About this Research Topic

Background

Knowledge translation is a critical activity that helps transform research results into new practices and policies that benefit health and society. Similar to other countries, the US has initiated a translational science research program in clinical research and public health. In the US, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) have addressed this challenge through the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Program. The charge of the CTSA Program is to transform the organization and infrastructure of the academic research enterprise to facilitate the movement of discoveries from clinical science to the bedside and community. Documenting the results of these efforts is a necessary component to assess outcomes, health and social impacts, and support continuous improvement. In the CTSA program, the 60 CTSA hubs, primarily located at academic health sciences research institutes across the nation, are just starting to systematically measure and evaluate the impacts of their activities. One example of tracking and assessing impact is the Translational Science Benefits Model (TSBM), introduced in 2018, which is one of the first frameworks for standardized documentation and dissemination of data on outcomes and impacts of translational science and translational research. Additionally, this Research Topic will explore and compare models and measurement tools used to assess the impact of translational science research internationally.

This Research Topic will highlight the use of the Translational Science Benefits Model (TSBM) and other impact evaluation models applied by investigators across a wide spectrum of medical and public health areas including CTSA hubs, community, international partners, and others. Although translational science is still in its infancy, much work is being conducted nationally and internationally to integrate impact evaluation on medical and public health practice, the economy, and health policy. In terms of a prevention orientation, the TSBM can be used to track program development, implementation, and impacts on preventing and addressing disease. The TSBM framework is also useful for changing the culture of academic research settings to place more value on health and social impacts, as well as providing training opportunities for early career investigators on how to ‘design for impact’ at the beginning of programmatic research.

The TSBM framework has been successfully deployed within the context of the CTSA Program. Sharing successful applications of the TSBM across a wider range of research, dissemination, and implementation is needed to fully understand its strengths and limitations, to refine and improve it further, and to study its application in a variety of contexts. Hence, this model has the potential to become a standard for systematic, comparable reporting of translational science impact on health and societal benefits. We aim to identify similar impact models deployed within international research settings.

The scope of this Research Topic includes advances in data collection methodology, analysis, and results from the application of the TSBM in the CTSA Program; as well as with community and international partners.

Specific themes might include, but are not limited to:
• Development and use of quantitative metrics and qualitative measures using the TSBM;
• TSBM as an educational intervention to train junior investigators on impact in translational science;
• Longitudinal evaluation to show potential and demonstrated impact in specific research areas, e.g. software development, public health policy change;
• Integrating social determinants of health, disparities, and equity in impact evaluation;
• Application of TSBM results to improve operations and translational science in core areas of CTSA hubs;
• TSBM is used to deliver new programs, applications, and community engagement to build cases in the 4 domains;
• Examples of TSBM used to track research findings into public health practice;
• Examples of international application of the TSBM and other impact models.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Editorial
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: translational science, translational science benefits model framework, practice and policy, impact evaluation models, medical and public health, health policy

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