The Meaning of Translational Research and Why It Matters
Open accessAbstract
Translational research means different things to different people, but it seems important to almost everyone. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has made translational research a priority, forming centers of translational research at its institutes and launching the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) program in 2006. With 24 CTSA-funded academic centers already established, other universities are transforming themselves to compete for upcoming CTSA grants. By 2012, the NIH expects to fund 60 such centers with a budget of $500 million per year.1 Besides academic centers, foundations, industry, disease-related organizations, and individual hospitals and health systems have also established translational research programs and at least 2 journals (Translational Medicine and the Journal of Translational Medicine) are devoted to the topic. By some accounts, translational research has become a centerpiece of the European Commission's 6 billion budget for health-related research, and the United Kingdom . . .
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Therefore, evidence-based interventions have not yet achieved their potential to affect public health at the population level.
“Thus, the potential for EBIs to have an impact on population-wide public health has not been realized (e.g., Woolf 2008).”
From Translational research in South Africa: evaluating implementation quality using a factorial design (2012) · cites this paper as Woolf 2008
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“have gradually increased attention to "translation research" [9-14], seeking to shorten the 17 years from when an intervention is shown to be effective and when it is widely applied [15].”
Background
- Authors
- Woolf, S. H.
- Affiliations
- Virginia Commonwealth University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Woolf, Steven H.
- ORCID
- Woolf, Steven H.
- Venue
- JAMA
- Publisher
- American Medical Association (AMA)
- Published
- 2008-01-09
- Volume
- 299
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 211-3
- ISSN
- 0002-9955 (ISSN-L)
- 0098-7484
- OpenAlex
- W2132810818
- Cited by
- 1,910
- References
- 18
- Citations by year
- 2026: 50 · 2025: 65 · 2024: 72 · 2023: 77 · 2022: 56 · 2021: 119 · 2020: 74 · 2019: 107 · 2018: 119 · 2017: 109 · 2016: 121 · 2015: 145 · 2014: 135 · 2013: 147 · 2012: 143
- FWCI
- 122.20
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- JAMA (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- University Libraries (University of Maryland) (submittedVersion)
- Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (University of Maryland College Park)
- Topics
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Health and Medical Research Impacts
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Information Systems and Management › Interdisciplinary Research and Collaboration
- Health Sciences › Medicine › Reproductive Medicine › Science, Research, and Medicine
- Keywords
- translational research, research priorities, evidence-based practice
- MeSH terms
- Diffusion of Innovation, Health Services Research, National Institutes of Health (U.S.), United States, Biomedical Research
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