Abstract
BackgroundOver the past decade, Research Translation Centres (RTCs) have been established in many countries. These centres (sometimes referred to as Academic Health Science Centres) are designed to bring universities and healthcare providers together in order to accelerate the generation and translation of new evidence that is responsive to health service and community priorities. This has the potential to effectively ‘flip’ the traditional research and education paradigms because it requires active participation and continuous engagement with stakeholders (especially service users, the community and frontline clinicians). Although investment and expectations of RTCs are high, the literature confirms a need to better understand the processes that RTCs use to mobilise knowledge, build workforce capacity, and co-produce research with patients and the public to ensure population impact and drive healthcare improvement.MethodsSemi-structured interviews were conducted with selected leaders and members from select RTCs in England and Australia. Convenience sampling was utilised to identify RTCs, based on their geography, accessibility and availability. Purposive sampling and a snowballing approach were employed to recruit individual participants for interviews, which were conducted face to face or via videoconferencing. Interviews were recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using a reflexive and inductive approach. This involved two researchers comparing codes and interrogating themes that were analysed inductively against the study aims and through meetings with the research team.ResultsA total of 41 participants, 22 from England and 19 from Australia were interviewed. Five major themes emerged, including (1) dissonant metrics, (2) different models of leadership, (3) public and patient involvement and research co-production, (4) workforce development and (5) barriers to collaboration.ConclusionsParticipants identified the need for performance measures that capture community impact. Better aligned success metrics, enhanced leadership, strategies to partner with patients and the public, enhanced workforce development and strategies to enhance collaboration were all identified as crucial for RTCs to succeed.
Highlights
Over the past decade, Research Translation Centres (RTCs) have been established in many countries
RTCs share a common purpose to accelerate the generation and translation of new evidence by fostering meaningful collaboration and integration between universities, health services and education providers [5] and to generate research and education that is responsive to health service and community priorities [3]
Interviewers had no prior relationships with participants but all were engaged in a wider programme of research designed to support the development of policy and practice to support the ongoing evolution of RTCs
Summary
Research Translation Centres (RTCs) have been established in many countries. These centres (sometimes referred to as Academic Health Science Centres) are designed to bring universities and healthcare providers together in order to accelerate the generation and translation of new evidence that is responsive to health service and community priorities This has the potential to effectively ‘flip’ the traditional research and education paradigms because it requires active participation and continuous engagement with stakeholders (especially service users, the community and frontline clinicians). RTCs aim to develop a paradigm of active participation and ‘community centric’ integrated healthcare, education and research This is characterised by continuous engagement with stakeholders (especially service users, the community and frontline clinicians) to better understand priorities and health risks and to collectively generate priority knowledge to improve health outcomes [8, 9]. While RTCs offer a unique opportunity to drive an integrated, evidence-informed healthcare system, this endeavour requires a shift from traditional siloed research and poor translation, to a system where continuous collaborative learning and implementation become the focus
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