Penn Libraries, the Perelman School of Medicine’s Center for Global Health, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing are co-sponsoring a World Health Organization Implementation Research MOOC during August and September of this year. The IR MOOC is a 6-8 week long asynchronous course with an expected 3-4 hour weekly time commitment

Registration is available here: IRMOOC

Implementation Science/Implementation Research (IS/IR) is “the study of methods that influence the integration of evidence based interventions into practice settings.” In health care, public health, and other disciplines, finding tools and strategies to address logistical, economic, cultural, and practical difficulties to translating research-based interventions into scalable and reliable practice has become a science of its own within the past twenty years and from its roots in global health, has become increasingly influential in a wide variety of health care practice settings and disciplines.

The University of Pennsylvania is lucky to have a strong IS/IR community, which includes the Penn Implementation Science Center (PISC) at the Leonard Davis Institute, and, as the nursing liaison librarian, I’ve certainly seen for myself increasing interest in the work of this Center and others in my own community at the School of Nursing.

Some months ago, in collaboration with PISC and faculty in the School of Nursing and the Perelman School of Medicine, I began working on building collections in Implementation Science and gathering resources together to meet the needs of both newly-interested folks and long-established researchers. During the development of this resource, I became aware of the very substantial resources focused on this area that have been developed and offered by the World Health Organization and came across an online training developed by their Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR). Delivered on a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) platform, this training covers core concepts of IR, using case studies and examples from global diseases of poverty. Typically, MOOCs are openly accessible (it’s in the acronym!) but in order to provide a high-level experience, the TDR IR MOOC is offered exclusively to institutions, organizations, and groups upon application. Given the high level of potential interest in the Penn community, our existing presence in the field, the extent of our partnerships with health care and educational institutions in the Global South, and the likely overall interest in high-quality virtual educational experiences during the summer, I thought that this might be a great opportunity.

WHO/TDR were equally enthusiastic about the chance to deliver their IR MOOC to Penn and our academic partners were also excited about the opportunity, so I’m very happy to let everyone know that the Penn Libraries, the Perelman School of Medicine’s Center for Global Health, and the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing are co-sponsoring the TDR MOOC during August and September of this year. Our community and our global partners now have the opportunity to enroll in this exciting and high-quality online course. The IR MOOC is a 6-8 week long asynchronous course with an expected 3-4 hour weekly time commitment, including quizzes and assessments, with finalists. A certificate of completion is available, but whether you want to complete a formal course, or just dip into the content to learn more about an increasingly significant field of research or better understand significant issues in the delivery of global health interventions and the incredible work of WHO, please consider signing up for the course.

More information and a link to register are available here: IRMOOC

And, visit our guide to Implementation Science Resources for the Health Sciences.