Turning Knowledge into Action

RHI is committed to improving the development, validation, dissemination and adoption of best practices in spinal cord injury (SCI) care. Through our Best Practices Implementation (BPI) program, RHI is working to affect the changes in clinical practices necessary to achieve the best possible health outcomes for Canadians with SCI at every stage of their journey, from acute care to community integration.

Our Work at RHI

We promote best practices in the field through four main activities:

1. Translating knowledge gained from work in translational research and customized solutions into best practice descriptions.
2. Seeking out and promoting solutions that are already best practices but haven’t yet been widely adopted.
3. Transferring knowledge of best practices among SCI practitioners, institutions and organizations.
4. Working closely with the SCI community—across the continuum of treatment/care/support—to achieve the above.

Best Practices Implementation Process

Our BPI process has several stages, including the development of best practice guidelines; validation through one or more expert-based processes; dissemination and encouragement of adoption; and evaluation of processes and ultimate outcomes.

Guideline Development/Revision

A key factor impacting the success of all RHI activities is the link between BPI and the Translational Research Program devoted to developing best practice guidelines (BPGS). Our focus going forward will be on secondary complications, particularly bladder management problems, chronic pain and pressure ulcer prevention.

Validation

Validation here means to support or corroborate the legitimacy of a practice guideline on a sound or authoritative basis. This can involve review of a defined guideline and its context by an expert panel, or a more elaborate consensus-building process might be employed, depending on the level of complexity and scientific debate.

Dissemination

A variety of information sharing methods are being developed—published materials, “detailing” visits to care centres by trained experts, production of short videos, teleconference support and more—to disseminate information to educators, health care providers, consumers, and those providing oversight to SCI-specific acute care and rehabilitation centres across the country.

Adoption and Evaluation

In order to promote adoption, participating centres will have the opportunity in the future to be accredited by a regulatory body when they meet the standards defined by a BPG, with awards of distinction presented to health care teams modeling comprehensive utilization of BPGS. In addition, international recognition will be given to rehabilitation and medical professionals who begin to identify and spread best practices early on.

It is also vital to track outcomes in order to guide new translation and BPG revision work, and to offer further encouragement of BPI. As one of its established principles, the BPI program will incorporate both process and clinical outcomes evaluation into all implementation activities.