A S A P

 Applying Science. 

Advancing Practice.

Understanding the Interactive Systems Framework 

for Dissemination and Implementation

State public health agencies and sexual assault coalitions 

have developed prevention plans with goals and 

objectives to prevent first time perpetration of sexual 

assault as part of the Rape Prevention Education (RPE) 

program. These plans were intended to prepare the 

way for successful and sustainable implementation of 

evidence-based prevention programs. However, very 

few of these evidence-based programs exist for the 

prevention of sexual violence. This lag in the development 

of evidence-based programs continues to challenge both 

sexual violence prevention researchers and practitioners.

The public health approach to violence prevention 

(Figure 1) uses four steps to systematically define the 

problem, identify risk and protective factors, develop 

and test prevention strategies, and finally, ensure 

widespread adoption. This model assumes that the tested 

interventions will be used in the field, but it provides very 

little information on how this should be accomplished. 

The Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) for 

Dissemination and Implementation was developed to 

address the “how to” gap that exists between scientifically 

determining what works and moving that knowledge into 

the field for the benefit of the public.

Those who work in the various fields of violence prevention are motivated to develop, evaluate, disseminate, and 

implement effective strategies for preventing violence 

with the goal of building a safer, healthier society. Ideally 

we would select programs, practices, or policies that have 

been proven to be effective—meaning there is strong, 

scientific evidence that they work. 

Applying Science.

Advancing Practice.

What is ASAP? Applying Science. Advancing 

Practice. (ASAP) is a series of informational 

briefs created by CDC’s Division of Violence 

Prevention to help apply scientific knowledge 

to the practice of primary prevention of 

violence. 

Who is it for? This series of ASAPs are written 

for state health departments and statewide 

sexual assault coalitions, the current support 

system for rape prevention education activities. 

Sharing with other violence prevention 

partners is encouraged. 

How will it help? ASAP offers specialized, topicspecific information necessary for successful, 

sustainable violence prevention efforts. This 

particular series on sexual violence prevention is 

intended to provide information and resources 

for RPE grantees who provide prevention 

support to community-based prevention 

education activities.

TM

National Center for Injury Prevention and Control

Division of Violence Prevention
Figure 2: The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implementation

Applying Science. Advancing Practice.

Funding

Macro Climate

Policy

Existing Research and Theory

Implementing Prevention—Prevention Delivery System

Supporting the Work—Prevention Support System

Distilling Information—Prevention Synthesis and Translation System

Innovation-Specific 

Capacity Use

General 

Capacity Use

General 

Capacity Building

Innovation-Specific 

Capacity Building

Synthesis Translation

Define the 

Problem

Identify Risk 

and Protective 

Factors

Develop and 

Test Prevention 

Strategies ISF

Ensure 

Widespread 

Adoption

The Interactive Systems Framework (ISF) for Dissemination and Implementation provides a framework for understanding how to address the gap between the third and fourth stages of the public 

health approach to violence prevention, often referred to as the research to practice gap. 

Figure 1: The Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention and the ISF
A S A P

The ISF was developed specifically with the fields of 

youth violence and child maltreatment prevention in 

mind, where much evidence has been gathered over the 

past several decades about what works and does not 

work. Despite this growing evidence, wide-spread use of 

these effective strategies has been less than ideal. The ISF 

resolves this by addressing some of these questions:

•	 How do we achieve the widespread use of effective

practices, policies, and programs to prevent violence?

•	 What infrastructures or systems are necessary to

ensure that dissemination and implementation are 

carried out successfully?

•	 How do organizations and practitioners build the

capacity necessary to bring effective violence 

prevention strategies to scale community wide? 

One advantage the ISF offers to the sexual violence 

prevention field is a well thought out, underlying process 

for how to move science to practice. By spending the 

time understanding these underlying processes now, 

the field will be better prepared to more rapidly move 

effective programs, practices, or policies into the hands of 

communities as they become available later. 

A Closer Look at the Interactive 

Systems Framework 

Figure 2 shows the ISF and how it connects three systems 

to work together for successful dissemination and 

implementation of prevention innovations. The term 

“system” is used broadly to describe a set of activities that 

accomplish one of the three identified functions that 

make dissemination and implementation possible. These 

systems are:

Prevention Synthesis and Translation System

Here scientific knowledge is distilled into understandable 

and actionable information. Research institutions, 

universities, and the Division of Violence Prevention (DVP) 

at CDC are all institutional examples of this system.

Prevention Support System

This system supports the work of the other two systems 

through building capacity for carrying out prevention 

activities. Agencies like CDC, state health departments, 

or state sexual assault coalitions are often in the role of 

prevention support for grantees or local programs. 

Prevention Delivery System

This is where innovations are actually implemented or 

where “the rubber meets the road.” Community-based 

organizations often function in the role of the prevention 

delivery system. 

