An Introduction to the Knowledge Translation Special Issue of the Canadian Respiratory Journal

Health sciences research continues to progress at an astounding pace, with the discovery of novel molecules, therapies and technologies to yield ever newer health-related knowledge. Yet, despite the time and resources devoted to identify these myriad new ways to improve health, evaluations of actual care consistently demonstrate gaps between this medical knowledge (‘what we ought to be doing’) and its application in practice (‘what we are doing’) (1). The obvious implication is that our patients are not reaping the full benefits of advances in medical knowledge. Accordingly, organizations around the world are increasingly recognizing the danger of investment in knowledge creation without complementary investment in knowledge implementation. This paradigm shift has given rise to the science of knowledge translation (KT). What is KT? The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) defines KT as “a dynamic and iterative process that includes synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically-sound application of knowledge to improve the health of Canadians, provide more effective health services and products and strengthen the health care system” (2). More simply, KT is the act of closing the knowledge-to-practice gap, or the so-called ‘know-do’ gap. It subsumes all activities that occur after knowledge is created, including analysis of the magnitude of care gaps and barriers and facilitators to application of knowledge, development of strategies to overcome barriers and to utilize facilitators, and objective measurements of the success of these strategies and their sustainability (3).