Advancing health equity through CTSA programs: Opportunities for interaction between health equity, dissemination and implementation, and translational science.

Reza Yousefi Nooraie,Prajakta Adsul,Bethany M Kwan,Mona Auyoung,Rachel C Shelton,Elizabeth Cohn,Megan Clarke Roberts

doi:10.1017/cts.2020.10

Abstract

Dissemination and implementation (D&I) science is dedicated to studying how to effectively translate and apply research in real-world contexts. There has been increasing interest in health equity within the D&I field to ensure the equitable implementation of evidence-based programs/practices across a range of diverse populations and settings. At the same time, health equity researchers recognize the potential of D&I science to promote the more widespread dissemination, implementation, and sustainment of evidence-based interventions to address health inequities. The National Center for Accelerating Clinical and Translational Science Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program has been a champion for community engagement and translational scholarship in its mission to improve individual and population health. The overall CTSA infrastructure and resources within and among CTSA hubs are well-equipped to facilitate a health equity focus to D&I across the phases of translational research. This paper proposes a framework that demonstrates the interaction and opportunities between health equity and D&I science and highlights how CTSAs can support and facilitate wider efforts in translational research with a focus on equitable D&I.

Highlights

Dissemination and implementation (D&I) science is a dynamically growing field that focuses on reducing the gap between research and practice [1]
Building off of existing health equity and D&I scholarship and literature, we propose that two central domains of health equity and D&I interact, as depicted in the EQ-DI framework (Fig. 1)
We argue that Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) programs have the potential to support EQ-DI by providing services and the infrastructure to facilitate the interaction between D&I, health equity, and translational science in part by leveraging existing priority areas of CTSAs including community and stakeholder engagement, workforce development and training, and team science, and providing financial support of priority areas across the translational research continuum

Summary

Introduction

Dissemination and implementation (D&I) science is a dynamically growing field that focuses on reducing the gap between research and practice [1]. Recognition of how health equity, D&I, and translational science intersect and how these domains can inform and sensitize one another and be operationalized can facilitate the development of more integrated conceptual frameworks, and the development, dissemination, implementation, and sustainability of effective interventions to address inequities and bridge knowledge-to-action gaps [15].

Results

Conclusion