Dr. Gary Oftedahl Dr. Gary Oftedahl

One of the challenges facing John A. Hartford Foundation grantees is how to best take a promising new intervention or program and transform it into practice.

On May 31, we’re offering our grantees the opportunity to be part of a small group consultancy to share their experiences and get real-time feedback from colleagues and Gary Oftedahl, MD, Chief Knowledge Officer at the Institute for Clinical Systems Improvement (ICSI), a non-profit health care improvement organization comprised of 50-plus medical groups, non-profit health plans, and others.

The Diffusion Consultancy, which takes place from 2-3:30 p.m. Eastern Time via ReadyTalk web/audio conference, is just the latest in a series of informative events and resources you can find on our Bandwidth website. For example, two recent webinars—which are now archived on Bandwith and available as online recordings—have featured Dr. Oftedahl discussing diffusion, and Hartford program officer Amy Berman (@NotesOnNursing) and Vinny Arora, MD, (@FutureDocs) sharing how they use Twitter to advance their work.

The upcoming 90-minute Diffusion Consultancy, facilitated by John Beilenson, president of Hartford grantee SCP, will gather six-to-eight Hartford grantees and Dr. Oftedahl to address the challenges you bring to the table. The session will dedicate 12-15 minutes to your particular question/issue.

Here’s how it works: You submit a three-sentence diffusion challenge to the Bandwidth team in advance of the consultancy. They will provide feedback if the challenge statement needs to be honed. Then, during the consultancy session you will have:

• 3-4 minutes to describe your challenge
• 1-2 minutes to answer clarifying questions from the group
• 5-7 minutes to listen to the group brainstorm ideas
• 1 minute to summarize the ideas you heard

This session is first-come, first-served. Given the allotted time, we are limited to no more than eight participants. Sign up today by emailing Chris Gherst at SCP: cgherst@aboutscp.com.

For more information on the consultancy model of problem-solving, see How do I conduct an effective "consultancy" group?

As mentioned, Dr. Oftedahl also recently conducted a webinar on Bandwidth called "Thinking Diffusion: Moving a Promising Idea into Practice," during which he shared what he has learned from ICSI and his experiences observing and supporting the implementation of a variety of innovative health care interventions across the country. For those who missed the webinar, you can access the recording online.

001-bandwidth-logo300Bandwidth is meant to inspire grantees to reflect a sense of enthusiasm and energy around topics that many in the general public feel are negative or uninteresting. The resources included on the site are tailored to meet the needs of social workers, nurses, and geriatricians specifically.

Bandwidth provides one-stop-shopping for current data on the state of our aging society today, good quality photographs that lend themselves to the messages of health and aging, stories that are relevant to geriatrics and aging research, and communications resources that are easy to use. It is hoped that, over time, these high quality, professionally-formatted resources will be infused into grantees’ full range of communications activities.

So if you haven’t visited Bandwidth lately, head over and sign up for the Diffusion Consultancy, listen to one of the archived webinars, or spend some time exploring the resources available to you. And check back for details on our next webinar scheduled for June 19 on ways to improve your PowerPoint presentations, as well for other upcoming webinars.