Health research does not naturally make its way into policy and practice. In fact, research can take quite a long time to be integrated into practice – estimates vary between 14 years, 17 years, or even as high as 25 years.
Different work environments between researchers and practitioners, combined with field-specific terminology and jargon, can create chasms between research and practice. When these groups eventually do coalesce, often findings are no longer relevant to the time or context. Even if the findings are timely, they still might not be relevant if the research has not incorporated the priorities of policymakers or practitioners.
A growing field to address this gap is research translation. Many definitions exist, but research translation is essentially the process of applying research to practice or policy. Research translation overlaps with quite a few related areas including knowledge translation, translational research, implementation science, and many more.
“It is important to understand the literal meaning of research translation – just like translating between languages, it involves taking academic jargon, models and publications, and translating them into more accessible language, formats and recommendations that can be understood and used by organizations, communities and policymakers,” said Christopher Rice, who was recently named research translation and policy lead for the IU Center for Global Health Equity.
“Beyond the literal translation of language and packaging of findings into different formats, research translation is also characterized by deliberately strategizing for impact. This includes bringing people together to complement the strengths of researchers with the strengths of partners such as advocacy organizations, legislative staff, health departments, CEOs or health ministers. Investigators may not possess the expertise to package findings for these groups, so it is beneficial to pair them with someone who sits within or understands organizational and policy environments and the language they use,” he continued.
Methods used in research translation are designed to accelerate the time lag between research and practice and create findings that are more relevant to immediate needs. This is an innovative approach to doing research that can often incorporate early stakeholder engagement, deliberate partnership and targeted dissemination. Those that collaborate in this manner can end up with a research product different from a typical scientific manuscript. This frequently results in a policy brief, but can extend to editorials, videos, biomedical innovations and more.
Successful research translation involves investigators working with their community, practice and policy-oriented partners and key stakeholders to determine what is useful for them. By working together to accelerate the timeline to integrate research with practice and ensure that findings are most relevant, researchers can ensure that their work has the greatest impact on policy and ultimately on the health of communities.
This is the first part in a series that will dive deeper into research translation. Future articles will cover approaches to partnerships, how to develop useful relationships with stakeholders, creating briefs, and crafting dissemination plans.
For related readings, please see:
Balas E, Boren S. Managing Clinical Knowledge for Health Care Improvement: van Bemmel JH, McCray AT, Yearbook of Medical Informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2000:65–70.
Morris ZS, Wooding S, Grant J. The answer is 17 years, what is the question: understanding time lags in translational research. J R Soc Med. 2011 Dec;104(12):510-20. doi: 10.1258/jrsm.2011.110180.
Trochim, W. "Translation won’t happen without dissemination and implementation: Some measurement and evaluation issues." In 3rd Annual Conference on the Science of Dissemination and Implementation, pp. 581-629. 2010.
Westfall JM, Mold J, Fagnan L. Practice-Based Research—“Blue Highways” on the NIH Roadmap. JAMA. 2007;297(4):403–406. doi:10.1001/jama.297.4.403
Wooding S, Hanney S, Buxton M, Grant J. The returns from arthritis research volume 1: approach, analysis and recommendations. 2004.
Wooding H, Hanney S, Pollitt A, Buxton M, Grant J. Project Retrosight: understanding the returns from cardiovascular and stroke research: the policy report. 2011.
Wooding S, Pollitt A, Castle-Clark S, et al. Mental Health Retrosight: understanding the returns from research (lessons from schizophrenia): policy report. 2013.
