Making knowledge matter

For too long, a wall has existed between health-care research and those who ultimately use the system. This week, health-care leaders from around the world gathered in Halifax to work on knocking down that wall. 

The 2010 Knowledge Translation Conference (KT10), hosted by the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation and Dalhousie from June 7 to 9, was designed to bring together people from various disciplines and sectors to examine the challenging issue of transferring knowledge to action – knowledge translation.

“Historically, there have been many barriers to getting research into practice,” says Ingrid Sketris, conference co-chair and professor in the College of Pharmacy at Dalhousie. “There has been an explosion of scientific knowledge, but in order to make use of the knowledge to improve both policy and patient care you have to determine if the knowledge is accurate and applicable and how to transfer this information to the end users, such as patients, practitioners, researchers and policy-makers.”

Given that different audiences interpret and access information differently, that is no easy task. Building on four previous knowledge translation conferences around the world, KT10 was diverse in attendance with countries from around the world represented including co-chairs from the Netherlands and the United States. It involved experts in medicine, nursing, pharmacy, business, psychology, political science along with researchers, government policy-makers and health care managers.

“Scientific evidence is generated by researchers but sometimes takes a long time to get into practice and policy,” explains Dr. Sketris. “(KT10) talks about how to best form teams of policy makers, researchers and practitioners to get from knowledge to action.”

One way to get from knowledge to action, or at least to those who facilitate action, is through the media. That was the subject of the keynote address by Andre Picard, The Globe and Mail public health reporter, which kicked off the conference on Monday night at the Halifax Marriot Harbourfront hotel.  

Mr. Picard wanted to leave the group with two take-away messages. First, it is essential to integrate health research into decision-making, and second, the public is the most important user of that information, and the public get their information from the media.

While admitting the shortcomings of both the media and the health sciences community, he outlined how they can work together to translate crucial knowledge.

“Scientists have a responsibility to the public to make research available,” said Mr. Picard. “But media has a responsibility to translate that knowledge and science to the public.”

He explained that journalists look for the human element in stories, for results, for cause and effect. They seek out experts willing to speak and who can do so concisely and on message. They steer away from words like “may,” “could,” “might,” and avoid jargon altogether. “Explain it to me like you would explain it to your mother,” he said, noting that someone once responded to him by saying their mother had a Ph.D. in botany. “Well explain it to my mother,” he replied.

Perhaps the most intriguing question he posed during his talk is one all researchers, policy-makers and journalists should ask themselves everyday: “Is knowledge created if it isn’t adequately communicated?”

More information on the conference can be found at www.kt10.ca