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Moderator
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So let’s start with the very familiar CDC evaluation framework. When we consider the
process of evaluation, considering the need for dissemination becomes critical in step
6, which is where we seek to ensure use and share lessons learned.
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First things first…what is a dissemination plan
A dissemination plan is a plan for disseminating research findings or products to those
who will use the information in practice and is something that you should be thinking
about early on. It is what will help you get the message out whether it is results of
research or a successful intervention.
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There are a few things to consider:
Materials are the items you want to be disseminated. This could be a
report or materials created to support the report. In some instances you
may need to create more materials for dissemination. For example, a
Dear Colleague Letter to send to partners, new landing page for multiple
products, or social media messages.
Your audience is who you see as wanting/needing to receive the
information.
It’s important to understand and narrow down the audience.
The more targeted your audience the better you are able to craft
messages that mean something to them.
Also important to think about the places, or channels, where
your audience gets there information and disseminate
there. Meet them where they are.
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Dissemination and Communication :
Next is who you see as being helpful in spreading the message about your
materials. These are your dissemination partners.
They can be individuals, organizations or networks. You need to consider how
to craft the messages you will be disseminating to based on all of the
above. This may mean separate plans for different audiences.
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Here is a sample plan where you can see we have laid out some of these elements.
Alberta will go into more detail later in the presenation.
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Lastly, evaluation should always be a consideration when dissemination planning.
Basically--How many people did it reach and did it reach the audiences you intended.
Some tools for doing this is include:
• Using web analytics: this can be looking at number of product downloads like
you see here—better if you can see the dates downloaded to compare to
when you sent dissemination messages.
• Talk to partners about who they disseminated too and how many
• If using social media look at metrics like shares, likes and retweets but also
WHO is retweeting you. Can help you see if you are reaching your intended
audience.
• Now I am going to turn it back over to Alberta to go over a specific CDC
dissemination example.
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I admit, previously it was common practice for us to produce a lengthy final evaluation
report that you’d think twice about reading. And it definitely wasn’t in an easily
digestible format for practitioners or decision makers. We wanted to do better and
make our work more accessible and user-oriented.
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Today, I’d like to use an CDC example of how we started to shift our thinking in terms
of dissemination. We conducted a 30-month rigorous evaluation of the St. Johnsbury,
VT Community Health Team Model, which addressed multiple areas that were of neatly
aligned to a few of our Center’s priorities, such as CHWs, CCLs, social determinants of
health, quality of life, and health disparities. To add there were many aspects of this
program that challenged us to consider the various audiences, or users of information
from the evaluation findings, and what information that they’d be most interested in
learning about. This helped to facilitate our efforts to ensure effective dissemination.
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Earlier in the presentation, Lauren provided a sample template of one way you might
consider organizing your dissemination plan. On this slide, you’ll find a portion of our
plan and we applied this plan to the CHW evaluation. We wanted to share these
findings broadly with public health practitioners. Multiple opportunities motivated us
to create this dissemination plan to manage the different products. Two examples of
how we categorized our work was through presentations and written products. You
might even consider adding a category for social media, if that is part of your
dissemination plan.
I’d like to call your attention primarily to the column headings, which helped us to be
strategic in our dissemination efforts. For example, we had to consider which audience
needed what type of information and determine the best format for sharing that
information.
Having a plan will also serve as a useful tool for tracking and modifying future
dissemination efforts.
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So how did our shift in re-thinking our dissemination efforts translate? Well, we went
from our traditional form of reporting (see image on left side of slide) to now re-
inventing our work in a manner that was reader-friendly and much more engaging (see
images on right side). For example, we prepared a “field note” which was a short fact
sheet that described the CHW program that we were evaluating. This gave us an
opportunity to not only focus on the evaluation findings, but to also highlight the
program that we were evaluating. And we can’t say that we got away from lengthy
documents entirely, because we also created an implementation guide. However, when
we designed this guide, we wanted it to serve as a tool that public health practitioners
could use and adapt to their setting.
I also want to take a moment to note that these products were not created in the
absence of a full-length comprehensive report, but rather inspired by such a report. It
was especially beneficial to be able to link these products back to the lengthier report,
which contains the detail that in many cases people appreciate or even expect from a
rigorous evaluation.
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We successfully carried out all activities in our dissemination plan. We hear examples
of how the evaluation findings are being used and their uptake. These findings
informed the development of an FOA and supplementary guidance on CHWs, and are a
TA resource for grantees.
We also found that having these shorter reports or evaluation products allowed for
information to be shared more quickly rather than having to be available at the end of
the evaluation process.
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We have also become increasingly sensitive to the idea that dissemination continues
well beyond the development of dissemination products. We are continually exploring
opportunities to meet needs for information using what we’ve gathered from the
evaluation and reminder internal and external partners of the resources that exist, so
that they remain accessible and relevant.
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As our evaluation team has transitioned from gathering evidence to translating the
evidence, there’s also been a responsibility to ensure that the information is accessible
and communicated in a manner that can be applied by the user. This brings us back to
the CDC Evaluation Framework where we not only share lessons, but seek to ensure its
use.
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Through this evaluation we identified ways to enhance our dissemination efforts,
ensure use, and ultimately make a better contribution to public health practice. As
fundamental as it sounds, it’s imperative that you develop a plan that will help chart
the course of your efforts, allow you to strategically consider your audience and
identify key partners. Lastly it’s important to assess your efforts and modify or recycle
the information to ensure that you’ve accomplished effective dissemination.
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This short list provides you with resources that can be referenced after this
presentation, as this was by no means a “how-to” presentation, but more so
an “overview” presentation.
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