Knowledge to Action?

Sue Dopson is Rhodes Reader in Organizational Behaviour, Saïd Business School, and Fellow of Templeton College, University of Oxford. A member of the Oxford Health Care Management Institute, she is involved in the development of courses for the NHS and a number of research projects, including the evaluation of projects aimed at improving clinical effectiveness, exploring issues of getting the results of medical research evidence into clinical practice, and more general research in the area of NHS management.She has published several books and articles on changes in the management of the NHS, the changing nature of middle management, management careers, and developments in public sector management. Louise Fitzgerald is Professor of Organizational Development in the Department of Human Resource Management at De Montfort University. She completed her PhD whilst a lecturer at Salford University, was a Senior Lecturer at Warwick University, and a Professor and Director of Research at St. Bartholomew's School of Nursing and Midwifery, City University. Her research interests centre on the management of change in professional organizations, particularly health care, and she has published widely in journals such as Human Relations, Personnel Review, and the Journal of Health Services Research and Policy, as well as having co-authored several books including The New Public Management in Action (OUP, 1996).

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Studying Complex Organizations in Health Care ; 3. Evidence-Based Health Care and the Implementation Gap ; 4. Research Design: 'Upscaling' Qualitative Research ; 5. The Active Role of Context ; 6. Professional Boundaries and the Diffusion of Innovation ; 7. Knowledge, Credible Evidence, and Utilization ; 8. Knolwedge in Action ; 9. Conclusion: From Evidence to Actionable Knowledge?

It represents a breath of fresh air and contains lessons for those both producing and implementing evidence in EBM (Evidence Based Medicine). Although written as an academic book, it's readibility and numerous case studies allow it to drift close to being a 'how to' manual for implementing EBM. British Medicine Journal (BJM) Based on more than 50 studies of attempts to implement evidence based health care in different NHS settings, it provides a comprehensive and thoughtful review... British Medical Journal ...this book is an important advance... Administrative Science Quarterly