• Established in 2001 as BC’s health research funding agency to build health research talent and capacity in BC
• Named in honour of Dr. Michael Smith (1932 – 2000), BC’s first Nobel Laureate (1993)
Mandate
•Fostering talent development so BC can develop, attract, and retain the very best health researchers
•Supporting provincial health system priorities, health system transformation, and innovation
•Building capacity for, and furthering the use of, research evidence in policy, planning, practice
•Optimizing provincial health research investment through partnerships that leverage funds, create efficiencies, and reduce duplication
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MSFHR’s suite of programsPrograms Area of focus Amount & term
ScholarSupports early-career investigators to advance their careers and build independent research programs(partnered awards available)
$90,000/year5 years
Research Trainee Supports post-doctoral fellows to prepare for careers in health research (partnered awards available)
$40,000+/yearup to 3 years
Health Professional-Investigator
Supports health professionals to develop and advance research(partnered awards available)
$90,000/yearup to 5 years
Innovation to Commercialization
Advances health research discoveries towards commercialization (partnered awards available)
$150,000/yearup to 4 years
Health Policy Fellowship*
Fosters interactions between health researchers and decision-makers to bridge the gap between science and policy-making
Partnering with CIHR
Convening & Collaborating (C2)
Supports collaborative activities between health researchers and research users
$15,000up to 1 year
Reach Supports the dissemination of health research evidence$15,000up to 1 year
ImplementationScience Teams
Supports teams to study methods and mechanisms that promote the integration of evidence into health policy and practice
up to $510,000 over 3 years
4*Not currently offered. MSFHR partnering with CIHR’s Health System Impact Fellowships.
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We deliver on our talent development mandate primarily through our suite of funding programs. While they all serve to support talent development and knowledge translation, 4 are more heavily focused on the talent – these are: Scholar – supports early-career investigators to advance their research programs (90K year for 5 years) (% targeted to priorities) Trainee – supports post-doctorial fellows (40k year for 3 years) (% targeted to priorities) Health Professional Investigator – which supports clinicians to develop and advance research (90k year up to five years) Innovation to Commercialization: designed to support advancing a discovery or invention toward practical application that will improve health outcomes. The I2C award provides funding for up to 4 years in 2 stages: 2 years at 150k per year. The award is renewable for an additional 2 years, but a co-funding partner must be brought on board. Our 4 KT focused awards: Health Policy Fellowship that we offer in partnership with CIHR (Health System Impact Fellowship): The Health System Impact Fellowship Program provides PhD trainees and post-doctoral fellows studying health services and policy or related fields with a paid experiential learning opportunity within health system organizations including health authorities, as they apply their research and analytic talents to specific health policy challenges faced by their hosts. The Fellows also benefit from professional development opportunities, participation in a national cohort, mentorship with health system and academic leaders, and protected time for academic research The new Implementation Science Team award - this award supports teams to study methods and mechanisms that promote the integration of evidence into health policy and practice. It is for $500k per team over three years. The inaugural cohort will be announced next week. (all targeted to priorities) And finally the Reach Award and Convening and Collaborating – or C2 –awards. These two awards are proving very popular. They are $15k and are for teams of researchers and research users. The C2 award supports the development of research activities and Reach award supports the dissemination of research outputs. (C2 – aligned with health system priorities, Reach = no) For 2018/19, all programs are currently closed and we are in various stages of application review and peer-review except for the Reach and C2, which closes as the end of May. So…still time to get your applications in! A quick note about our talent development awards and partnership with Mitacs. In 2018, we created a partnership and process to imbed the Mitacs Accelerate program application into our competition application process. It provides applicants with a streamlined approach to request Mitacs funding for intern support through our Michael Smith competition applications.
What is KT?
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So the term KT is known by a number of different terms- 120 by some counts- and while there are some differences, some terms refer to more specific parts of KT and some are more umbrella terms. They all basically refer to the same activities
Knowledge translation (KT) activities aim to close the gap between research and implementation by improving the use of research evidence in practice, policy and further research.
Here is one commonly used definition of knowledge translation. There are even simpler ways to talk about KT such as: “Getting evidence into use” or “ Increasing the impact of research” SSHRC uses knowledge mobilization as the term with the definition…. Knowledge mobilization is an umbrella term encompassing a wide range of activities relating to the production and use of research results, including knowledge synthesis, dissemination, transfer, exchange, and co-creation or co-production by researchers and knowledge users.
KT addresses gaps between evidence and policy/practice
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Balas E, Boren S. Managing Clinical Knowledge for Health Care Improvement. In: van Bemmel JH, McCray AT, eds. Yearbook of Medical Informatics. Stuttgart: Schattauer Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 2000:65–70; “Why are Implementation Teams Important?” Retrieved from: http://implementation.fpg.unc.edu/book/export/html/193
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Years
Without KT With KT
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One of the reasons for the urgency of doing KT is the infamous 17 year gap. In the paper you see referenced researchers found that without KT strategies it takes an average of 17 years for research to make it into policy and practice. about 14% only of well-researched innovations are used in practice and only after 17 years” i.e., “Studies by Balas and Boren (2000) and Green and Seifert (2005) tracked typical results for evidence-based programs. Their results indicate that 14% of well-researched innovations are used in practice and it takes 17 years to accomplish that modest level of use.”
