Form 0920-24FI In-Depth Assessment – Exploratory Assessment Learning Co

Form Approved

OMB No. 0920-XXXX

Exp. Date xx/xx/20xx

In-Depth Assessment – Exploratory Assessment Learning Collaborative Interview Guide – The National Cardiovascular Health Program & The Innovative Cardiovascular Health Program

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Exploratory Assessment

Learning Collaborative Interview Guide

Date of Interview
Interviewer
Notetaker
Organization Name
Organization Type
State
Organization City		Zip Code
Cooperative Agreement	☐ The National CVH Program ☐ The Innovative CVH Program
Strategy (select all that apply)	☐ Strategy 1: Track and Monitor Clinical Measures ☐ Strategy 2: Implement Team Based Care ☐ Strategy 3: Link Community Resources and Clinical Services
Interviewee Name(s)
Interviewee Role(s) or Title(s)

Introduction

Thank you for taking the time to participate in this interview. My name is <Insert name> and I am with the Deloitte evaluation team. Our team is working with the CDC Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention to evaluate the <Insert Cooperative Agreement>. As part of the larger evaluation, we are seeking to learn more about the effectiveness of <Strategy: X> and gain insights on sustainability and program replicability. Specifically, we’re interested in understanding how learning collaboratives have affected the implementation of strategies.

This interview is expected to take no longer than 60 minutes. Your participation in this interview is completely voluntary. You may choose not to respond to questions at any time and it will not in any way impact the funding or technical assistance to your organizations receive from CDC. All information will be kept secure and any personally identifiable information will be removed when results are aggregated for analysis.

During this interview we will be referencing back to information gathered during the Evaluability Assessment interviews to further understand how things may have changed or remained the same since <September 2024 through September 2025>. If you did not participate in the Evaluability Assessment or were not yet with the learning collaborative, we understand that you may not be able to speak to everything that is referenced. We still value your input and are interested in learning about the learning collaborative.

If at any time during the interview you are not clear about what we are asking, be sure to let me know. Please answer questions based on your own knowledge and experience. We appreciate your candid answers and hope that today’s interview can be a conversation among participants. Please let us know when things your colleagues are saying resonate with your experience or when your experience has been different.

Do you consent to this interview?

☐ Yes

☐ No

With your permission, we would like to record this interview for transcription purposes.

Do we have your permission to record?

☐ Yes

☐ No

Do you have any questions or concerns before we start the interview?

Background

Thank you again for agreeing to participate in this interview. For reference, for today’s interview we will be talking about <Strategy X>, which is defined as

<Strategy description from NOFO >

We will discuss the following sub-strategies under <Strategy X>:

<Sub-strategy description from NOFO >

[Interviewer Note: Only describe the relevant sub-strategies for which the recipient organization has self-nominated]

First, we would like to learn a little about you and your organization.

1. [If some/all interviewees participated in the Evaluability Assessment or previous LC interview] During the Evaluability Assessment it was shared that you <personal role in relation to the learning collaborative that supports the work of name of cooperative agreement>. Is this still true or has this changed since we last spoke?

2. [If interviewees did not participate in either the Evaluability Assessment or previous LC interview] Can you briefly tell me about your personal role in relation to the learning collaborative (LC) that supports the work of <insert cooperative agreement>?

Probes:

• What are your specific responsibilities within your organization?

• Are you involved with or support another LC related to a DHDSP cooperative agreement?

  • [If yes] What is your personal role for this other LC?

[Interviewer Note: Be familiar with partnerships and probe if partnership is not mentioned.]

3. Based on document reviews, we’ve learned about partnerships with <partnership members>. Have these partnerships changed or grown since <September 2024 through September 2025>?

LC Implementation

We’d like to explore the partnerships between the <recipient name>, learning collaboratives (LCs), and partner organizations. Please think about the process of working together to implement <strategy name> and provide your thoughts on the nature of the partnership, strategies or practices that enhanced the partnership, and any challenges that could be addressed to improve future interactions.

4. We last spoke about <LC’s goals> during the key informant interviews for the Evaluability Assessment. Has progress been made towards achieving these goals or have these goals been achieved?

Probes:

• Have there been any changes to these goals? If so, what are they?

• If goals have not been met

  • What has prevented the LC from achieving these goals?

  • What additional support is needed to achieve these goals?

5. What challenges has the LC experienced in achieving <goals mentioned above>?

Probe:

• What additional support does the LC need to overcome these challenges?

6. Can you describe any key actions or characteristics you feel matter most in facilitating an effective collaboration through the LC?

Probe:

• How has the LC affected the exchange of ideas and strategies?

7. What are the gaps in the LC or areas of improvement?

Probe:

• Is there anything you would want to change in your collaboration to improve your partnerships?

Next, we’d like to learn more about how LC are supporting <strategy> implementation, successes or challenges with <strategy> implementation, and factors that may support or hinder activities. We are particularly interested in learning how things have changed since our last round of discussions in <insert time e.g., Fall 2025> during the Evaluability Assessment. We will summarize what we heard about support for strategy implementation during the key informant interviews and ask you to confirm if the activities and successes or challenges are the same or have changed.

