title: Intervention Component Analysis (ICA): a pragmatic approach for identifying the critical features of complex interventions.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In order to enable replication of effective complex interventions, systematic reviews need to provide evidence about their critical features and clear procedural details for their implementation. Currently, few systematic reviews provide sufficient guidance of this sort.
  
  
  METHODS
  Through a worked example, this paper reports on a methodological approach, Intervention Component Analysis (ICA), specifically developed to bridge the gap between evidence of effectiveness and practical implementation of interventions. By (a) using an inductive approach to explore the nature of intervention features and (b) making use of trialists' informally reported experience-based evidence, the approach is designed to overcome the deficiencies of poor reporting which often hinders knowledge translation work whilst also avoiding the need to invest significant amounts of time and resources in following up details with authors.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A key strength of the approach is its ability to reveal hidden or overlooked intervention features and barriers and facilitators only identified in practical application of interventions. It is thus especially useful where hypothesised mechanisms in an existing programme theory have failed. A further benefit of the approach is its ability to identify potentially new configurations of components that have not yet been evaluated.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  ICA is a formal and rigorous yet relatively streamlined approach to identify key intervention content and implementation processes. ICA addresses a critical need for knowledge translation around complex interventions to support policy decisions and evidence implementation.
authors.affiliation: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London (UCL), 18 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0NS, UK. k.sutcliffe@ioe.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Katy
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Sutcliffe
authors.affiliation: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London (UCL), 18 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0NS, UK. j.thomas@ioe.ac.uk.
authors.forename: James
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.affiliation: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London (UCL), 18 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0NS, UK. g.stokes@ioe.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Stokes
authors.affiliation: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London (UCL), 18 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0NS, UK. k.hinds@ioe.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hinds
authors.affiliation: EPPI-Centre, Social Science Research Unit, Institute of Education, University College London (UCL), 18 Woburn Square, London, WC1H 0NS, UK. m.bangpan@ioe.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Mukdarut
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bangpan
mesh_terms: D055695:Electronic Prescribing; D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008508:Medication Errors / Q000517:prevention & control*; D010372:Pediatrics; D016730:Program Development; D012107:Research Design / Q000592:standards; D012196:Review Literature as Topic; D057170:Translational Research, Biomedical