Your new experience awaits. Try the new design now and help us make it even better

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Health Serv.

Sec. Implementation Science

Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frhs.2025.1613925

Documenting adaptations across the Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening and follow-up through Implementation Science Research Programs: Methods and adaptation examples

Provisionally accepted
Borsika  Adrienn RabinBorsika Adrienn Rabin1,2*Erin  S KenzieErin S Kenzie3,4Jill  M OliveriJill M Oliveri5Aaron  J Kruse-DiehrAaron J Kruse-Diehr6Sonja  HooverSonja Hoover7Usha  MenonUsha Menon8Mark  P DoescherMark P Doescher9Prajakta  AdsulPrajakta Adsul10,11Shiraz  I MishraShiraz I Mishra12Kevin  EnglishKevin English13Jesse  NodoraJesse Nodora14Helen  LamHelen Lam15Karen  KimKaren Kim15Jennifer  CouryJennifer Coury3Melinda  DavisMelinda Davis16,3,4Teri  MaloTeri Malo17Sarah  KobrinSarah Kobrin18Sujha  SubramanianSujha Subramanian7Renée  M FerrariRenée M Ferrari17
  • 1Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States
  • 2UC San Diego ACTRI Dissemination and Implementation Science Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, La Jolla, California, United States
  • 3Oregon Rural Practice-based Research Network, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States
  • 4School of Public Health, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States
  • 5Comprehensive Cancer Center, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, United States
  • 6Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Kentucky Medical Center, Lexington, Kentucky, United States
  • 7Implenomics, Dover, DE, United States
  • 8The University of South Florida and Tampa General Hospital Cancer Institute, Tampa, FL, United States
  • 9Department of Family and Preventive Medicine and Stephenson Cancer Center, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, United States
  • 10Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
  • 11Department of Internal Medicine, School of Medicine, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, United States
  • 12University of New Mexico Comprehensive Cancer Center and Department of Pediatrics, University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center, Albuquerque, NM, United States
  • 13Albuquerque Area Southwest Tribal Epidemiology Center, Albuquerque Area Indian Health Board, Inc., Albuquerque, NM, United States
  • 14UC San Diego Health Moores Cancer Center, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, United States
  • 15Center for Asian Health Equity, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, United States
  • 16Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University, Portland, Oregon, United States
  • 17Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States
  • 18Healthcare Delivery Research, National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, MD, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

Introduction: Adaptations are common, expected, and often imperative for successful uptake and sustained implementation of clinical or public health programs in real-world practice settings. Understanding which adaptations have been made to evidence-based interventions and subsequent implementation strategies throughout the life cycle of a project can contextualize findings and support future scale-up of the program. Systematic documentation of adaptations is rarely conducted or reported, and little guidance exists on approaches to documenting adaptations. Methods: Accelerating Colorectal Cancer Screening and follow-up through Implementation Science (ACCSIS) is a National Cancer Institute-funded Beau Biden Cancer MoonshotSM Initiative developed to improve colorectal cancer screening, follow-up, and referral for care among underserved groups, including diverse racial and ethnic populations and people living in rural areas. Using an iterative data gathering approach—a survey, data abstraction, and data validation—we compiled information about adaptation documentation and analytic methods and intervention and implementation strategy adaptations from the eight funded ACCSIS research programs. An analytic team representing multiple ACCSIS programs reviewed, coded, and summarized the data using a rapid qualitative analytic approach. Results: ACCSIS programs varied substantially in how they defined and documented adaptations. Nine approaches were used to document adaptations; the most common were periodic reflections and review of meeting minutes and agendas. Nine analytic methods were reported to guide adaptation analysis; the most frequently mentioned were rapid qualitative methods, descriptive statistics, and mixed-methods analysis. A total of 96 adaptations were reported by the eight research programs, most of which occurred during the pre-implementation stage (68%) or were made to the program format (71%). Only 36% of the adaptations were due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Conclusions: Our multi-method, systematic approach allowed us to explore how sites document and analyze adaptations across eight ACCSIS Moonshot programs. Using a systematic approach allowed for comparisons of intervention and strategy adaptations within and across research programs and can inform the science of adaptations, while building a knowledge base of why such adaptations are needed and how they can inform implementation efforts across time. Methods described herein provide a template for similar assessment activities in other large, multi-site research initiatives.

Keywords: adaptation, implementation science, Implementation strategies, mixed methods, Colorectal Cancer Screening, data harmonization

Received: 18 Apr 2025; Accepted: 05 Sep 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Rabin, Kenzie, Oliveri, Kruse-Diehr, Hoover, Menon, Doescher, Adsul, Mishra, English, Nodora, Lam, Kim, Coury, Davis, Malo, Kobrin, Subramanian and Ferrari. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Borsika Adrienn Rabin, Herbert Wertheim School of Public Health and Human Longevity Science, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, 92093, California, United States

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.