Is evidence‐based implementation of evidence‐based care possible?

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Traditional approaches to disseminating research findings have failed to achieve optimal healthcare. In a systematic review of 235 studies of guideline dissemination and implementation strategies, we observed the following: there was a median 10% improvement across studies, suggesting that it is possible to change healthcare provider behaviour and improve quality of care; most dissemination and implementation strategies resulted in small to moderate improvements in care; multifaceted interventions did not appear more effective than single interventions. The interpretation of our systematic review is hindered by the lack of a robust theoretical base for understanding healthcare provider and organisational behaviour. Future research is required to develop a better theoretical base and to evaluate further guideline dissemination and implementation strategies.