Dr Jo Thompson Coon
University of Exeter
United Kingdom
Dissemination and implementation in dementia care: a systematic review
Alzheimer's Society
86,557
07/09/2015
1.2
Aims: A major obstacle in attempts to improve the quality of care for people with dementia is the persistent gap between currently provided dementia care and what, based on research evidence, should be provided. Our aim is to conduct a systematic review to establish how best to disseminate and implement practices that have been shown to improve dementia care, to identify barriers to best practice, and to identify strategies that have been used to overcome them. We will include dementia care at all stages and care intended to benefit those with dementia as well as those caring for people with dementia. Methods: We will identify papers through electronic database searching, citation chasing, searching online, and hand searching relevant journals. We will include papers describing studies that have addressed dissemination or implementation within dementia care. Two reviewers will independently screen titles and abstracts for relevance and will subsequently screen the full text of potentially relevant studies. One reviewer will extract data from included papers and a second will check this, with discrepancies resolved by discussion and risk of bias assessed using appropriate tools. We will employ mixed-methods synthesis and use qualitative findings to provide contextual factors to the quantitative ones and frame our findings using the four dimensions of the EPIS framework: Efficacy, Adoption/Preparation, Implementation, and Sustainment. Expected outcomes: An improved understanding of how to disseminate and implement findings that can be applied to existing and future research in order to improve dementia care.