Revisit your initial communications strategy with dissemination in mind.

• Identify new needs and opportunities.
• Consider your goal, audience, medium, and execution.

Establish a dissemination planning team and a decision-making policy.

• In addition to your existing communications team, you may want to involve additional stakeholders, such as CAB members.
• With your team, discuss and decide which members will have decision-making authority.

As a team, discuss your dissemination goals and develop a written dissemination plan.

• Weigh the pros and cons of different release strategies.
• Establish your goals and priority audiences.
• Plan different activities for each priority audience.

Update lists, materials, and messages as necessary.

• Look over contact lists; ensure they are current and accurate.
• Account for any changes that have occurred since the start of your trial that may affect your dissemination strategy.

Determine the timing of the announcement.

• Choose a tentative release date.
• Decide when to release the results to various stakeholders: staff, participants, sponsors, etc.
• Identify events or other factors that may affect your announcement strategy.
• Plan for various outcome scenarios.
• Discuss and develop key messages for those scenarios (positive, neutral, and negative).
• Share each scenario; meet with site teams and other stakeholders to discuss implications of each scenario.
• Consider the ways each scenario might affect your announcement strategy.
• Determine “top line” (key) and supportive messages for each outcome; translate materials as necessary.

Manage pre-release issues.

• Put systems in place for when the results are known.
• Consider the needs of both global and in-country stakeholders.
• Determine the timing of the results for each group of stakeholders.
• Consider conference or publication embargoes.
• Plan the timing of media embargoes and press releases.

Orchestrate the public announcement.

• Implement your announcement strategy.
• Consider holding a local announcement event.
• Use different approaches for different stakeholders.
• Monitor news media and correct inaccuracies.

Manage post-announcement dissemination activities.

• Continue to monitor media and community concerns; respond when appropriate.
• If you so choose, submit a manuscript to a scientific journal.
• Plan appropriate meetings to involve stakeholders in determining the implications and applications of the results.
• Promote the application of the findings; involve stakeholders in planning, implementing, and evaluating the application of the results.