title: Facilitating the implementation of empirically valid interventions in psychosocial oncology and supportive care.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Over the past two decades, the fields of psychosocial oncology and supportive care have seen clinically effective tools as underutilized despite proven benefits to cancer patients and their families. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the reasons for the failure of psychosocial and supportive care interventions in oncology to realize broad clinical implementation and to demonstrate how a knowledge management framework offers several advantages for increasing the probability of successful implementation.
  
  
  METHODS
  This paper is based on a systematic review of the literature pertaining to efforts to implement psychosocial oncology and supportive care interventions.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The struggle to develop, implement, and evaluate promising psychosocial oncology and supportive care innovations has moved academic thought toward the development of models and theories concerning the best ways to move new knowledge into clinical practice. There are critical and common barriers to the successful transfer and implementation of promising interventions, and implementation efforts may be maximized by using knowledge management frameworks to systematically identify and address these barriers.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The successful implementation of empirically promising interventions requires research networks and practice groups to work together in a concerted, theory-guided effort to identify and address the contextual factors most relevant to any particular intervention. The growing support of knowledge implementation activities by research funders, policy-makers, opinion leaders, and advocates of psychosocial and supportive care interventions is a positive move in this direction.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Nursing, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, Canada. thack@sbrc.ca
authors.forename: Thomas F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Hack
authors.forename: Linda
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Carlson
authors.forename: Lorna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Butler
authors.forename: Lesley F
authors.initials: LF
authors.lastname: Degner
authors.forename: Fabijana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Jakulj
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Pickles
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dean Ruether
authors.forename: Lorna
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Weir
mesh_terms: D016208:Databases, Factual; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008495:Medical Oncology / Q000379:methods; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods*; D010818:Practice Patterns, Physicians'; D012944:Social Support; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical