Research transfer

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Research transfer tools and resources Example of good research transfer

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Research transfer is about getting knowledge and information out into the community and into use by health services, governments and others. This means ensuring the research is done in a way that makes it most likely to be relevant and of use—and to be used—to inform and bring about positive change.

This has led to a concerted focus at the beginning of a project to make sure it’s designed to translate into policy and practice. This means that Aboriginal organisations, individuals and other people most likely to use the research have to be involved from the beginning so that the research will result in findings that are useful and credible to the Aboriginal health sector. Aboriginal people, organisations and communities can then start to have a more positive view of research and how it can contribute to problem solving and social change.

Different research transfer activities are used for different groups of stakeholders. For research transfer to be successful, it usually involves more than one of these activities.

Research transfer can occur from the researchers’ side (known as ‘push’ strategies, which push research out to an audience) or from the research users’ side (known as ‘pull’ strategies, where research users such as health services draw on research for their own use).

Research transfer activities by a researcher or research organisation might include:

bringing together community members and policy makers to understand each other’s perspectives on a particular issue;
yarning with community members under a tree;
health services reflecting on their practices through involvement in research activities;
formal meetings with politicians and policy makers;
organising a radio interview with researchers;
speaking at a community council meeting;
distributing community reports;
promoting research findings through press releases;
publishing peer review journal articles;
using policy briefs to promote research to policy makers;
presenting findings at conferences; and
corridor conversations.

From the research user’s viewpoint (for example, someone working in an Aboriginal health service), research transfer might involve:

searching on the Internet for reliable information about the causes and treatments of a disease;

using a treatment manual to check safe dose levels for medicines;

using research evidence to help secure funding for a new health program;

asking a researcher to present at a staff meeting;

ringing an organisation like the CRC for Aboriginal Health to find out who is an expert in a particular treatment or way of working, so the user can talk to them directly;

using patient data from the user's own organisation to work out what's being done well and where improvements are needed; (eg ABCD project)

evaluating a new program to tell if it really makes a difference.

Research transfer tools and resources

Research Leading to Change [pdf]

Example of good research transfer

Sharing the True Stories:
Project Leaders: Isaac Brown / Michael Christie, Charles Darwin University

Although language plays a crucial role in any effective relationship between doctor and patient most Aboriginal people in the NT speak English only as a third or fourth language, and few doctors speak even one Aboriginal language.

This project charts this extraordinary communication gap with an action research project involving kidney specialists, dialysis unit staff, Aboriginal interpreters, patients and families. As one doctor commented: ‘We knew we had problems with communication – we didn’t realise we weren’t getting anything across.’

The research transfer activities included:

carrying out the project within health services, with practitioners and patients to act as communicators and champions of the findings to their peers;
engaging with policy-makers, middle management and the public through ministerial launches of strategies and resources;
educating the Aboriginal health workforce by means of introducing strategies and resources into existing in-service opportunities, professional development schedules and cultural awareness training programs;
mentoring, educating and training Yolngu interpreters within the Aboriginal interpreter workforce in health interpreting in hospital, renal unit and self-care HHD contexts;
contributing abstracts, presentations and keynote addresses to a number of conferences and workshops at international, national and NT forums;
consulting with and obtaining cultural validation of strategies and resources among Yolngu client and communities groups in Darwin and in a number of Yol\u remote communities;
evaluating the potential transferability of the research process, strategies and resources within the framework of the NT Renal Services roll-out of satellite renal units and the option of HHD services; and
developing and maintaining the STTS web site and project database as repositories for project findings and resources and as ongoing resources to link to related research.¹

Following these activities: the research transfer outcomes have included:

Aboriginal Interpreter Services Guidelines have been implemented across the delivery of health care in the NT;
increased use of interpreters at the Darwin Hospital;
the Nightcliff Renal Unit re-organised its activity so that patients from a particular language group attended the unit on the same day, making access to interpreters easier and ensuring patients were not isolated from family; and
Other hospitals, health services and renal units across the NT have sought the help of the project team to improve their own cross-cultural communication.

¹ Coulehan, K., Brown, I., Christie, M., Gorham, G., Lowell, A., Marr\anyin., and Patel, B., 2005, Sharing the true stories, Evaluating strategies to improve communication between health staff and Aboriginal patients, STAGE 2 Report, Cooperative Research Centre for Aboriginal Health, Darwin.

For reports, resources and more information, go to www.sharingtruestories.com