From research to daily clinical practice: what are the challenges in "translation"?
BACKGROUND
Translating research findings into sustainable improvements in clinical and patient outcomes remains a substantial obstacle to improving the quality and safety of care. The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality funded two initiatives to assess strategies for improvements--Translating Research into Practice (TRIP). The TRIP II initiative supported 13 quality improvement projects. SURVEYING THE TRIP II STUDIES: The principal investigators (PIs) of the 13 projects were surveyed regarding encountered barriers to implementation at 6 months and 18 months (when they were also asked about solutions).


RESULTS
Seven of the 13 PIs responded to the survey at both times--6 and 18 months. For each project stage--Select a TRIP focus and develop intervention strategies (Stage 1), Conduct the intervention (Stage 2), and Measure the Impact (Stage 3)--barriers were described, and field-tested solutions were provided. For example, for Stage 2, if the target audience lacked buy-in and would not participate, solutions would be to get up-front buy-in from all staff, not just leaders; address root causes of problems; use opinion leaders and incentives; plan interventions ahead and provide make-up videos; and accept that targets vary in their readiness to change.


CONCLUSIONS
The framework and examples provided should help overcome challenges in any work in which research findings are applied to clinical practice.
Feifer
Chris
C
Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Alhambra, California, USA. feifer@usc.edu
Fifield
Judith
J
Ornstein
Steven
S
Karson
Andrew S
AS
Bates
David Westfall
DW
Jones
Katherine R
KR
Vargas
Perla A
PA
D019317:Evidence-Based Medicine; D006302:Health Services Research / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012106:Research; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States; D016270:United States Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality