Grant: Foundation Grant

<html> <body> <p> <strong>Context</strong> </p> <p>The current growing demands on the healthcare system and the limited resources available for it are calling into question its sustainability. Research has a major role to play in ensuring healthcare is effective, efficient, and appropriate. It is also widely accepted that societies and health systems are not optimally benefiting from their investments in research as evidenced by the gap between what we know from research and what is actually being done. Reducing this know&ndash;do gap is also one of the ethical imperatives of our time: delayed implementation of effective practices (and discontinuing ineffective ones) affects people&rsquo;s health and contributes to the unsustainability of the health system. The magnitude of the know-do gap has stimulated governments and research funders to recognize the importance of the active translation of research into action. Knowledge translation science uncovers the determinants of research use and develops and tests effective strategies to encourage it. Engaging patients, clinicians, managers, policy makers, or industry in research (<strong>integrated knowledge translation</strong> or <strong>iKT</strong> (http://www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/45321.html#a8) is a widely accept tenet of KT and is advanced as an intervention to increase the relevance, applicability and impact of research results. Although iKT is broadly accepted, the actual research supporting this view is limited and there is uncertainty about how best to conduct and support iKT.</p> <p> <br> <strong>Vision</strong> <br> </p> <p>To accelerate consideration of research in health policy, health system, and clinicical decision making.<br> </p> <p> <strong>Program Goals</strong> </p> <p>The overarching program goal is to produce knowledge that can be used to optimize researcher &amp; research-user collaborations for maximum benefit<br> </p> <p>Specific program objectives:</p> <p>1) Advance understanding of the concept of iKT from the perspectives of research-users, researchers, funders, and universities;</p> <p>2) Assess the impacts of iKT;</p> <p>3) Develop and adapt iKT theories and measurement tools;</p> <p>4) Convert evidence gained from the research program into accessible resources and build iKT research capacity to accelerate capturing the benefits of health research in Canada and abroad<br> </p> <p> <strong>Expertise</strong> </p> <p>The Program Leader is an international leader in KT with considerable expertise in health services research and KT/implementation science. He is adept at mixed methods and has considerable experience with qualitative, survey, and case study methods. The program team is interdisciplinary, cross-pillar and cross-sector and covers the fields of epidemiology, communications, sociology, political science, law, nursing, medicine, pharmacy decision making, health policy, health services management, governance, KT science, and research funding. Research-users on the team represent health and funder sectors and have contributed to proposal development.<br> </p> <p> <strong>Mentoring and training</strong> </p> <p>The program will produce 5-7 Masters, 2-3 PhDs and 3-4 Postdocs with expertise in the science and practice of iKT. Student RAs will be included in all projects and over a dozen students will have an opportunity to do an internship with research-user organizations. We will develop distance education courses and internet training modules on IKT for both researchers and research-users. Over a dozen iKT early and midcareer researchers will be mentored through the program. We will create an iKT research community of practice.<br> <br> </p> </body> </html>