Utility of Treatment Implementation methods in clinical trial with rehabilitation teams

Abstract

Clinical trials of rehabilitation interventions pose unique challenges to researchers. Treatments can be technically complex, often requiring a multidisciplinary team of professions. This article demonstrates the application of Treatment Implementation (TI) methods in a rehabilitation team-training intervention conducted with 29 team leaders (12 medical doctors, 4 physical therapists, 3 speech-language pathologists, 2 occupational therapists, 3 kinesiotherapists, 2 registered nurses, 1 social worker, 1 program coordinator, and 1 administrator) from 15 Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals. We describe the intervention along with the influence of three TI categories (delivery, receipt, and enactment) on the design and implementation of the team-training intervention. Positive findings from the use of TI methods include (1) consistent and accurate presentation of intervention components and (2) evidence of study participants' receipt and enactment of intervention strategies.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00237757.