The role of transdisciplinary collaboration in translating and disseminating health research: lessons learned and exemplars of success.

In the past few decades, significant advances have been made related to understanding, preventing, and treating chronic disease. Given these many advances across multiple disciplines, it is unclear why the potential for yielding substantial reduction in disease has not been achieved overall and across various subgroups. Socioeconomic and racial/ethnic disparities in a wide range of disease outcomes persist, and a number of studies highlight the importance of further improving behavioral risk-factor prevalence on a population level. The goal of this paper is to explore the role of transdisciplinary collaboration in the translation of research related to these vexing public health problems, and, in particular, to explore factors that appear to facilitate effective and sustainable translation. Transdisciplinary collaboration also has great potential to speed the rate of adoption of evidence-based practices. Examples of transdisciplinary collaborations in academic and community settings are provided, along with factors that may influence the long-term outcomes of transdisciplinary efforts.

[1]  Paul A Estabrooks,et al.  Beginning with the application in mind: Designing and planning health behavior change interventions to enhance dissemination , 2005, Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

[2]  G. Ruddy,et al.  Transdisciplinary Teams in Primary Care for the Underserved: A Literature Review , 2005, Journal of health care for the poor and underserved.

[3]  C. Orleans.  The behavior change consortium: expanding the boundaries and impact of health behavior change research , 2005, Annals of behavioral medicine : a publication of the Society of Behavioral Medicine.

[4]  F. Marincola.  Translational Medicine: A two-way road , 2003, Journal of Translational Medicine.

[5]  G. Colditz,et al.  A qualitative evaluation of the Harvard Cancer Risk Index. , 1999, Journal of health communication.

[6]  S. Syme,et al.  Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research , 2001 .

[7]  Sheana S Bull,et al.  Interactive behavior change technology. A partial solution to the competing demands of primary care. , 2004, American journal of preventive medicine.

[8]  G A Colditz,et al.  Strategies for minimizing cancer risk. , 1996, Scientific American.

[9]  K. Emmons,et al.  Introduction to the special section on dissemination: dissemination research and research dissemination: how can we close the gap? , 2005, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.

[10]  P. Rosenfield,et al.  The potential of transdisciplinary research for sustaining and extending linkages between the health and social sciences. , 1992, Social science & medicine.

[11]  George A. Kaplan,et al.  The contribution of social and behavioral research to an understanding of the distribution of disease: a multilevel approach , 2000 .

[12]  Lisa M Klesges,et al.  Behavior change intervention research in healthcare settings: a review of recent reports with emphasis on external validity. , 2002, American journal of preventive medicine.

[13]  David B Abrams,et al.  Applying Transdisciplinary Research Strategies to Understanding and Eliminating Health Disparities , 2006, Health education & behavior : the official publication of the Society for Public Health Education.

[14]  Erika A. Waters,et al.  Reducing aversion to side effects in preventive medical treatment decisions. , 2007, Journal of experimental psychology. Applied.

[15]  K. Emmons,et al.  Model for incorporating social context in health behavior interventions: applications for cancer prevention for working-class, multiethnic populations. , 2003, Preventive medicine.

[16]  W. Willett,et al.  Harvard Report on Cancer Prevention Volume 4: Harvard Cancer Risk Index , 2004, Cancer Causes & Control.

[17]  Susan E. Hankinson,et al.  Healthy women, healthy lives : a guide to preventing disease from the landmark Nurses' Health Study , 2001 .

[18]  E. Rimm,et al.  Proportion of colon cancer risk that might be preventable in a cohort of middle-aged US men , 2004, Cancer Causes & Control.

[19]  Paul A Estabrooks,et al.  Translating effective clinic-based physical activity interventions into practice. , 2006, American journal of preventive medicine.

[20]  Robert Fletcher,et al.  Tailored Computer-Based Cancer Risk Communication: Correcting Colorectal Cancer Risk Perception , 2004, Journal of health communication.

[21]  Soldano Ferrone,et al.  Lost in Translation: Obstacles to Translational Medicine , 2004, Journal of Translational Medicine.

[22]  B. Israel,et al.  Engaging Urban Residents in Assessing Neighborhood Environments and Their Implications for Health , 2006, Journal of Urban Health.

[23]  B. Israel,et al.  Review of community-based research: assessing partnership approaches to improve public health. , 1998, Annual review of public health.

[24]  Erika A. Waters,et al.  Formats for Improving Risk Communication in Medical Tradeoff Decisions , 2006, Journal of health communication.

[25]  D. Stokols.  Establishing and maintaining healthy environments. Toward a social ecology of health promotion. , 1992, The American psychologist.

[26]  L. Goldman,et al.  Cost-effectiveness of populationwide educational approaches to reduce serum cholesterol levels. , 1997, Circulation.

[27]  Parminder Raina,et al.  A systematic review of studies evaluating diffusion and dissemination of selected cancer control interventions. , 2005, Health psychology : official journal of the Division of Health Psychology, American Psychological Association.