Health Services and Delivery Research 4(33) November 2016
- The researchers explored the role of health-care knowledge and innovation transfer ‘agents’ (KITs) based in AHSNs in supporting the transfer and mobilisation of knowledge from producers to users of knowledge.
- While challenging it was possible to draw attention to specific projects with measurable outcomes to which agents contributed.
- The researchers suggest five implications for knowledge brokering:
- Individual dispositions, such as an attentive and proactive approach to the role and the work, and status (i.e. relevant practitioner experience) were centrally important to KIT agent success. Person specifications and recruitment processes would benefit from being reflective of these attributes.
- These roles take time to develop and require flexibility on behalf of the organisation. Longer-term views to assessing the roles are necessary, which we note might be in tension with short-term fellowships. A potential medium-term approach, as discussed by our nominal group, could usefully entail the use of case studies.
- Some agents expressed feelings of isolation. It would be fruitful to explore how communities of practice could be developed to counter this.
- Confusion about who leads and supports QI was a challenge for KIT agents that needs to be addressed to avoid duplication, territorialism and wasted resources.
- Multiple skills are required to use local data for service improvement. This raises implications for training.
