Implementing research results in clinical practice
Scientific and medical research aim to advance our understanding of how our body functions in health and disease, and to develop novel treatments. The implementation of research evidence in practice is suboptimal for many disease conditions, urgently requiring a more prompt transfer of research findings into clinical care. The key goal of the EU-funded EIS initiative was to develop a European methodology for assessing the extent to which research evidence gets translated into clinical practice. The so-called European Implementation Score (EIS) was envisaged as a measure of research knowledge implementation at different levels of the health care system and in different health care settings.Given the detrimental long-term consequences of cardiovascular diseases for the individual and society, the overall focus of the project was on stroke and implementation of the effective new treatments available. For this purpose, EIS project partners utilised data from 14 stroke registers and 2 coronary heart disease registers. Application of a mathematical model to evaluate the impact of best practice on several European populations demonstrated reductions in mortality and cost. However, results from different health care systems across Europe indicated variable quality of stroke care, strongly arguing in favour of an EIS-based system. To refine the components of the EIS scoring system, patients and health care professionals were involved in proposing recommendations. Current national methods for implementing and monitoring effective stroke care were reviewed, alongside drivers of effective research implementation. The consortium also identified performance measures and quality indicators for monitoring the effectiveness of stroke care, including diagnosis standards, prevention of complications and functional restoration. The transferability of the EIS scoring system was tested in a comparative effectiveness study of acute myocardial infarction in Sweden and the United Kingdom. Results revealed clinically important differences in the uptake of effective treatments and outcomes between the two countries. With the incidence of stroke predicted to rise dramatically in the next 20 years, the EIS collaborative project aimed to improve the health of EU citizens. Implementation of effective interventions such as stroke unit care and thrombolysis into health care systems in Europe is expected to provide quality care across the continent and reduce the burden of the disease.
Keywords
Research evidence, treatment, scoring system, health care, clinical practice
