When Health Systems Consider Research to Be Beyond the Scope of Healthcare Delivery, Research Translation Is Crippled; Comment on “Academic Health Science Centres as Vehicles for Knowledge Mobilisation in Australia? A Qualitative Study”

Document Type : Commentary

Authors

School of Medicine and Public Health, The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, NSW, Australia

Abstract

Edelman and colleagues’ analysis of the views of Board members of Australian Research Translation Centres (RTCs) is well timed. There has been little study of Australian RTCs to date. We focus on their recommendations regarding knowledge mobilisation (KM) to open broader debate on the wisdom of regarding UK practices as a blueprint. We go further and ask whether successful RTCs might, as a result of responding to local context, create idiosyncratic structures and solutions, making generalisable learning less likely? There has been much invested in Australian RTCs and implications of government’s formative evaluation of their work is discussed. Five recommendations are made that could help RTCs: allowing system end-users a greater say in funding decisions, taking a broader, more democratic approach to kinds of knowledge that are valued; investing in methodologies derived from the innovation space; and, a creative attention to governance to support these ideas.

Keywords


  1. Edelman A, Clay-Williams R, Fischer M, et al. Academic health science centres as vehicles for knowledge mobilisation in Australia? a qualitative study. Int J Health Policy Manag. 2020. doi:10.34172/ijhpm.2020.247
  2. Robinson T, Skouteris H, Burns P, et al. Flipping the paradigm: a qualitative exploration of research translation centres in the United Kingdom and Australia. Health Res Policy Syst. 2020;18(1):111. doi:10.1186/s12961-020-00622-9
  3. Robinson T, Bailey C, Morris H, et al. Bridging the research-practice gap in healthcare: a rapid review of research translation centres in England and Australia. Health Res Policy Syst. 2020;18(1):117. doi:10.1186/s12961-020-00621-w
  4. Powell A, Davies HTO, Nutley SM. Facing the challenges of research-informed knowledge mobilization: ‘practising what we preach’? Public Adm. 2018;96(1):36-52. doi:10.1111/padm.12365
  5. Jorm C, Iedema R, Piper D, Goodwin N, Searles A. "Slow science" for 21st century healthcare: reinventing health service research that serves fast-paced, high-complexity care organisations. J Health Organ Manag. 2021. doi:10.1108/jhom-06-2020-0218
  6. Holmes BJ, Best A, Davies H, et al. Mobilising knowledge in complex health systems: a call to action. Evid Policy. 2017;13(3):539-560. doi:10.1332/174426416x14712553750311
  7. Searles A, Piper D, Jorm C, et al. Embedding an economist in regional and rural health services to add value and reduce waste by improving local-level decision-making: protocol for the 'embedded Economist' program and evaluation. BMC Health Serv Res. 2021;21(1):201. doi:10.1186/s12913-021-06181-1
  8. Kislov R, Wilson P, Boaden R. The 'dark side' of knowledge brokering. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2017;22(2):107-112. doi:10.1177/1355819616653981
  9. Kislov R, Wilson PM, Knowles S, Boaden R. Learning from the emergence of NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRCs): a systematic review of evaluations. Implement Sci. 2018;13(1):111. doi:10.1186/s13012-018-0805-y
  10. Allen + Clarke Consulting. Evaluation of the Rapid Applied Research Translation Initiative. 2020. https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/2020/12/evaluation-of-the-rapid-applied-research-translation-initiative.pdf.  Accessed December 15, 2020.
  11. Akmal A, Gauld R. What components are important for effective healthcare alliance governance? findings from a modified Delphi study in New Zealand. Health Policy. 2021;125(2):239-245. doi:10.1016/j.healthpol.2020.12.012
  12. Anderson W. Six Challenges Facing Australia’s Medical Research Sector. The Conversation; 2015.
  13. Lockett A, El Enany N, Currie G, et al. A formative evaluation of Collaboration for Leadership in Applied Health Research and Care (CLAHRC): institutional entrepreneurship for service innovation. Health Services and Delivery Research. 2014;2(31). doi:10.3310/hsdr02310   
  14. Oliver K, Kothari A, Mays N. The dark side of coproduction: do the costs outweigh the benefits for health research? Health Res Policy Syst. 2019;17(1):33. doi:10.1186/s12961-019-0432-3
  15. Australian Institute for Health and Welfare. Australia’s Health 2020. Canberra: Australian Government; 2020.

 

Volume 11, Issue 6
June 2022
Pages 855-858
  • Receive Date: 16 June 2021
  • Revise Date: 26 July 2021
  • Accept Date: 10 August 2021
  • First Publish Date: 25 August 2021