| Sumario: | SLPs are familiar with evidence-based practice, but the implementation of evidence into practice continues to be difficult across all health and care professions, including ours. Implementation science (ImpSci) is a branch of science that focuses how we can encourage and improve this implementation. This commentary will introduce readers to ImpSci and where has it come from. We clarify the distinctive differences between ImpSci and both evidence-based practice (EBP) and quality improvement. We also reflect on how ImpSci addresses complementary and essential issues to our current evidence base of scientific and clinical research. ImpSci is beginning to have an impact within allied health, including research addressing implementation of evidence for speech, hearing, communication, and swallowing disorders. However, as a profession we heavily weigh our research towards demonstrating efficacy and the uptake of ImpSci methodologies has been slow. We argue for a more strategic and systematic adoption of ImpSci, to promote change in the clinical effectiveness, societal impact, and scientific reputation of SLP professional practice.
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