Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA 02115, USA.
Division of Cancer Control and Population Sciences, Office of the Director, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MA 20014, USA.
Transl Behav Med. 2021 Nov 30;11(11):1972-1979. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibab147.
Although health-related policies are abundant, efforts to understand how to ensure that these policies serve as an effective vehicle for translating scientific evidence are relatively sparse. This paper explores how policy-focused implementation science (IS) may contribute to understanding the translation of scientific evidence to health-related policy in governmental and nongovernmental sectors. Expanding the focus of implementation science in cancer control could systematically address policy to both increase the use of scientific evidence in general and to address health equity. In this Commentary, we look to relevant work outside of IS that could be informative, most notably from the field of political science. We propose several ideas for future research that could help move the field of policy implementation science in cancer control in the USA forward. Although most efforts to increase uptake of the scientific evidence base reference translation to "practice and policy," there has been relatively little emphasis in the USA on implementation at the policy level, especially related to cancer control. If we are to achieve the full benefits of scientific discovery on population and public health, we will need to consider policy as a critical mechanism by which evidence can be translated to practice. We have a robust set of methods within implementation science that are increasing the pace of adoption and maintenance of evidence-based programs in a variety of settings. Building on these efforts, the time is right to expand our focus to include policy implementation.
尽管有大量与健康相关的政策,但对于如何确保这些政策成为将科学证据转化为实际行动的有效工具,相关研究还相对较少。本文探讨了以政策为重点的实施科学(IS)如何有助于理解将科学证据转化为政府和非政府部门与健康相关的政策。在癌症控制方面扩展实施科学的重点,可以系统地解决政策问题,既要普遍增加科学证据的使用,又要解决公平问题。在这篇评论中,我们借鉴了实施科学以外的相关工作,这些工作可能具有启发性,尤其是政治学领域的工作。我们提出了一些未来研究的想法,这些想法可能有助于推动美国癌症控制领域的政策实施科学向前发展。尽管大多数旨在增加对科学证据基础的利用的努力都参考了“实践和政策”的转化,但在美国,政策层面的实施相对较少受到关注,特别是在癌症控制方面。如果我们要充分利用科学发现对人口和公共卫生的益处,就需要将政策视为将证据转化为实践的关键机制。在实施科学中,我们有一整套方法,可以在各种环境中加快基于证据的计划的采用和维护。在此基础上,扩大我们的关注范围,将政策实施纳入其中的时机已经成熟。