implementation science

Models and frameworks

Study design and methods

Behavioral economics

Global health application

Health equity

Implementation outcomes

Implementation strategies

Dissemination

Quality improvement

Grant writing

De-implementation

Implementation science in the real world (e.g., examples of research program and stories of success in implementation science)

Assessment

Participants do not take formal assessments. This is the first pre-post evaluation of participants’ competencies, but participants were not required to complete the surveys.

Ongoing support

In general, formal ongoing support is not provided upon conclusion of the PennISI. Course materials and session recordings are available to participants on the Canvas website for 1 month. Informal consultation has occurred upon request. The 2022 PennISI included an additional 3-h debrief session with the visiting global health scholars to review individual projects.