The great challenge of knowledge translation is to bridge the gap between what we know from research and what is actually done in our health care system. For the most part, we respond to this challenge by improving our methods of knowledge dissemination. An alternative approach is to change the way that knowledge is produced.
Integrated knowledge translation (IKT) sees the potential users of knowledge— healthcare practitioners, managers, policymakers, patients—partnered with scientists on applied research projects. This is doing research with the people who use it. The rationale is that fully involving knowledge users in the research process will lead to more relevant and applicable knowledge and a greater capacity for and likelihood of implementation. This integration of knowledge-user and researcher expertise should lead to more research-informed decisions, more effective and efficient health services, and better health outcomes.
The purpose of our network is to advance the science of integrated knowledge translation. It is widely accepted among knowledge translation experts that IKT works, but there is limited scientific evidence of its effectiveness. How to measure the impact of IKT projects is one of many questions that our network will try to answer. What makes for successful research collaborations and how can success be reproduced? How does IKT differ from other collaborative research approaches? What aspects of our existing research infrastructure promote or inhibit integrated knowledge translation?
Over sixty stakeholders from all facets of health research and health care drive our research agenda. While we build our knowledge about IKT we also train the next generation of integrated knowledge translation researchers.
Our 2020 interim report, which summarizes our network’s activities and outputs, is available here.