Development of an evidence-based knowledge translation intervention to promote behavioral change in cerebral palsy diagnosis

This article describes the development of an intervention designed to change community pediatricians' practice of diagnosing cerebral palsy (CP) for low-risk term-born infants and children in British Columbia (BC), Canada. A multidisciplinary team co-designed a knowledge translation (KT) intervention to facilitate detection and diagnosis of CP by pediatricians using the Theoretical Domains Framework, the Behavior Change Wheel, and AIMD Framework. A list of desired change objectives was determined based on current CP diagnostic guidelines. Pre-identified barriers and facilitators were analyzed and subsequently mapped to evidence-based change strategies. Strategies selected for implementation were then expanded to specify the intervention's aims, ingredients, mechanisms, and delivery. The resulting theory-informed KT intervention was comprised of accredited continuing medical education (CME) workshops targeting community pediatricians to adopt six change objectives to reach the goal of earlier CP diagnosis and improved health outcomes for children with CP in BC. Through an iterative process, the intervention was tailored to maximize adoption of targeted objectives by addressing pediatricians' pre-identified barriers while accounting for local health systems context. Evaluation of participants' intentions to change, adoption of change objectives, and acceptability of intervention delivery will be reported in a subsequent publication. This novel KT intervention involves community-based pediatricians as target participants and enhances traditional CME offerings by incorporating implementation science theoretical frameworks to change practice behaviors.