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In collaboration with leading experts in knowledge translation and transfer, technology, and dietetic practice, DC has developed and implemented an innovative online decision-support service for dietetic practitioners called Practice-based Evidence in Nutrition (PEN), launched in the fall 2005. The ultimate goals of the PEN service are to improve health outcomes of the public and to position dietitians as leaders in evidence-based practice.
With funding support from the Canadian Council on Learning, DC undertook a two-phase evaluation to assess the impact of the PEN service on dietetic practice and to determine what elements of PEN should be modified to enhance its usefulness as a knowledge translation and transfer tool. DC collaborated with the Department of Applied Human Nutrition, Mount Saint Vincent University, Halifax, Nova Scotia for the development of evaluation instruments and their application for data collection, analysis and synthesis.
Two research questions were addressed, namely:
1. How effective is the PEN service as a knowledge translation and transfer tool for incorporating new knowledge into dietetic practice? and
2. What are the facilitators and barriers that enable or prevent dietitians from using PEN to change the way they practice?
The PEN Evaluation was guided by an Evaluation Logic Model describing desirable short- and longer-term outcomes, corresponding indicators and potential data sources.