Editorial
An implementation research agenda
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* Corresponding author: Martin P Eccles martin.eccles@ncl.ac.uk
1 Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
2 Division of Health and Social Care Research, Kings College, London, UK
3 Department of Health Sciences, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
4 National Patient Safety Agency, London, UK
5 School of Management, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK
6 National Institute for Health Research Service Delivery and Organisation Programme, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK
7 Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Department of Primary Health Care, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
8 Institute of Work Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
9 General Practice and Primary Care Research Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
10 National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, London, UK
11 NIHR PenCLAHRC, Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, Universities of Exeter and Plymouth, UK
12 Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, London, UK
13 Centre for Outcomes Research and Effectiveness, Department of Psychology, University College London, London, UK
14 Service Transformation, NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement, Coventry House, University of Warwick Campus, Coventry, UK
15 School of Healthcare Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, UK
16 National Primary Care Research and Development Centre, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Implementation Science 2009, 4:18 doi:10.1186/1748-5908-4-18
Published: 7 April 2009Abstract
In October 2006, the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of England asked Professor Sir John Tooke to chair a High Level Group on Clinical Effectiveness in response to the chapter 'Waste not, want not' in the CMOs 2005 annual report 'On the State of the Public Health'. The high level group made recommendations to the CMO to address possible ways forward to improve clinical effectiveness in the UK National Health Service (NHS) and promote clinical engagement to deliver this. The report contained a short section on research needs that emerged from the process of writing the report, but in order to more fully identify the relevant research agenda Professor Sir John Tooke asked Professor Martin Eccles to convene an expert group – the Clinical Effectiveness Research Agenda Group (CERAG) – to define the research agenda. The CERAG's terms of reference were 'to further elaborate the research agenda in relation to pursuing clinically effective practice within the (UK) National Health Service'. This editorial presents the summary of the CERAG report and recommendations.