Closing the chasm between research and practice: evidence of and for change
Lawrence W. Green
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Medicine, Helen Diller Comprehensive Cancer Center and Center for Tobacco Research and Education, 66 Santa Paula Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127, USA. Email: lwgreen@comcast.net
Health Promotion Journal of Australia 25(1) 25-29 https://doi.org/10.1071/HE13101
Submitted: 12 November 2013 Accepted: 25 November 2013 Published: 26 March 2014
Journal Compilation © Australian Health Promotion Association 2014
Abstract
The usual remedy suggested for bridging the science-to-practice gap is to improve the efficiency of disseminating the evidence-based practices to practitioners. This reflection on the gap takes the position that it is the relevance and fit of the evidence with the majority of practices that limit its applicability and application in health promotion and related behavioural, community and population-level interventions where variations in context, values and norms make uniform interventions inappropriate. To make the evidence more relevant and actionable to practice settings and populations will require reforms at many points in the research-to-practice pipeline. These points in the pipeline are described and remedies for them suggested.
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