Developing the Process and Tracking the Implementation and Evaluation of the National Institutes of Health Strategic Plan for Women's Health Research.

UNLABELLED

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) released (Strategic Plan) in February 2019. The NIH Office of Research on Women's Health (ORWH) engaged staff members from across NIH to develop recommendations on the implementation and evaluation of the Strategic Plan.

OBJECTIVE

This paper describes the process used to develop recommendations for tools and approaches that NIH Institutes, Centers, and Offices (ICOs) could apply when implementing and evaluating the Strategic Plan.

METHODS

A Trans-NIH Strategic Plan Implementation and Evaluation Guidance Development Team conducted meetings and individual interviews with 69 NIH staff members knowledgeable about research on the health of women and sex and gender differences and met with 11 Advisory Committee on Research on Women's Health Strategic Plan Evaluation Working Group members. The purpose of these stakeholder meetings and interviews was to obtain recommendations for implementing the Strategic Plan and identify measures for evaluating implementation success. A thematic analysis was performed to synthesize and map the recommendations to the Strategic Plan goals and objectives.

RESULTS

The process resulted in the (the Guide), which includes both a conceptual and logic model for implementation and evaluation.

CONCLUSIONS

The Guide offers methods, tools, and suggestions that ICO planning and evaluation staff, as well as national and international entities, can choose from when determining how to implement the Strategic Plan through ICO activities, programs, and research initiatives and how to evaluate their efforts in the context of their unique mission.