Grant: Knowledge Synthesis Grant

Effective knowledge translation (KT) strategies that help put research evidence into clinical practice are crucial for ensuring high quality care. Recent studies suggest that 30-40% of patients do not receive care complying with current research evidence and 20-25% of the care provided is not needed and may be potentially harmful. In response, KT strategies have been developed and implemented, yet their impact on health care delivery and patient outcomes has been varied. While previous systematic reviews (SRs) have explored KT strategies used in the medical and nursing professions, a review of KT strategies in the allied health professions has not been done. The drawback of SRs that take a uni-disciplinary focus is that they do not reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the healthcare landscape. We propose a series of SRs to examine the KT strategies used in the allied health professional literature aimed at translating research into practice. This SR will serve as a state-of-the science on KT strategies used in the allied health professions and will allow us to: 1) make cross-disciplinary comparisons within this study and external to this study, and 2) suggest the transfer of effective KT strategies from one profession to another. The results from this review will provide concrete recommendations for decision makers at various levels of the healthcare system interested in enhancing outcomes through the application of research and researchers designing KT intervention studies.