•30% of patients do not get treatments of proven effectiveness
•25% of patients get care that is not needed or potentially harmful
•Up to 75% of patients do not get enough information to make decisions
•Most programs to address gaps in patient care are not:• Evidence-based• Being implemented as intended• Being evaluated rigourously• Being sustained
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Kiesler DJ, Auerback SM. Optimal matches of patient preferences for information, decision-making and interpersonal behavior: evidence, models and interventions. Patient Educ Couns 2006;61:319-41.Dawes, M., Sampson, U.: Knowledge management in clinical practice: A systematic review of information seeking behavior in physicians. Int J Med Inform 2003;71:9-15 .McGlynn Elizabeth A, Asch Steven M, Adams John, Keesey Joan, Hicks Jennifer, DeCristofaro Alison, Kerr Eve A. The quality of health care delivered to adults in the United States. N Engl J Med. 2003 Jun 26;348(26):2635–2645.
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This means that many patients do not get treatments that have been shown to be effective Many patients get un-needed or potentially harmful treatment Many, many patients don’t get enough info to make decisions
How do we close the gap?
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Accessible dissemination strategies
Connect with other researchers
Use the media
Knowledge synthesis
Think about all the end users
Knowledge Brokers
Multi-disciplinary research teams
Engage with knowledge users prior to research
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Researchers Here is just a sampling of what you already do as part of your work
World Café!
1) What kind of a impact would you like your research to make?
2) What stands in the way of your research making an impact?
3) What more would you like to know?
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What is KT Pathways?
KT Pathways is a digital training and assessment tool on the skills and knowledge required for to get evidence into practice.
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So, today I want to introduce you to the KT Pathways tool: a training and assessment tool to help people develop skills in knowledge translation. Over the next several slides we will go through the background of the tool, how to use it to improve your skills in KT
A bit of background…
To support the use of research evidence, the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR) brought together a working group to identify the competencies required for successful KT.
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Facilitating the increased use of research evidence is a big focus for the Foundation. One of our mandates in the Knowledge Translation unit is to build capacity to close the gap between evidence, policy and practice. We wanted to have an evidence based understanding of all the competencies for researchers, knowledge users and knowledge brokers. So, we brought together a working group of academics, knowledge brokers, a research librarian and KT practitioners to identify the competencies required for successful KT. We also had an advisory group that included a patient representative, KT experts, academic researchers, health system decision makers, and health care practitioners, to incorporate various perspectives, enhance our understandings of the literature and to ensure the applicability of our review findings.
A bit of background…
This working group produced a protocol paper, a manuscript and a compilation of KT competencies which became the core of the KT Pathways.
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The working group did a scoping review looking at the academic and grey literature. We produced a protocol paper, manuscript and compiled a list of KT competencies and training supports and a manual self-assessment tool that people could use for professional development. We focused on the health sector but we’d argue that the competencies we identified are applicable across other sectors as well. While the manual self-assessment tool contained a rich and complete list of the competencies, we realized the 92-page document wasn’t user friendly for anyone. So we decided to develop a different dissemination product. In order to increase the accessibility and usability of the tool we wanted to create a web based experience where people could learn about the KT Competencies, see their personal areas of strength and find resources to support learning. We also wanted to have a place for non-static learning opportunities such as training events.
KT Pathways Partners
The development of the digital version of KT Pathways was led by MSFHR in partnership with BC-based universities, health authorities, research institutes, the BC Ministry of Health, and the BC SUPPORT Unit.
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We brought together a working group with representation from academia and health care and health system. These groups have a big buy in to increase capacity for the use of evidence. We had the working group both as a result of our funding agreement with each organization but mostly to increase investment in the success of the tool, and to make it something that would be truly useful in an ongoing way. Members participated heavily in the look and feel as well as in processes such as KT competencies content validation from the many perspectives. This ensured that the tool used language that makes sense to all stakeholder groups. We also ensured we had regional representation so that the tool would be accessible and relevant across the differing regions of BC.
How does KT Pathways work?
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So we just want to take you through how the tool works. We won’t go through each section - we’ll leave you to explore that on your own. Here is the home page. Navigate to “Take the Assessment” on the right hand corner.
Make an account
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You won’t see the “Make an account” criteria but I just wanted to point out that, when people register for the tool they are asked to select an organization. This is important for a functionality that I will explain later.
Pick your pathway
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You begin by picking a pathway - which is essentially the KT task you are most commonly engaged in. Just a short note - the working group that developed the Pathways really wrestled with how to denote the Pathways. People didn’t feel comfortable choosing just one pathway as they saw themselves in multiple roles. Rather than having terms such as Knowledge User or Knowledge Producer, people were invited to choose the pathway that reflected the task that they were engaged in when thinking about KT. Most of you will select the “producing knowledge”
Choose a bucket
or
Do the whole assessment
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This is difficult to see but once you have picked a pathway you are sent to a page where you are invited to choose a bucket of competencies to begin. Competencies are grouped into buckets. The Applying Knowledge set of buckets shown here includes Research-to-Action, KT/Implementation Skills, Bringing People Together, and Dissemination. You can do the bucket that is the best fit with job requirements or you can go ahead and complete the entire tool.
