“I wanted to make sure that I was not just taking classes but also applying what I was learning from people who were doing real-life clinical focus projects using implementation science.”
As a board-certified doctor specializing in internal medicine and associate professor in UF’s Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism, Dr. Naykky Singh Ospina already had impressive credentials.
However, Singh Ospina knew she could make a bigger impact. “I’m a physician, specifically within endocrinology,” she explained. “As a clinician-researcher trying to improve the quality of patient care, implementation science came in as something important. Why do some scientific discoveries get translated into the clinic and others not? That’s where I want to make an impact.”
When it came to finding implementation science training, Singh Ospina didn’t have to look far: “My colleagues, mentors and researcher friends were like, ‘Oh, we have a program here at UF!’”
Let’s see how this hard-working doctor/researcher/educator succeeded as a student completing our online Graduate Certificate in Implementation Science just last year.
Real-World Applications and Immediate Benefits
Driven by her goal of bridging the gap between proven methods and real-world patient care, Singh Ospina enrolled in UF’s program. She quickly discovered how relevant the coursework was to her ongoing research.
Singh Ospina and her team were developing an interactive tool to help patients and clinicians decide whether to biopsy or monitor thyroid nodules. “The goal of the project, without an implementation science lens, was … to try to improve how patients and clinicians talk about what they need to do about a thyroid nodule.”
Her experience in our program expanded the project’s scope: “An aim that we added to our study … was asking clinicians, ‘If we were to roll this out in your clinic, what will make you more likely to use the intervention? And we show it to patients and ask them, ‘Is this something that you would like to use? What would make you more likely or less likely to use it?’”
“Because of the implementation science lens, we’re including that kind of feedback and consulting with the end-users from early development so that we make sure that if it’s successful, that it will be well received.” This implementation science-focused approach aligned seamlessly with Singh Ospina’s career objectives.
A Flexible Program for Busy Professionals
For professionals like Singh Ospina — balancing teaching responsibilities, patient care, research and more — flexibility is essential. UF’s program was designed with these challenges in mind.
“If I had to give lectures at another place or had some research meeting, I could do my class assignments wherever I was,” Singh Ospina shared. “When I was going to be out of town for a particular live session, the professors were flexible if there were many students that were having an issue for a particular week, ensuring that we were able to have the live sessions on a schedule that worked for everyone.”
Close Connections in a Remote Setting
Despite being in an online program, Singh Ospina found plenty of opportunities to connect with classmates and faculty during her program:
“The professors were offering office hours. So they would say, ‘I’ll be available to answer questions at this time.’ Somebody would post their questions and then students would have message board discussions about it. Some would carry out live discussions.”
Achieving Her Goals Through One Four-Course Program
Singh Ospina had clear objectives when enrolling in UF’s program: “I wanted to … apply an understanding of implementation science to projects that I was doing and future projects. To add another dimension to my own research, always having that lens of implementation science, was another goal. And networking with peers and instructors, because they all had a very strong track record of collaborating with clinician researchers like myself.”
From our discussion, it’s clear she succeeded on all counts.
Encouraging Others to Pursue Implementation Science
Would Singh Ospina recommend this program to clinician researchers and others?
“100%. I think for anybody who’s in the space of trying to improve care, this is very helpful because it provides a different lens and some structure about how to do this kind of work.”
Start Your Implementation Science Journey Today
Ready to enhance your career like Dr. Naykky Singh Ospina? Begin your own success story with UF’s online Graduate Certificate in Implementation Science and graduate in as little as two semesters.
