ReseaRch methodologIes foR achIevIng scIentIfIc equIty and health equIty

Implementation research “is the scientific study of the use of strategies to adopt and integrate evidencebased health interventions into clinical and community settings in order to improve patient outcomes and benefit population health.”1 More broadly, implementation science focuses on how to apply research advances in real-world service systems.2 Too often, however, evidence-based interventions (EBIs) are applied inequitably across various settings and populations, skewing application of best available practices toward communities and organizations with high capacity and resources. When this occurs, it can further exacerbate health disparities based on race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and other factors.3 This scientific inequity4 begins with the underrepresentation of historically disadvantaged populations in clinical/preventive research5 and persists into wide-scale implementation of EBIs across settings and systems, where innovations can be slow in reaching or responding to the needs of populations who expeImplementatIon ReseaRch methodologIes foR achIevIng scIentIfIc equIty and health equIty