What are the buckets?
Research to Action Bringing People Together
Dissemination and Communication
KT/Implementation Skills
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So what are the buckets? Research to Action Skills focus on the skills required to mobilize research into practice, policy and further research Bringing people together for the purpose of creating or sharing evidence. Understanding of context, skills like facilitation, conflict resolution Dissemination and Implementation- how to package and communicate research evidence KT/Implementation- frameworks for evidence implementation,strategies
Do the assessment
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Once you have started the assessment tool you will be shown the competencies one by one and asked to rate yourself as needs practice, knowledgeable but needs practice, or competent. There are three levels to each competency (beginner, intermediate, expert). If you rate yourself as beginner, the system will store that information and you will go on to the next competency. If you are competent you will be sent to the next level of that competency.
Get your results
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When you finish the bucket you will get your results (beginner, intermediate or expert). Your scores are also broken down by topics so you will have a reminder of your areas of strength and those for further development. Just below this screen shot are the resources that are related to your topic areas and the levels. Resources will be identified for you to start your KT learning journey.
Receive learning resources
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Many, many people have also been visiting our resource page directly to find resources (of all types) for all users. I have been finding the category filter the most helpful.
Makeover: KT Pathways Edition
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I am blatantly going to steal from the show Queer eye to show how KT Pathways can take you from a sad and meaningless life to nirvana. Apologies to those who haven’t heard of the Fab 5. Essentially it’s a makeover show where the fab 5 come in and rescue someone by gently and lovingly help the individual make chances in all parts of their lives and at the end they express their indying gratitudes. I promise I’m not accepting a commission but I definitely saw parallels between the work they do and the potential of KT Pathways. Just for fun
Makeover: KT Pathways Edition
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Research to Action Different types of knowledge Research methods for
determining knowledge use Assess quality of information for
stakeholders Evaluating Knowledge-to-Action
Gap Diffusion of innovation
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So you’ve assessed your research-to-action skills and you are a super star at defining different types of knowledge. You know a ton of research methods for determining knowledge user and you can assess the quality of information for your research partners. but you find that your ability to identify research gaps may be lacking. It’s part of your job to find gaps in the evidence but the strategies that you have been using are tired and out of date and you need a refresh. Tan France is here to save the day. He knows that you’re already smart and good looking and just need a bit of help in a few areas to he introduces you to
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Evaluating Knowledge-to-Action Gaps
Makeover: KT Pathways Edition
KT/Implementation Skills Do you know models and
frameworks for practicing KT? Do you know the barriers and
facilitators to implement evidence?
Do you know the difference between end of grant and iKTapproaches
Can you apply concepts of cultural humility and safety?
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Now that your research to action skills are in shape, you move on to your KT/Implementation Skills. Bobby admires the way that you can deftly define the difference between integrated and end of grant approaches and the way that you can define the barriers and facilitators to knowledge used. He is particularly impressed with how many models and frameworks you know. He’s noticed that you need to shed some light on the way that you understand and apply concepts of cultural humility and safety. He knows that an open mind (and an open floor plan) will bring light and life into your research
Cultural Humility and Safety
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He shows you this online course by Sanyas and encourages you to keep it tidy.
Makeover: KT Pathways Edition
Bringing People Together Facilitating participatory decision
making Linking researchers with
knowledge users Participate in knowledge
networks Building partnerships Develop collaborative teams with
clients/patients/providers to share knowledge
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Wow, Karamo is super impressed by your ability to Bring People together- your stellar participatory decision making processes, how you seem to have a innate understanding of how to link researchers with knowledge users, build collaborations and participate in knowledge networks. He needs to have a heart to heart with you about how you are engaging with researchers. You seem standoffish and nervous, perhaps revealing insecurities or prejudice.
Learn about building partnerships
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He shares a blog with you telling the stories of a researcher and community research user. They share their experience and advice to forming healthy relationships
Makeover: KT Pathways Edition
Dissemination/Communications Describe communication
strategies Package evidence in accessible
ways Create a dissemination plan Communicate with the media
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Antoni and Jonathan join forces to help you improve your skills in Dissemination and Communication. While you have great communication strategies, you can package evidence in accessible ways, you don’t seem to be camera ready- you seemed a bit lost and you are having trouble with your hair. Antoni and Jonathan know that you could be more effective when dealing with the media
Communicating with media
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Antoni serves up an academic article using the fresh ingredients (the article was only recently published) and can be prepared (read) in a short period of time. Academic jargon is kept to a minimum. This article could be included as a tasty addition to a journal or a quiet evening home with the family
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Of course, at the end of your makeover you are smarter and way better at KT. You are also richer, better looking and have excellent relationships with your colleagues
Small bites, no gobble
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How do you learn?Tactile
Auditory
Visual
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How you can use KT Pathways
• In goal setting
• To write your KT grant
• To prepare for a workshop
• As part of a journal club
• To understand the full complement of KT competencies
