Development of a Planning Tool to Guide Research Dissemination

Investigation in patient safety improvement is constantly yielding new research results, yet efforts to put the results into practice are inconsistent. Therefore, a pragmatic tool is needed. The Dissemination Planning Tool was developed to assist the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Patient Safety grantees with disseminating their research results. It was designed to help researchers consider major areas in dissemination: packaging research results, identifying target users, engaging connector organizations, identifying barriers, developing success measures, and allocating resources to implement the plan. Developing the tool included several stages, beginning with adapting Rogers' seminal diffusion theory. Literature was reviewed from health care, sociology, organizational development, psychology, and social sciences, thus providing a breath of dissemination theory and practices. Tools currently used in field-specific instances were reviewed. All of these sources were synthesized through a process of refinement, expert review, and testing.