[Interviewer Note: Reference challenges and barriers mentioned in the Evaluability Assessment key informant interviews by participants, probe for new or ongoing challenges.]

8. During the key informant interviews for the Evaluability Assessment, we learned that <implementation plans>. Please tell us more about the status of your learning collaborative. What progress have you made since we last spoke?

Probes:

• Tell us more about milestones, key successes, other achievements.

• What activities helped lead to these accomplishments?

• What are some areas that the LC did not make as much progress as anticipated?

• During the Evaluability Assessments we learned that the LC planned to accomplish the following <accomplishments planned>. Was the LC able to fulfill these planned accomplishments?

• Has the LC changed their implementation approach since we last spoke during Evaluability Assessment interviews?

9. What challenges has the LC experienced?

Probe:

• What support is needed to address these challenges?

10. During the Evaluability Assessment it was shared that <contextual factors that support or hinder LC operations>. Have there been any changes in these contextual factors?

11. [If interviewee cannot speak to previously shared contextual factors] What are some of the contextual factors that support or hinder <LC operations>? (e.g., external factors, competing initiatives, additional funding sources or partners, state policies or guidelines, organizational level factors).

Probe:

• Have there been any recent policy level or other external changes within your jurisdiction that impact your <LC operations>?

[Interviewer Note: The following questions are for LC Convener only.]

12. [If LC Lead/Convener the same from the Evaluability Assessment LC interview] During the key informant interviews for the Evaluability Assessment, we heard that <challenges referenced> were some of the challenges with managing and coordinating LC.

Probes:

• Have these challenges persisted? Why?

• Have you found ways to address these challenges?

• Have any new challenges emerged?

13. [If LC Lead/Convener is different] What are the challenges you have experienced with managing and coordinating LC?

Probes:

• Are these challenges expected to persist? Why?

• How are these challenges addressed?

• We heard from the previous LC convener <challenges mentioned by the previous LC convener>. Have these persisted? How were they resolved?

[Interviewer Note: The following questions are for LC members only.]

14. During the key informant interviews for the Evaluability Assessment, we heard that <challenges referenced> with working with the LC. Have these challenges persisted? Have you found ways to address these challenges?

Probes:

• Are they expected to persist? Why?

• How are these challenges addressed?

• Have new challenges emerged?

15. What additional support or resources are needed to strengthen or improve the LC?

[Interviewer Note: Only ask remaining questions if LC shared evaluation plans during the Evaluability Assessment or LC representative can speak to these efforts]

Effectiveness of LC Activities

We would like to learn more about the impact of LC activities on health disparities. We also want to follow-up on the LC data collection and evaluation activities that were shared with us during the Evaluability Assessment. We will summarize what we learned about the data collection and reporting activities during the key informant interviews and ask you to provide updates about outcomes being tracked and measured.

16. We learned in the Evaluability Assessment that <LC activities> hoped to achieve <system or community-level reductions in health disparities>. [If no interviewee participated in the Evaluability Assessment interview] Are you able to speak to these activities? [IF some/all interviewees participated in the Evaluability Assessment interview or If no interviewee participated but can speak to the plans] Can you talk about your progress related to <system or community-level reductions in health disparities>?

Probes:

• If yes

  • What are specific examples of how system or community-level health disparities were reduced?

• If no

  • Are there any barriers that affect your ability to mitigate health disparities? Please describe.

[Interviewer Note: For Questions 17 through 20, be familiar with the previous measures so that we can probe if there is no mention about outcomes that were going to be tracked or were previously reported, as indicated in the Evaluability Assessment/Performance Measure Monitoring/Evaluation Reports.]

17. What outcomes are being tracked?

Probe:

• What changes in <outcome> have you observed or tracked?

18. Have the <health disparities being measured and tracked as indicated in the Evaluability Assessment> changed since we last talked in <September 2024 through September 2025>?

19. During the Evaluability Assessment, <data collection barriers with data collection or monitoring and evaluation activities> were shared with us. Have these challenges persisted? How were these challenges addressed?

Probes:

• Was <strategy shared to overcome barriers during the Evaluability Assessment> used to overcome these barriers? Were they effective?

• Have any new challenges to data collection or reporting emerged?

• What additional support or TA do you need from [name of recipient organization]? What about from the CDC?

20. During the Evaluability Assessment, it was shared that <what has been learned about program from monitoring and evaluation reported in Evaluability Assessment>. How have the <outcomes reported> changed since we last talked in <September 2024 through September 2025>?

Probes:

• What new findings can you share about implementation progress since our previous interview in <September 2024 through September 2025>?

• Have data been used to make improvements? If so, what improvements have been made since <September 2024 through September 2025>?

21. What lessons have you learned from implementation of the LC?

Probe:

• Is there anything that you would do differently in the future? If so, what would you do differently?

Close

Lastly, what questions do you have for me? Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Thank you for your time. This concludes our interview about the learning collaborative efforts. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to contact the Comprehensive Evaluation Team, hdsp_nofo_eval@cdc.gov.