Introduction: Research issues raised by clinical practice guideline implementation cut across national and cultural differences. Coordination of several intervention experiments and systematic review of their results call for a common theoretical framework and descriptive dataset.

Objective: To develop a common descriptive dataset for contextual, intervention, and perceptual factors in interventions to change professional practice.

Methods: A Concerted Action project (CA) was started in March 1996 by 8 partners in 6 countries who plan and conduct guideline implementation experiments. Within 6 months the CA will revise its proposed scientific framework for evaluation of studies and produce a mapping of the Partners' projects on the framework, a common taxonomy of interventions, context etc., a description of key-factors influencing change, and a common dataset to describe context, intervention and perceptions in full.

Results: The Partners' studies to change practice in health care all meet specified inclusion criteria. However, they address different health care practices, settings, and controlled interventions. The CA's mapping of the individual studies and the resulting dataset for a prospective systematic review of their results and data will be presented for discussion.