Our Impact

We work with researchers, policymakers, clinicians, leaders, patients and the public in Canada and around the world to put knowledge into practice. With emphasis on knowledge synthesis, implementation, patient and public engagement, and capacity-building, we aim to close the gap between research and practice. While our approach to knowledge translation is rooted in theory and science, our application of KT is uniquely practical, emphasizing real-world impact. We cover the entire spectrum of knowledge translation, from knowledge synthesis to dissemination, implementation, evaluation, and sustainability.

We are situated within the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital, part of Unity Health Toronto.

Advancing KT Practice

Our Impact on Patient Care

Some examples include:

Mobilizing older adults, reducing hospital stays by half in hundreds of hospitals across four countries, saving approximately $42 million in Ontario alone.
Optimizing chronic disease management in older adults, for example, doubling the number of people receiving osteoporosis screening and management, and doubling quality of life scores by decreasing episodes of urinary incontinence.
Enhancing access to COVID-19 assessments, treatments, and wellness resources in over 70 long-term care homes/retirement homes, and 15 shelters in Ontario. Learn more here: https://wellness-hub.ca/.

Our Impact in Policy

Some examples include:

Co-chairing the Royal Society of Canada Working Group on Health Research System Recovery, which produced the “Health Research System Recovery: Strengthening Canada’s Health Research System After the COVID-19 Pandemic” report.
Informing Canadian policy makers on the effectiveness, safety, and drug coverage of over 1,000 medications and vaccinations.
Developing knowledge mobilization plans for national and international organizations, including Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and World Health Organization (WHO).
Completing more than 60 COVID-19 projects that informed policy, including WHO guidance on long-term care home outbreaks.
Informing national and international practice guidelines on more than 100 topics such as cognitive enhancers, anti-emetics, shingles vaccine, lumbar punctures, and COVID-19 vaccines.

Our Impact in Capacity Building

Some examples include:

Engaging over 15,000 individuals (participants and partners) in 1,000+ KT training activities.
Supporting the establishment of KT units in multiple countries (including Colombia, Ethiopia, Kosovo, and Singapore), and supporting researchers with KT capacity building in more than 19 countries.
Supporting more than 70 graduate students and fellows to establish careers in academia, industry, government, and non-government organizations.

Advancing KT Science

Advancing KT science is a key component of our mission. Through innovative methods, studies within studies, and data-driven continuous improvement, we advance:

Knowledge synthesis methods, exploring and implementing innovations, such as Artificial Intelligence, to accelerate and refine evidence review and synthesis processes, delivering precise and timely results that inform learning health systems.
Patient engagement, integrating equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism principles and best practices in order to achieve outcomes that are relevant and meaningful to patients and the public.
Implementation science, furthering KT theories, models, and frameworks; integrating economic analysis into implementation research methods to improve return on investment; and optimizing learning health systems.

Intersectionality

We centre patient needs and perspectives in everything we do, striving to include patients as partners in all stages of research.
We apply an intersectionality lens throughout our work to foster a more comprehensive and nuanced approach to addressing inequalities and promoting inclusivity.
We complete trauma-informed equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) training and reflexive exercises before each project to consider our positionality and biases (conscious and unconscious), and the impact of these on inclusion and the research.
We are on the leading edge of work being done in to advance the integration of intersectionality into knowledge translation and learning health systems.

Learn more about our work in intersectionality through these publications: