Implementation science: Helping healthcare systems improve

Using current evidence in practice is critical for phy-sician assistants (PAs). During training and after, PAs focus on learning the process and practice of evidence-based medicine. But despite the focus on evidence-based medicine, fewer than 20% of original research findings are translated into practice to benefit patients.1Research findings that do get adopted take about 17 years to become common clinical practice. Implementation science is the research field that focuses on shortening the time between evidence generation and service delivery; knowledge of implementation science is therefore essential for those interested in improving healthcare delivery