INtegrated System for Prevention Implementation and Real-time Evaluation (INSPIRE) Abstract In a collaborative project between the Prevention Research Center at Penn State University and Pennsylvania state agencies, the INtegrated System for Prevention Implementation and Real- time Evaluation (INSPIRE), will be pilot tested with two school-based EBP programs2LifeSkills Training (LST) and Promoting Alternative THinking Strategies (PATHS). INSPIRE is a Web-based platform designed to collect, organize, analyze, and report information on implementation quality and impact of EBPs. The project addresses some of the most salient barriers to moving from lists of evidence-based programs to achieving broad public health impact, by providing key stakeholders with the right data, in the right form, at the right time, and with the right support. A growing number of empirically supported (3evidence-based4) prevention programs have been identified, but these EBP programs have not yet fully achieved broad public health impact due to critical barriers associated with: 1) dissemination and adoption, 2) adequate implementation quality and fidelity, 3) local practitioner capacity to assess impact and locally sustain programs, and 4) effective and efficient models for the provision of coordinated technical assistance and training. INSPIRE builds system capacity to continuously monitor and improve the quality, effectiveness, efficiency, and utility of EBPs as they go to scale, and to simultaneously support targeted technical assistance and create capacity to conduct large-scale Type II translational research. Although data on implementation and outcomes are often mandated by services'funding sources, conventional methods for collecting these data are ineffective, untimely, bureaucratic, and impractical. As a result the data are rarely used by policy makers or local practitioners to improve program quality or efficiency. A comprehensive data integration platform, developed with the needs of all stakeholders in mind and supported within a stable technical assistance organization, would promote and facilitate continuous quality improvement among practitioners as well as data-driven planning and resource allocation among policy makers and technical assistance providers. Such an innovation has significant potential for improving EBP implementation and the capacity to measure and communicate outcomes, which may in turn lead to greater EBP adoption and sustainability.
The INSPIRE project seeks to develop new data integration and management technology to address some of the most significant barriers currently preventing evidence-based programs from achieving their potential impact on public health. INSPIRE represents a universal, Web-based system to enable policy makers, practitioners and technical assistance providers to capture, access, and utilize implementation quality and program impact data in real time. Doing so will enable practitioners to institutionalize a process of continuous quality improvement to increase implementation quality;technical assistance providers to more efficient identify needs and provide targeted TA;and policy makers to more effectively and efficiently allocate prevention resources and document prevention impact-all of which will improve program impact and sustainability.
