Dr Sheena McHugh named as a Health Research Board Research Leader

31 Mar 2020

Dr Sheena McHugh has been awarded funding for a 5-year programme of research under the HRB Research Leader scheme.

Dr McHugh is one of five new research leaders funded to conduct research programmes that will deliver evidence to directly inform changes in health policy and practice.

Her project ‘Comparing and Understanding Tailoring Methods for Implementation Strategies’ (CUSTOMISE), aims to answer one of the most pressing and difficult questions facing health systems around the world, that is, how do we actually implement effective changes in everyday healthcare in a way that is acceptable and practical for health professionals and service users?

The Implementation Gap

We know from research that there are many things that health systems can do to improve a person’s health, their quality of life and their experience of services. However, health professionals face many barriers when trying to deliver care and so a gap persists between what should happen and what actually happens. This is known as the ‘implementation gap’.

Implementation strategies are the methods and techniques we use to help us ensure what should happen does happen. Over the 5-year project, the research team will use a range of methods to:

1. identify and prioritise barriers to implementation within the Irish health service,
2. select appropriate strategies, and then,
3. test and evaluate those strategies.

They will focus first on areas where there are known implementation gaps, for example, like services for people with diabetes.

Establish a National Hub

Part of the programme will be to train researchers and practitioners involved in implementation to build expertise in Ireland and establish a network of people interested in this topic. The plan is to establish a national hub to connect researchers with health professionals, managers, and policy makers at local, regional, national levels of the Health Service Executive, who will use our results to implement changes in their own settings.

Working Together

Sheena has developed strong partnerships with different parts of the health sector to conduct her research programme that will deliver evidence to inform changes in health policy and practice. She will work closely with stakeholders from the National Clinical Programme for Diabetes and HSE Services for Older People, as well as the Sláintecare Programme Implementation Office and HSE Office for Research and Development. She will also collaborate with international experts in implementation science from the US and Canada.

This prestigious award, with a value of over €1M Euro, will support a team of researchers over five years, including PhD students, research assistants, and postdoctoral researchers.

To find out more, click here.

For more on this story contact:

Dr Sheena McHugh S.McHugh@ucc.ie