BISI’s inaugural NUSMed Undergraduate Workshop was piloted in a fully online format on 12 May 2020 with a pioneering group of 24 medical students over a period of 3 days. Led by A/Profs Robyn Mildon and Joanne Yoong, Drs Cheryl Seah and Gayathri Kembhavi-Tam, the workshop covered behavioural and implementation science from principles to practice and evaluation, including case studies and lively discussions.

As we transition to a world in which chronic conditions prevail over acute diseases, many preventable years of healthy life are now lost as a result of behavioural factors related to lifestyle, such as smoking, an unhealthy diet, lack of exercise, as well as inappropriate care seeking and care delivery. The field of behavioural insights refers to an inductive approach that combines knowledge from psychology, cognitive science, and social science with empirically-tested results to understand such factors, and to design environments that promote more optimal decision making.

While necessary, the best choice architecture is not sufficient to ensure that evidence-based interventions can easily be incorporated into routine practice, leading to desirable outcomes. When evidence-based interventions developed within a controlled environment are implemented in real-world settings, several factors impede their uptake. These factors may include the lack of knowledge, skills and resources, competing demands on frontline providers, misalignment of research evidence with operational priorities and systemic constraints. Implementation science provides critical strategies, described as a set of planned and intentional activities, to promote the uptake of such interventions into routine practice.

This pathway aims to prepare our students with the skills and knowledge in both behavioural and implementation science, working hand in hand to ensure that knowledge of these interventions is disseminated effectively, implemented as intended and sustained as routine practice to improve the quality and delivery of healthcare services.

Objectives

• Understand the principles of behavioural nudges and implementation science
• Apply principle to real problems you face at work
• For interested teams: Develop a longitudinal Behavioural and Implementation Science project