Pathways to Advancing Aging Policy-Relevant Research in Academic Settings

Recognition of knowledge translation practice in Canadian health sciences tenure and promotion: A content analysis of institutional policy documents

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE

There has been growing emphasis on increasing impacts of academic health research by integrating research findings in healthcare. The concept of knowledge translation (KT) has been widely adopted in Canada to guide this work, although lack of recognition in tenure and promotion (T&P) structures have been identified as barrier to researchers undertaking KT. Our objective was to explore how KT is considered in institutional T&P documentation in Canadian academic health sciences.

METHODS

We conducted content analysis of T&P documents acquired from 19 purposively sampled research-intensive or largest regional Canadian institutions in 2020-2021. We coded text for four components of KT (synthesis, dissemination, exchange, application). We identified clusters of related groups of documents interpreted together within the same institution. We summarized manifest KT content with descriptive statistics and identified latent categories related to how KT is considered in T&P documentation.

RESULTS

We acquired 89 unique documents from 17 institutions that formed 48 document clusters. Most of the 1057 text segments were categorized as dissemination (n = 851, 81%), which was included in 47 document clusters (98%). 15 document clusters (31%) included all four KT categories, while one (2%) did not have any KT categories identified. We identified two latent categories: primarily implicit recognition of KT; and an overall lack of clarity on KT.

CONCLUSIONS

Our analysis of T&P documents from primarily research-intensive Canadian universities showed a lack of formal recognition for a comprehensive approach to KT and emphasis on traditional dissemination. We recommend that institutions explicitly and comprehensively consider KT in T&P and align documentation and procedures to reflect these values.

Bridging the epidemiology-policy divide: A consequential and evidence-based framework to optimize population health

Epidemiology is the scientific cornerstone of public health. Its traditional role has been to test scientific hypotheses on causal relationships of exposures with health outcomes, the results of which should in turn be synthesized and lead to evidence-based recommendations and the formation of policy. However, the messy truth is that the path from epidemiology to policy is frequently not a perfectly rational, linear one, and the choices of which scientific hypotheses are pursued and the ways in which they are tested, evaluated, and translated into policies do not occur systematically. One avenue for bridging this divide is widespread adoption and implementation of a consequential, evidence-based framework-whereby we can systematically facilitate the translation of epidemiology into policies and interventions to optimize population health. This paper describes the roadmap for a seven-step, outcomes-based consequential approach, that includes priority-setting of problems at both the federal and regional/state levels, and that proposes to strengthen alignment of public and private research funding and journals with these priorities. Over the long term, implementing this framework should help to bridge the divide between epidemiology and policy and optimize the use of increasingly constrained resources to reduce disease burden and promote the nation's health.

Enhancing Evidence-Based Public Health Policy: Developing and Using Policy Narratives

Academic researchers and clinicians have a critical role in shaping public policies to improve the health of an aging America. Policy narratives that pair personal stories with research statistics are a powerful tool to share knowledge generated in academic and clinical settings with policymakers. Effective policy narratives rely on a trustworthy and competent narrator and a compelling story that highlights the personal impact of policies under consideration and academic research that bolsters the story. Awareness of the cultural differences in the motivations, expectations, and institutional constraints of academic researchers and clinicians as information producers and U.S. Congress and federal agencies as information users is critical to the development of policy narratives that impact policy decisions. The current article describes the development and use of policy narratives to bridge cultures and enhance evidence-based public health policies that better meet the needs of older adults. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 42(6), 11-17.].