K. Ann McKibbon and Cynthia Lokker
Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

Download: Presentation (PDF, 180KB)

People involved in KT research and practice need to identify information from several categories:

• Evidence and evidence summaries (e.g., systematic reviews, clinical practice guidelines, health technology assessments [HTAs])
• Evidence to develop knowledge syntheses that form the basis of guidelines
• Successful KT interventions
• Information describing the theoretical bases (e.g., KT models or frameworks) important for designing and evaluating KT

Purpose

The purpose of this chapter is to provide:

• A description of where information can be found, and
• Vocabulary to use when searching for resources.

Getting started: how do we find knowledge syntheses?

Systematic reviews (including meta-analyses)

• Medline, CINAHL or smaller databases
• Health-evidence.ca site for reviews in public health
• Cochrane (health) and Campbell (social science) Collaborations
• Joanna Briggs Institute in Australia (nursing and other disciplines)
• UK Centre for Reviews and Dissemination at the University of York (includes reviews, economics studies and health technology assessments)

Clinical practice guidelines

• US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality
• Canadian Medical Association
• NICE (UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Evidence)
• Guidelines International Network (GIN)

What should we do next: how do we search large databases?

• Examples are Medline (for medicine) or CINAHL (for nursing and allied health professionals)
• Additional sources described in Bzdel Resource Guide*
• Librarians can help with searching or search training
• Online tutorials (e.g., PubMed)
• Searching for KT interventions, theories or frameworks is difficult
• Filters such as PubMed Clinical Queries (RCTs or qualitative studies and health services research)
• KT Clearinghouse web site for other filters

* Bzdel, Winther and Graham (2004)

Should we search the Internet?

• For technical reports and other non-journal material
• Google or Google Scholar or other search engines
• TRIP – Turning Research into Practice Web site allows searching in multiple databases and resource collections from one search window

What are some existing collections of KT material?

• Atlantic Health Promotion Research Centre KT Library, Dalhousie University
• Canadian Health Services Research Foundation
• Centre for Health & Environment Research KT Database, University of British Columbia
• Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care Group, University of Ottawa
• Institute of Knowledge Transfer, UK
• KT+, McMaster University
• KU-UC, Laval University
• US National Center for the Dissemination of Disability Research library
• Research Transfer Network of Alberta (RTNA) Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research
• Research Utilization Support and Help (RUSH) Southeastern Educational Development Laboratory, Austin TX
• CIHR KT Clearinghouse, University of Toronto
• National Coordinating Centre for Methods and Tools. Public Health Agency of Canada
• Keenan Research Centre – Research Programs Joint Program in Knowledge Translation – Literature
• Program in Policy Decision-Making at McMaster University, Canada

How do we search the grey literature?

• Information not under the jurisdiction of commercial publishers
• Often published by governments, academic centres and businesses (electronic or paper)
• Difficult to identify and obtain.
• University of British Columbia (how to search for unpublished literature)
• New York Academy of Medicine
• SIGLE (System for Information in Grey Literature in Europe)
• HTAi Vortal for HTAs and economic studies

How can we search for literature about KT?

• Difficult as KT is a new field that interrelates with several existing disciplines
• Evolving and varied vocabulary with multiple terms for the same concept
• Researchers: knowledge translation (CA), research utilization, implementation or diffusion (US, UK)
• Business uses terms related to marketing, advertising and change management
• Engineers talk about technology transfer
• Clinicians deal with adoption of new techniques and evidence-based practice
• Policy makers speak of evidence-informed decisions

Future Research

• Research is required for producing search filters for Medline and CINAHL
• Need more data on proven retrieval methods for Internet-based resources
• Need consensus on definitions and mapping of terms across disciplines
• Develop search engines that can search effectively across many KT resources and sites

Summary

• Searching for existing knowledge is a major foundation of KT
• Producing and summarizing existing evidence from multiple sources to address knowledge or action gaps is an important first step
• KT researchers then need to learn about:
  • methods and tools used in previous KT projects
  • how best to build new programs
  • theoretical constructs of KT
• Searching for evidence is difficult because of vocabulary and its multidisciplinary nature
• Contact librarians and others with experience in searching to help