Open AccessThe Role of Human Agents in Facilitating Clinical and Translational Science
Author(s) -
David Johnson J.
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
clinical and translational science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.303
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1752-8062
pISSN - 1752-8054
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-8062.2011.00379.x
Subject(s) - translational science , variety (cybernetics) , perspective (graphical) , translational research , key (lock) , process (computing) , strengths and weaknesses , engineering ethics , data science , knowledge management , epistemology , sociology , political science , psychology , computer science , medicine , social psychology , social science , artificial intelligence , pathology , engineering , philosophy , computer security , operating system
The fundamental problem confronting policymakers who desire to facilitate the development of clinical and translational science (CTS) comes in bringing people with disparate interests, vocabularies, cultures, goals, and so forth together for a common purpose. A variety of roles have been suggested for individuals who may play key parts in this overall process: opinion leaders, change agents, boundary spanners, structural hole brokers, and, finally, collaborative knowledge brokers. This essay will systematically review these key roles; focusing on the strengths and weaknesses of each to illustrate their part in approaches to solving this problem. The implications of this perspective will be discussed in terms of the role that human agents can play in facilitating CTS. Clin Trans Sci 2012; Volume 5: 356–361