Agency and implementation: Understanding the embedding of healthcare innovations in practice

► Implementation science is an important and growing area of interest that offers new opportunities for research. ► We need more rigorous theoretical models of the dynamics of socio-technical change and implementation in healthcare. ► Normalization Process Theory (NPT) offers a robust conceptual model of the implementation of healthcare innovations. ► Using examples from patient shared decision-making this paper shows how NPT deals with problems of contingency.