Knowledge Translation at the Macro Level: Legal and Ethical Considerations

Abstract

Macro-level legal and ethical issues play a significant role in the successful translation of knowledge into practice. The medicolegal milieu, in particular, can promote clinical inertia and stifle innovation. Embracing new clinical practice guidelines and best practice models has not protected physicians from superfluous torts; in some cases, emerging evidence has been used as the dagger of trial lawyers rather than the scalpel of physicians. Beyond the legal challenges are overarching justice issues that frame the broad goals of knowledge translation (KT) and technology diffusion. Optimal implementation of the latest evidence requires attention to be paid to the context of the candidate community and the key opinion leaders therein, characterized by the ''8Ps'' (public, patients, press, physicians, policy makers, private sector, payers, and public health). Ethical and equitable KT also accounts for the global burdens and benefits of implementing innovation such that disparities and gaps in health experienced by the least advantaged are prioritized. Researchers and thought leaders must attend to questions of fairness, economics, and legal risk when investigating ways to promote equity-oriented KT.

‘Just Knowledge’: Can Social Work’s ‘Guilty Knowledge’ Help Build a More Inclusive Knowledge Society?

“…For example, Larkin (2007), operating from a distributive paradigm, has made a case for saying translation initiatives should prioritise interventions according to their likelihood of preventing morbidity and mortality. But Ellison (2016), notes the incompleteness of this perspective arguing that a more just approach would also entail looking at how all science is practiced and applied, and what strategies are needed to bring marginalised people into the research folds and ensure that its advances are accessible to everyone.…”

Knowledge Translation, a Challenge in Nursing Practice in the 21st Century

“…And since that time, the use of the term has grown dramatically, with a tenfold increase revealed by a search of Medline from 1990-2006. Although KT is widely used according to Khoddam et al in (14),( 18), (19) , there is a plethora of other terms that have been used interchangeably in the literature e.g. knowledge transfer, research utilization, evidence implementation.…”

Educational and Research Advances Stemming from the Academic Emergency Medicine Consensus Conference in Knowledge Translation

“…This conference had as its objective the articulation of a research agenda and coordinated initiative in the specialty of emergency medicine (EM) 1 . The conference yielded a series of consensus papers that prioritized research directions and questions in KT as perceived from a myriad of scientific, educational, and policy perspectives 2–14 . The objective of this article is to describe one research and two educational enterprises that were either modeled on or arose from the 2007conference.…”