Objectives:
Cancer screening programs are evidence-based health interventions aimed at decreasing mortality or incidence of selected cancer diagnoses. Nevertheless, translating screening programs into real-world practice in a particular health care system is a complex undertaking that needs to consider a health care system context, which should be addressed as a part of a comprehensive health technology assessment exercise. Implementation research is a tool that can be used alongside quality assurance for the effective implementation of screening, thus ensuring a favorable balance between the benefits and harms of screening. The objective of this special session is to inform the audience about the European framework for the development of guidelines and quality assurance schemes and to provide a real-world example of a national knowledge translation process from the Czech Republic.

Description and Activities/Interaction Plans:
The session’s lectures will address the following topics:
•Setting the scene: EU Council recommendation on cancer screening and its national implementation
•The European Commission initiatives
•Methodological transparency to facilitate the adaptation and implementation across Europe and beyond
•Czech National Screening Centre: institutional setup for evidence translation in cancer screening
•Czech example: case study on a cancer screening pilot implementation
•Czech National Health Information System: a tool for complex public health monitoring and reporting
The session will seek discussion on the following questions:
•How is the high-level policy being developed based on evidence of efficacy?
•How is the policy complemented with guidelines based on complete systematic reviews of evidence?
•How is the evidence on real-world effectiveness and resource efficiency integrated into the decision-making process?
•What is the role of piloting and implementation research?
•How are the guidelines adopted and implemented in a particular context?