A PROCESS EVALUATION OF THE NATIONAL-CANCER-INSTITUTE DATA-BASED INTERVENTION RESEARCH-PROGRAM - A STUDY OF ORGANIZATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING

This paper reports on a qualitative process evaluation of the Data-bas ed Intervention Research (DBIR) pogram, that was funded by the Nationa l Cancer Institute (NCI) and operated in 21 states and the District of Columbia, The goal of DBIR was to build a foundation within state hea lth agencies to ensure the translation of cancer control science into practice. NCI's objective reflected the readiness of cancer control re search for public health application, the paucity of cancer control ac tivity within public health settings and the recognition that state he alth agencies could play a critical role in the effective transfer of research results into public health practice. The qualitative process evaluation reported in this paper is based on one case study of four D BIR programs, The present study indicates that the four state health a gencies executed the DBIR program,vith fidelity, Also, the four states offered a balanced assessment of NCI's role in enabling the state age ncy operation of DBIR, providing numerous citations illustrating how N CI successfully facilitated organizational capacity as compared to few er mentions of ways NCI was less than successful, Thus, in funding the DBIR model, NCI was successful in raising state health agency capacit y to implement cancer prevention and control programming, Implications for capacity building in state health departments are discussed.