Starting a Dialogue: Athletic Training Researchers and Clinicians

Knowledge Translation in Athletic Training: Considerations for Bridging the Knowledge-to-Practice Gap

“…Several calls have been made in athletic training to breakdown such silos and bridge the gap between research and clinical practice. [14][15][16] Furthermore, it is important to highlight that roles do exist where an individual engages in both research and clinical practice (e.g., clinician scientists, scholarly clinicians). Therefore, to avoid the use of dichotomous terms such as researcher and clinician, in this paper we will refer to individuals who regularly create and disseminate new knowledge or evidence as knowledge producers and those who routinely interpret and utilize new knowledge or evidence as knowledge users.…”

“…In short, knowledge producers, knowledge users, and professional organizations that offer continuing education platforms (e.g., NATA, BOC) have to work together so that the knowledge users can effectively and efficiently adapt what the knowledge producers create and disseminate into routine clinical practice. This not only requires that these three groups work together to ensure clinically meaningful evidence is created and disseminated, 14 but also that each group identifies strategies to assist in the KT process.…”

“…15,16 Over the last decade, there have been general calls for researchers and clinicians to collaborate in order to narrow the research to practice gap on a global scale. [14][15][16] Recently, Driban & Laursen 14 further highlighted this gap and proposed several activities for both clinicians and researchers to aid in bridging the gap between athletic training research and clinical practice. While these activities provide a strong foundational stepping stone to align athletic training research and clinical practice, most focus on collaboration throughout the research process with some focus on collaborative dissemination strategies.…”

“…Despite these efforts however, clinicians may continue to struggle to translate new evidence and overcome obstacles within their own local context, particularly if they do not have a strong community of O n l i n e F i r s t practice. Therefore, in addition to the activities for evidence creation and dissemination suggested by Driban & Laursen, 14 athletic training researchers and clinicians should consider KT models, to help translate knowledge disseminated into knowledge utilized. This is a critical phase in the EBP process and, if implemented effectively, may help to reduce health care costs, improve patient outcomes, and enhance the overall quality of care provided by athletic trainers.…”

The Pandemic as an Opportunity to Reflect on Athletic Training Research

“…How can we streamline the translation from research to bedside and bedside to research? 8 How can we dispel or prevent the uptake of pseudo treatments? Answering these questions will require a discussion among researchers, editors, publishers, funding agencies, and other professional organizations.…”