Dr Harriet Koorts

@Harriet_Koorts 

Using systems science approaches to enhance the scaling up of population interventions 

Despite many important global public health successes, for physical activity there is a continued lack of interventions that have been scaled up to achieve sustainable and equitable population health improvement. Implementation science approaches have dominated the scale up literature, which typically promote a sequential and mechanistic spread of interventions. Systems change plays a major role in the relationship between implementation processes and institutionalization of public health interventions; yet systems approaches remain underutilized in scaling up. This presentation will discuss findings from a study using systems analysis, which identified mechanisms underpinning the successful scale-up of physical activity and nutrition interventions in Australia. 

About Harriet: Dr Harriet Koorts is a Senior Research Fellow/Implementation Scientist in the Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN) at Deakin University, Melbourne. Harriet’s research focuses on the implementation and scale-up of population health interventions, including the use of systems methodologies. Harriet leads IPAN’s Implementation Science Cross-Domain Theme and is chair of ASPA’s Scaling Up Physical Activity (SUPA) Special Interest Group. Over the past 10 years, Harriet has held multiple positions in academia, local government and the UK National Health Service, requiring her skills in implementation and evaluation to inform the commissioning of health promotion programs and delivery of clinical health services in practice.