Integration of Implementation Science in Cardiovascular Behavioral Medicine

Cardiovascular behavioral medicine has significantly advanced the knowledge base regarding the mechanisms by which psychological and behavioral factors can impact cardiovascular function and has developed clear links between these factors and cardiovascular health and disease. More recent work has established numerous behavioral interventions that are efficacious, and in several cases demonstrated to be effective. However, despite these significant advances, translation to broad, real-world uptake and utilization has not been well studied, with consequential profound implications for health equity. The purpose of this article is to review what is known about effective implementation strategies to support the uptake of behavioral medicine interventions to improve cardiovascular health, to underscore the potential for developing additional implementation strategies for wide-scale uptake of effective cardiovascular behavioral medicine interventions, and to discuss the potential for developing additional implementation approaches while conducting early stage efficacy studies in this area.