Where: Experts from the West Health Accelerator at Mass General Brigham shared their experience embedding implementation science (IS) in fast-moving health system change at the 2026 Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) conference in Minneapolis.
Who: Joy Lee, PhD, MPH, senior research scientist at Mass General Brigham, presented during the September 25 session, “Implementation Science in Real Time: Lessons from Rapid, Frontline-Centered Research Across Three Health System Accelerators.” Evelyn Brady, program implementation and evaluation manager at West Health, also attended the conference.
What: Lee participated is a session alongside representative from the Northwestern Medicine–West Health Accelerator and the West Health Accelerator at Duke-Margolis Institute for Health Policy, including Meredith Boyd, PhD, research assistant professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, and moderator Amy Stuck, PhD, RN, senior director of value-based care at West Health Institute.
Lee’s portion of the presentation, “The Need for Speed: Implementation Lessons for an Age-Aligned Initiative in a Large Health System,” explored how embedding implementation science in the Accelerator’s daily work helped the team at Mass General Brigham gather frontline feedback, make timely improvements, and sustain changes across nine hospitals.
Key takeaways: “We really enjoyed the conference — the discussions were frank and practical, which Evie and I both really appreciated,” says Lee. “Our session was well attended, and we got some good questions about how we do things fast and how to sustain IS involvement in the accelerator model.” Those exchanges gave the team an opportunity to discuss how research can keep pace with health system change while remaining part of the work over time.
Together, the three Accelerator teams were named as finalists for two awards:
The SIRC Mission Award, which recognizes outstanding contributions of collaborative teams whose work bridges the gap between research and practice through trusting partnerships, community responsiveness, and shared learning.
An "outstanding symposium" award for their symposium, "Implementation Science in Real Time: Lessons from Rapid, Frontline-Centered Research Across Three Health System Accelerators."