Important steps to improve translation from medical research to health policy
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Important steps to improve translation from medical research to health policy Fan Jiang1, Jun Zhang2, Xiangdong Wang3 and Xiaoming Shen1,2*
Abstract Translational medicine entails not only “from-bench-to-bedside” but also preventive medicine. The present article proposes a conceptual framework of translational research from scientific research to health care policy and public health policy. We highlight the importance of translational medicine to bridge between research and policy and share our experience of translating medical research to public health policy in China as well as obstacles and challenges we are facing in the translation process.
Background Translational Medicine (TM) has become a fashionable term in medical society and seems important to almost everyone despite that the term is variably defined by different stakeholders. It was described as a “from bench to bedside” pathway in early 1990s when the concept of TM had just emerged. More specifically, it referred to “the transfer of new understandings of disease mechanisms gained in the laboratory into the development of new methods for diagnosis, therapy, and prevention” [1]. Such a definition was commonly accepted and even adapted to categorize types of life-science researchers [2,3]. However, it is being increasingly recognized that this definition is incomplete within the overall TM concept and neglects the importance of health policy. The disconnection between research and health policy was described as “Sound of one hand clapping”, which may have contributed to the scarcity of TM studies on health policy. For instance, we reviewed articles published in two specialty journals in TM: Journal of Translational Medicine from January, 2007 to June, 2012 and Science Translational Medicine from October, 2009 to June, 2012. Among the 833 published articles, only one focused on government implementation of public policies [4].
* Correspondence: [email protected] 1 Department of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, Shanghai Children’s Medical Center, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China 2 Ministry of Education-Shanghai Key Laboratory of Children’s Environmental Health, Xinhua Hospital, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, China Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
Several TM frameworks have been proposed in recent years [5-7]. T3 activities of the policy making in the road map of TM proposed by Dougherty and Conway address “how” health care is delivered [5]. Others emphasized that public health policy should be included into TM framework [6,7]. However, the role of health policy in the TM model has not been clearly illustrated. We emphasize the importance of health policy in achieving the ultimate goal of improving population health here using two examples from China, and discuss obstacles and challenges that we are facing in the translation from medical research to health policy, an integral part of translational medicine. We would like
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