Knowledge translation is a relatively new area due to the new problem of having too much research. In this podcast, I discuss the background behind it as well as review my poster from AOTA Inspire 22 Conference. I believe strongly all healthcare professionals should understand this topic as it impacts us all on a daily basis.
Resources mentioned in the show:
Welcome to the OT digest podcast. I'm your host, Katie Caspero, the founder of OT, graphically.com, where I synthesize research individually appealing to. On this podcast, we take research and make it more fun and interesting in order to quickly hear the most updated evidence all around the world. I interview authors, share research tips and provide practical examples that I hope we can use and incorporate into your interventions the very next day.
Thanks for listening.
Hello everybody. And welcome to the OT digest podcast. , my name is Katie Caspero, and today I will be doing a solo episode called what is knowledge, translation, and why you should know about it. So this is a podcast based on my presentation at the AOTA conference, a poster I did, which was titled the use of infographics to support knowledge translation.
But I thought I wanted to back up a little bit and just share the importance of knowing that term and also why as clinicians and researchers and policy makers, basically everybody needs to know about this term and why it's kind of a new issue. So I'm just going to spend a little time today going over my poster, and then just give you a few extra, kind of my own thoughts around this topic in why.
I'm passionate about it and why I think OTs have a really important role in it as we do many things. So right now I'm sure if you have at all been following me in any capacity, you probably know this fact because I use it a lot in shared a lot, because it's basically the reason why I started OT graphically, because I thought it was such a big issue.
So it currently takes about 15 to 17 years, depending on the type of healthcare research to put that research that was published into our daily clinical practice. And in addition to that, there are up to 2 million papers published every year on the topics of healthcare. So just keeping up with that is.
A lot in a lot to sort through. So as healthcare clinicians, we struggle to find the information quickly and then use it in our practice. So we ended up using out of date practices, which impacts quality of care. So this is actually really important. It's also a new issue because. People are getting really great at doing research and there's a lot of great things coming out, but now we have the challenge of trying to keep up with that while also having a full caseload while also trying to remember what a P value is while also trying to just have occupational balance.
So there really needs to be more solutions related to how to actually. Do this in a way that is sustainable and also helpful for the reality of OTs and other healthcare professionals. So research papers are really valued in the academic community, but for us as clinicians and also other people on the frontline, it needs to be communicated beyond those traditional means because.
A lot of times, um, academic papers and posters are also communicated in a way that is, can be lengthy and also time consuming to write. So knowledge translation is kind of a vague word. When I first learned about it. I didn't, you can't really understand what it is just by knowing those two words together, but basically it takes knowledge and information and makes it accessible for the implementation or the use of healthcare research.
That's my definition from what I've. Been working on and what I've learned. Uh, but the actual official definition is from the Canadian Institute of health. Um, so it talks specifically about Canadians in this, but it describes knowledge translation as the exchange synthesis, an ethically sound application of knowledge within a complex system of interactions among researchers and users to accelerate the capture of the benefits of research.
So it's again, a complex process. We D we know that we don't just listen to a class or go to a course and just immediately use the information. Uh, so there needs to be interventions that support how to actually put the research into practice. So why it's important to know about is because of all this information and also just being able to provide the best quality care to our clients.
I always say this. If my parents were getting in healthcare intervention for something that was going on with them, that was 17 years out of date. I would be upset because that there is something better out there and somebody is not using it. So it's really important for us to know this term and also be able to use it in a way that we can have people who are supporting us, be able to do this.
Um, in a way that is helpful to us because we can not do it on our own and we have to support one another. So kind of shifting a little bit, my poster goes into the process of using infographics. So how do infer grasses, infographics support this process? So knowledge translation can be a lot of things.
Um, especially when you're a researcher thinking about how do I share my information. Ah, The people that are going to be using it, my stakeholders, it can be using an infographic, but it can also be something like a podcast like this thinking if you are someone that's thinking about how do I translate it?
Um, one thing to really consider before you even start the process is to think who is going to be using this. W how are they going to be using. And what are the words they use and how can I be able to communicate to them in a language that they understand? And then also, what outcome do I want? So what do I want them to do once they finish reading it?
Whereas as in the marketing world, we say, what's the call to action at the end. So these are just some things to think about. If you were. Considering creating something that will support that knowledge translation. Now I want to kind of share a little bit about another couple of words that we usually actually hear more in the United States.