As depicted in figure 2, these three systems work 

together and are embedded within an underlying 

context that influences decision-making and adoption 

of prevention strategies. These underlying conditions 

include: legislation that supports funding for sexual 

assault prevention, the best available theory and 

research related to the prevention of sexual assault, 

the community and/or organizational context in which 

sexual assault strategies are implemented and macrolevel policy factors such as state or federal level budget 

constraints or legislative changes. These underlying 

considerations are graphically displayed as the climate 

in which the three systems exist, and all of these have an 

impact on successful dissemination and implementation. 

Each system within the ISF also builds upon or 

influences the functions of the other two systems. These 

relationships and influences are represented by the 

arrows that connect the systems to each other. 

For sexual violence prevention, where the research 

evidence is scant and still being built, the ISF can be 

especially helpful. What the ISF can do is take what we do

know about effective prevention principles and processes 

and distill that knowledge into understandable concepts 

through the Prevention Synthesis and Translation System. 

The Prevention Support System builds the capacity of 

local organizations to put these prevention principles and 

processes into practice. The Prevention Delivery System 

serves to strengthen and deliver prevention principles 

and processes on the ground. 

To illustrate how the ISF would function in the prevention 

of sexual violence, consider the following examples of 

activities that may occur within each system:

“If we keep doing what we are 

doing, we will keep getting 

what we are getting.”

 –Anonymous
 Applying Science. Advancing Practice. A S A P

Distill (PSTS)

•	 Review and condense scientific literature on risk and

protective factors for sexual violence.

•	 Translate research findings about risk and protective

factors for sexual violence into user friendly 

language. 

Support (PSS)

•	 Build the capacity of local organizations to develop

strong leaders, understand how to use data, or form 

long-lasting partnerships.

•	 Provide training and technical assistance about

specific prevention strategies.

Delivery (PDS)

•	 Implement sexual violence prevention strategies

across a community.

•	 Support the spread and uptake of effective sexual

violence prevention principles.

•	 Monitor and evaluate programmatic activities to

further improve the program.

While the ISF includes activities or functions that are

carried out by people in many different kinds of roles and 

within three distinct systems, these systems are working 

together to distill, support, and deliver prevention 

strategies. By understanding the functions of these three 

systems and how they work together, organizations, 

stakeholders, funders, and practitioners can 

communicate better and work together to disseminate 

and more effectively implement prevention strategies. 

You may have noticed that in the example above, much 

of the RPE grantee roles and/or functions showed up 

in the Prevention Support System. This makes sense 

because as an RPE grantee, the role of state public 

health agencies and state-level sexual assault coalitions 

is to provide support for local programs to ensure 

they can implement rape prevention education at the 

community level. These support activities can be seen as 

an important link between taking scientifically derived 

information and putting it into practice. 

Future editions of ASAP will focus on the PSS in more 

detail. Specifically, they will describe how to understand 

the capacities necessary for individuals and organizations 

(which are linked through systems) to prevent sexual 

violence and build healthier and safer communities.

Key Terms

The following key terms are found throughout this brief. 

Capacity: The ability, skills, and motivations to 

conduct and sustain prevention work at the individual, 

organizational, and systems level. The ISF views capacity 

as carrying out important functions in two distinct ways: 

• General Capacity – a capacity to implement or 

improve any programmatic strategy or activity. 

• Innovation Specific Capacity – a capacity needed 

to plan, implement, evaluate and sustain primary 

prevention strategies. 

Dissemination: The intentional, targeted spreading 

of an innovation from the originators to the intended 

users that result in a targeted and facilitated process of 

distributing information and materials to organizations 

and individuals who want and can use them to improve 

health. 

Implementation: A purposeful set of specific activities 

that result in individual or organizational use of an 

innovation.

Innovation: New prevention knowledge or information 

- product, practice, program, policy, idea, research 

findings, or results. 

Strategy: An approach to address a problem such as 

the promotion of respectful relationships to reduce 

interpersonal violence.

Synthesis: A process for obtaining and summarizing 

scientifically derived information, including evidence of 

effectiveness (risk and protective factors, core elements, 

and key features, etc.). 

Translation: The process of converting scientific and 

technically complex research into everyday language and 

applicable/actionable concepts in the practice setting. 

More Information

More information about the ISF can be found in the 

following article at www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/

sexualviolence/translation.html:

Wandersman, A., Duffy,J., Flaspohler, P., Noonan, R., Lubell, K., Stillman, L.,

et al. (2008). Bridging the gap between prevention research and practice: 

The Interactive Systems Framework for Dissemination and Implemetation. 

American Journal of Community Psychology. 41, 3-4.

For more information, please contact:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

1-800-CDC-INFO • www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention • cdcinfo@cdc.gov