Program Evaluation Intensive: Practical Training in Selecting Measures and Data Collection Methods to Obtain Useful Outcome Data

Do you need help determining appropriate measures and feasible data collection methods for program evaluations within integrated primary care? In this 3-hour preconference workshop, leaders from CFHA’s Research & Evaluation Committee and Families, Systems, & Health journal will provide practical training in conducting rigorous program evaluations. This workshop will help you identify appropriate measures to answer your key questions as well as data collection methods that balance quality and feasibility. This workshop is designed for those who are planning, conducting, or revising a program evaluation, as attendees will apply the material to their own personal projects within interactive small groups

A Vision for the Future of Families, Systems, & Health: Focusing on Science at the Point of Care Delivery

The authors are pleased to introduce themselves as the new co-editors. They are Nadiya Sunderji and Jodi Polaha, midcareer academic clinicians whose careers have balanced research, teaching, and clinical practice in integrated care. They continue the Families, Systems, & Health (FSH) tradition of interprofessional co-editor teams (Dr. Sunderji is a psychiatrist and Dr. Polaha is a psychologist) and add a new twist: international collaboration. Dr. Sunderji is Canadian, and they welcome the new contributors and readers this collaboration will bring. The authors thank those who worked so diligently to develop a strong journal with a tradition of contributing important work in health care. They thank outgoing Associate Editors, Drs. Douglas Brock and Todd Edwards, as well as outgoing Department Editors, Drs. Ben Miller and Randall Reitz, who served the journal faithfully for many years. They also note that in 2003, Zerhouni (2003) laid out a roadmap for research in the journal Science, using a bridge as a metaphor to explain how scientific infrastructure (journals, grants, training, and the development and dissemination of advanced scientific methods) supports the translation of knowledge from bench to bedside. The authors borrow the bridge metaphor here to discuss the direction for FSH under their leadership

Patient Access: How Do We Measure It?

The aim of this article is to introduce key definitions to patient access and a measurement approach, translated for a clinic-based research study or program evaluation. The authors hope this piece will provide those seeking to improve access with some basic starting points and replace rhetoric with rigor in evaluation. Issues discussed include defining access for measurement, measuring access, starting with the end point in mind, and using a logic model

A Recipe for Assessing Fidelity in Family and Health Systems

Following recipes is an analogy for maintaining intervention integrity, or, fidelity. Fidelity is the extent to which an intervention is implemented as intended. This editorial presents a recipe for assessing fidelity in family and health systems. The author discusses the challenges posed by the complex recipes of families and health systems interventions, in both research and clinical practice. The author concludes that increasing the measurement and reporting of fidelity is paramount in the exploding literature around family and health systems research. Researchers and practice improvement champions must find ways to assess fidelity or its proximal indicators and work to innovate new, more efficient methods that allow for ubiquitous fidelity assessment and monitoring systems, ensuring the best care for the families and system stakeholders they serve

Lessons From the Team Care Playbook: Recommendations for COVID-19 Vaccination Dissemination and Uptake.

For too many of us, the implications of a worldwide pandemic unfolded in graduated stages of understanding that seemed too sluggish for the opponent we faced. For too many of us, even those of us in health care, the unfolding was terrifying; we felt blindsided and unprepared. If coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) were a bully picking a fight, they got the first punch in before we even raised a fist. Now, many rounds in, health care teams will have an opportunity to deploy a new weapon against COVID-19. Vaccines are coming. We do not know when, who will pay for them, or the logistical aspects (e.g., storage and administration). We do not even know how effective they will be. Moreover, we must plan for mass vaccination in a chaotic and politically charged context that bears little resemblance to the ones with which we have experience. Nevertheless, in this fight, vaccines could be our winning blow. We are getting better at working with unknowns and in disrupted environments during COVID-19. We have some time to prepare, and we have some extant knowledge and experience in vaccine distribution and uptake. Health care teams can use these to best their adversary, and we can and should begin now. The aim of this article is to discuss how to mobilize interprofessional teams within systems of care to engage best practices in vaccine dissemination and uptake in the unique COVID-19 context. We begin by discussing challenges to dissemination and uptake and then provide solutions using our experiences in the primary care system

A Walk on the Translational Science Bridge With Leaders in Integrated Care: Where Do We Need to Build?

Entrepreneurs in integrated care face some of the same challenges in empirically demonstrating impact, regardless of the model of care they espouse. In this editorial, 2 leading model developers reflect on the state of the science in primary care integration, including research gaps and promising research underway. We asked these leaders to discuss conceptual areas of shared concern, and we present those with reference to the metaphor of the translational research bridge. Their insights resonate with one another and suggest a role for collaboration to advance empirical support for the implementation of integrated care