Implementation strategies are targeted interventions aimed at promoting the adoption, implementation, and sustainment of research findings or evidence-based practices in routine healthcare. If implementation strategies can precisely match implementation barriers and facilitators, the likelihood of successful implementation will increase. The CFIR-ERIC matching tool, which can match corresponding ERIC implementation strategies based on CFIR barriers, is a convenient and direct tool for developing implementation strategies. This paper provides a detailed overview of the origins and development of the CFIR-ERIC matching tool, outlines its contents and usage, and illustrates how to apply the tool to develop implementation strategies by using a brief smoking cessation intervention project as an example. The paper also discusses the advantages and limitations of using this tool for developing implementation strategies, with the aim of providing methodological reference for other researchers.

Implementation science has evolved over more than 20 years and established a set of theories, models, and frameworks that can be used to guide the implementation process, identify implementation-influencing factors, and evaluate implementation effectiveness. Guided by theories, the implementation research paradigm has been developed to emphasize a problem-oriented approach that seeks to solve problems, identify barriers to implementing evidence-based practices, and selectively employ implementation strategies to facilitate their adoption, implementation, and maintenance. This paradigm also gives implementation research distinctive characteristics in terms of research design, including extensive use of theories, models, and frameworks, alignment with real-world and contextual settings, use of mixed research designs, use of rapid research methods, and optimization of interventions for the context in which they are to be implemented. As the second part of Past and Present of Implementation Science, this paper provides a brief introduction to the theories, paradigms, and characteristics of implementation science.