THE DISSEMINATION OF CHRONIC DISEASE PREVENTION PROGRAMS - LINKING SCIENCE AND PRACTICE

A strong partnership between researchers and providers is crucial to a dvance the science of dissemination and to support dissemination of ef fective chronic disease prevention programs. We reflect on our experie nce in three recent studies, (a) COMMIT, (b) a National Survey of Scho ol Smoking Prevention Programs, and (c) an ongoing study of Training o f Providers of Smoking Prevention Programs, to identify specific ways in which research and provider communities might collaborate. We propo se that a national working group of researchers and providers be estab lished to support (a) dissemination of programs by creating and contin uously updating an inventory of ''tested'' methods and protocols for u se in key community intervention channels (health care offices, worksi tes, etc.) and (b) dissemination research by establishing a shared set of research priorities and mechanisms to stimulate researcher-provide r partnerships during the research process.