Odum Institute: Introduction to Implementation Science

This one-day course will be offered via Zoom only. Attendance is required as it will not be recorded.

There is a substantial gap between the development of innovations in medicine, public health, education, and other fields and their delivery in hospitals, communities, and schools. Implementation science is an emerging field that is dedicated to the study of closing this gap by scientifically identifying the factors that facilitate and impede the systematic uptake of knowledge and evidence. It includes the study of how individual, organizational and environmental behavior impact implementation effectiveness, and how to develop and test strategies to change these behaviors. This course will provide an overview of the core theories and methods in implementation research and practice. Students will have opportunities to apply these principles through a case study.

Learning Objectives:
- Define implementation science
- Describe how implementation science connects to allied fields such as quality improvement and design thinking
- Define implementation outcomes are how they are connected to and different from health outcomes
- Describe key implementation models, theories, and frameworks, their application in various settings, and how they can be used to guide implementation efforts
- Identify individual, organizational, and systems-level determinants affecting the quality of implementation
- Understand how to develop effective strategies for sustainable and scalable implementation
- Describe the most common research designs and evaluation approaches in implementation science

Instructor: Rohit Ramaswamy
Dr. Rohit Ramaswamy is a Professor of Pediatrics at the James M. Anderson Center for Health Systems Excellence. Prior to joining Cincinnati Children’s, he was the Associate Director of the Public Health Leadership Program and a Professor in Maternal and Child Health at the Gillings School of Global Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dr. Ramaswamy’s area of expertise is in Implementation and Improvement science, which deals with the development and evaluation of systematic methods and tools to sustainably implement and improve complex interventions. His work blends the tools of systems science, design thinking, implementation science and continuous quality improvement to build capacity for implementation. His global projects include the improvement of clinical and operational processes in tertiary maternity hospitals in Ghana, integrating mental health service delivery into the district primary health care system in India. His has developed and taught Implementation Science programs in South Africa and in Zambia. In the US, he has led the development of innovative methods to evaluate complex community transformation initiatives. Dr. Ramaswamy has a Bachelor of Technology degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, MS and PhD degrees in Civil Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, an MPH degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Graduate Diploma in Biostatistics from the University of Sydney.

Registration Fees
- UNC-CH Students: $0, with a $20 deposit to hold your spot (deposit is refundable upon your attendance for at least 66% of the course)
- UNC-CH Faculty/Staff/Postdoc: $40

Additional Course Registration
- Registration will close at 12:01 am on 1/15/2022. No late registrations will be accepted.
- Cancellation/ Refund Policy: A full refund will be given to those who cancel their registration no later than 10 days prior to the course. If you cancel within 10 days prior to the class, no refund will be given. Please allow 30 days to receive your refund.
- Zoom link for this course will be sent prior to the course. Registration must be made at least 3 days prior to the course date to receive the Zoom link.

For questions regarding the status of this class, please contact Jill Stevens at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

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