So I know I mentioned that knowledge translation kind of started in CA I don't know if it started, but it's very, um, prevalent in Canada and Canada has a lot of great resources related to it. And. Used a lot more in outside of the United States from my experience, but we hear a lot about dissemination and implementation, which are another two big words that when I heard them, I didn't really understand what that meant.
And also was just confused by them and they didn't really think they were important, but dissemination is basically sharing information and getting it out there in the world. Um, things like social media. Twitter, really just getting the word out there. It's very obviously related to knowledge translation, but implementation is actually taking that and putting it into action.
And I would say knowledge translation is a little bit of both of those things. So I think sometimes we can get caught up in the words, but it's good to know that those have kind of slightly different definitions and also other people might be talking about the same thing or part of the same thing when they're using those words.
But there is a framework for this as there is for many things. Um, it's called the knowledge to action framework and it actually is what guides our company here at OT graphically. So basically the parts that we try to use on this knowledge to action framework, I'll put it in the show notes so you can get a better idea, but basically it starts with synthesizing the knowledge.
And creating some tools to help with that, which is what our infographics try to do. And then we look at identifying, okay, what's the clinical problem or trying to find out, or what is the information we need that we don't have access to, or that we need to go find. And then it looks at how do we take that information and adapt it to wherever it's going to be used?
Kind of what I talked about before, what is the intended use? Where is it going to be used in how, and then also assessing, okay, what might be some barriers ahead of time to using this information? Are some people going to be upset that this change is coming and why, and what might be some of the argument counter arguments against it, because that can also guide how you translate the information.
And again, this is a little bit more, this is the knowledge to action framework. So it kind of combines knowledge, translation, and implementation together. Then once you have done an intervention or Denis specific activity to help use the information as always, you have to see if it worked. And I.
Assessments and, and gather data as to, oh, did how many people actually started doing that reminder once they did this certain note or how many people, um, we're actually putting that in a goal. Um, how many people were chatting with families about that or things that you can, you know, uh, interview clinicians afterwards.
Hey, did you do this? Was it easy? Was it hard and really be able to evolve? Whether that was put into action, which sounds simple, but it actually is pretty complicated. Um, there are some tools to be able to do that, but I think just focusing on like one thing at a time is really important when it comes to them.
And then lastly, if it is working. To be able to sustain that. So if you have new staff or if there's, um, people that do it for a little while and then kind of drop off, how do you keep that consistent knowledge? Um, in part of the daily routine and habits, as we know, so well as occupational therapists. So it is a process and it also, it's, it's a little bit of a cycle, but it also can go back and forth.
And as you trial different things, but if this is so important and also. Just really, um, where things can get stuck and where that 17 year gap can happen, because we have the information clearly, but how do we actually put it into our daily practice? And that we know there are a lot of barriers even just to getting, you know, doing one new thing.
And I think, um, this topic as we talk about it more. Is just going to be the new challenge for our, for our clinicians and our generation, um, which is a good problem to have, but it's means we have to try to think creatively and outside the box. So, yeah, that's all I have to share about for today. This is a quick one.
I'm pretty concise. I usually don't talk this long, especially not in the other podcast. So always try to keep it short and sweet. But if you have any questions or want to learn more, or if you're trying to translate something and you're getting stuck, or you're trying to figure out what intervention is best.
One thing I actually recommend is called the read meat checklist. You can look it up online. I'll put it in the show notes, but it's basically for people who are trying to select which knowledge translation tool will be beneficial for which audience so great resource there. And as always, if you're interested, we have a membership of infographics of research that you can help, that can help you stay up to date.
It's called the OT graphically library. We have so many great members in there from all different. Backgrounds and really great, um, expertise. And, uh, we have two journal clubs a month, as well as we also have a community where people can ask these clinical questions and problem solve how to do this implementation and knowledge translation process.
So if you're interested in that checkout OT, graphically deck, I wanted to spend a few minutes thinking a few people that helped make this podcast specifically what it is today. First of all, I learned a lot of this information through an advanced certificate in clinical practice of implementation in evidence at the university of Pittsburgh.
I wanted to take, thank my professors, Dr. Pam Toto for introducing me to this knowledge to action framework by grant. Dr. Julene Rodakowski for helping me remember what a P value was for a Dr. Alyson Stover for helping me find my voice and helping share this with the world and for Dr. Carolyn Kerr for helping me learn more about how change management and implementation is really one in the same.
Thank you so much. I owe a lot of this to you all. Thank you for believing in me and allowing me to continue this. When things were tough, you have all been instrumental in this process. .