Barbara L Riley*1, JoAnne MacDonald2, Omaima Mansi3, Anita Kothari†4, Donna Kurtz†5, Linda I vonTettenborn†6 and Nancy C Edwards2,7 Address: 1Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, 2School of Nursing, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, 3School of Nursing, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, 4Bachelor of Health Sciences Program, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, 5School of Nursing, University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, 6Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program, Faculty of Health Sciences, Douglas College, New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada and 7Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa,. | BioMed Central Implementation Science Research article Is reporting on interventions a weak link in understanding how and why they work A preliminary exploration using community heart health exemplars Barbara L Riley 1 JoAnne MacDonald2 Omaima Mansi3 Anita Kothari14 Donna Kurtz15 Linda I vonTettenborn16 and Nancy C Edwards2 7 Open Access Address 1Centre for Behavioural Research and Program Evaluation University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada 2School of Nursing University of Ottawa Ottawa Ontario Canada 3School of Nursing McGill University Montreal Quebec Canada 4Bachelor of Health Sciences Program University of Western Ontario London Ontario Canada 5School of Nursing University of British Columbia Okanagan Kelowna British Columbia Canada 6Bachelor of Science in Nursing Program Faculty of Health Sciences Douglas College New Westminster British Columbia Canada and 7Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine University of Ottawa Ottawa Ontario Canada Email Barbara L Riley - briley@ JoAnne MacDonald - jmacd069@ Omaima Mansi - Anita Kothari - akothari@ Donna Kurtz - Linda I vonTettenborn - vontettenbornl@ Nancy C Edwards - nedwards@ Corresponding author lEqual contributors Published 20 May 2008 Received 10 November 2006 Implementation Science 2008 3 27 doi l748-5908-3-27 Accepted 20 May 2008 This article is available from http content 3 1 27 2008 Riley et al licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http licenses by which permits unrestricted use distribution and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Background The persistent gap between research and practice compromises the impact of multi-level and multi-strategy community health interventions. Part of the problem
