The average time from when a healthcare innovation is discovered until it is implemented in real-world practice is seventeen years.

Encouraging the adoption of innovative solutions for improving care delivery requires more than just sharing the results of a clinical study or a quality improvement initiative. Hospitals, emergency rooms, clinics, and other care settings are complex systems of unique individuals all processing information in real time to make decisions about patient care.

Agile Diffusion describes a framework not for simply spreading information, but for influencing human behavior so that sustainable change can occur.

Using real-life examples and leveraging theories from multiple disciplines, the authors:

• describe the field of Agile Science and how it differs from traditional change models;
• introduce updated theories of information diffusion and how the unique makeup of care delivery systems inform the rate of diffusion;
• differentiate between diffusing information and diffusing behavior when attempting to encourage the adoption of healthcare innovations;
• provide a step-by-step framework for how to diffuse behavior changes to reduce the time from "discovery-to-delivery" of innovative solutions.

The US healthcare system is in dire need of updated tools and techniques to accelerate the adoption of healthcare innovations. Become a change agent by learning how to utilize Agile Diffusion to improve the lives and outcomes of patients across the country.

Malaz Boustani, MD, MPH is an agile physician scientist who has led numerous studies funded by the federal government totaling more than $100 million, published more than 200 peer-reviewed articles, cofounded five tech companies, and developed the Indiana University Graduate Certificate in Innovation and Implementation Science. The one-year certificate is designed to mentor a network of Agile Change Agents who use agile processes to transform their organizations into agile organizations. The agile organization solves problems by generating innovative, scalable, sustainable solutions that are localized, implemented, tested, and disseminated in an agile way, which permits quick learning from failures and successes.