Overview of Post Conference Activities

The July 2010 State-of-the-Art Conference to Advance the State of the Science and Practice on Scale-up and Spread of Effective Health Programs generated a set of recommendations for advancing the spread and scale up of innovative ideas and practices in health care and public health. Conference recommendations included:
1.Increase awareness of the need for greater attention and activity in scale-up and spread, including research, practice, and policy activity.
2.Facilitate better information exchange, collaboration and use of existing knowledge regarding scale-up and spread.
3.Develop, evaluate and refine innovative scale-up and spread methods, including novel incentives and “pull” strategies.
4.Develop and apply new approaches for evaluation of scale-up and spread.
5.Expand capacity for scale-up and spread policy, practice and research.

Conference attendees generally agreed that the specific recommendations produced at the conclusion of the conference represented a strong start but did not comprise a comprehensive, actionable and compelling set required to provide a strong foundation for future activity. With continued grant support from AHRQ, we are pleased to announce a fall 2011 project to “virtually” reconvene conference attendees (and other key stakeholders) to refine and elaborate the conference recommendations and to develop specific plans for operationalizing key recommendations. Our ongoing discussions with representatives from CMS, VA, CDC and other federal, state and private organizations have indicated the timeliness of these issues and the clear need for additional guidance regarding scale-up and spread.

The fall effort includes two parts:
1. A web-based survey asking you to review, refine and prioritize the conference-generated recommendations and to offer specific suggestions for actions needed to operationalize each recommendation.
2. A conference call / on-line discussion to further discuss and refine the expanded set of recommendations, leading to their formal publication and dissemination.

We think this is an exciting opportunity to provide meaningful input and guidance for important, time-sensitive policy and practice activities in health care and public health. If you would like more information about the post-Conference activities please contact Deborah Jenkins (Deborah.Jenkins@va.gov).