A new article from the NOHARM team describes the strategies the team identified for supporting posttrial sustainment of the study intervention. Their experience highlights the importance of planning for sustainment and offers lessons for designers of future pragmatic clinical trials.
The article was published online in Learning Health Systems.
NOHARM, an NIH Collaboratory Trial led by Andrea Cheville and Jon Tilburt of Mayo Clinic, is testing an electronic health record–embedded educational bundle that encourages incorporation of nonpharmacologic pain care into perioperative pain management.
The study team interviewed members of the trial’s sustainment committee and reviewed the committee’s meeting minutes to identify strategies and challenges. The strategies and challenges were grouped into 6 themes:
- automation of low-touch intervention components
- reliance on internal institutional champions
- intentional handoff communication
- institutional attention
- relaxed implementation fidelity
- continuous evaluation
The study team highlighted the importance of planning ahead for sustainment, thinking beyond trial settings, and using theoretically grounded approaches.
NOHARM is supported within the NIH Pragmatic Trials Collaboratory by a grant award administered by the National Institute on Aging through the NIH HEAL Initiative. Learn more about NOHARM.
