As the field of implementation science began to emerge, this article by Proctor and colleagues was an early effort to define key constructs as implementation outcomes. Although they did not formally name this work, the field often refers to this Proctor et al. articles as the Implementation Outcomes Framework (IOF). Another key contribution is the theoretical differentiation of implementation outcomes from service outcomes and client outcomes.

The original CFIR framework (1.0) did not provide details about measuring implementation outcomes, so when updating CFIR (2.0), Damschroder and colleagues have provided more details to delineate implementation outcomes from innovation outcomes, while also conceptualizing anticipated implementation outcomes from actual implementation outcomes. In contrast to Proctor et al.’s IOF, the CFIR Outcomes do not include attitudinal antecedents such as acceptability, appropriateness, or feasibility.

RE-AIM (Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, Maintenance) is a popular framework developed by Dr. Russell Glasgow and colleagues for measuring implementation outcomes. This seminal paper describes key features of this framework in a concise way. Researchers intending to use RE-AIM as an outcome framework are encouraged to examine more recent papers for resources regarding measurement.

This manuscript by Wesolowicz and colleagues aims to encourage effectiveness researchers to integrate implementation outcomes into their work, as a means of accelerating the process of developing promising interventions. This article provides definitions of key implementation outcomes and practical guidance around measurement.