Knowledge Broker Stories: How to go from broke to broker in 17 short years

I first told my story (at least my story to date) in a presentation for KMbW in February 2009. I graduated with my PhD in 1991 coming off a Medical Research Council doctoral scholarship at $15,000 per year (I have no idea how I managed to buy the beer I did – probably thanks to Mom). I identified and isolated a protein derived from insect blood that killed bacteria and (presumably) helped the bugs get better after they get a bacterial infection.

Meandered through a post-doctoral fellowship working in HIV/AIDS, and finally left the lab to join technology transfer, where I was brokering relationships between university researchers and industry around intellectual property (kind of but not quite like knowledge mobilization.

Continuing in this line of business, I worked at the Canadian Arthritis Network, and Canadian Institutes of Health Research increasingly engaged in brokering relationships in and around academic research. I landed at York University as Director of the Office of Research Services (now Research Services & Knowledge Exchange) running the grants and contracts for the university which included a small but active technology transfer operation.

It was at York that we implemented knowledge mobilization as a service to faculty. We conceived it first as non-monetary technology transfer for the social sciences and humanities but quickly realized that the unilateral “university push” of technology transfer was only part of the knowledge mobilization story. We developed methods of “user pull”, knowledge exchange and - what I feel is most important - the co-production of knowledge between researchers and decision makers. These activities are all built upon the knowledge broker who is the heart of the knowledge mobilization unit.

I’ve worked with many knowledge brokers and still don’t know one when I see one. I’m an immunologist – does that make me a good broker? I’ve seen nurses, epidemiologists, librarians, psychologists, literacy practitioners, physicists, evaluators, journalists, poets, political scientists, social workers and anthropologists acting as knowledge brokers. I’ve even seen a flight attendant (formerly trained as a priest) learn the principles of knowledge mobilization. What links all these knowledge brokers?

Maybe we’re all wired for empathy – seeing both sides of a question or a situation. Maybe we’re all just smart enough to learn to talk less and listen more.

We stand between two worlds: the world of research and action; the world of science and politics. We become boundary objects spanning boundaries and mediating relationships that enable research and knowledge to matter.

Some might accuse us of multiple personalities, but that’s a different interpretation!

We have some theory to back up our practice and we have a growing number of tools as our different knowledge broker practices link up in networks like the KTE Community of Practice or ResearchImpact - which now welcomes knowledge brokers from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Université du Québec à Montréal, University of Saskatchewan and University of Victoria. I travel across Canada presenting our work. We have begun to publish and are active in social media with an active blog and a twitter feed and videos posted on our website. We are part of a profession beginning to grow.

What have I learned on this journey from “broke to broker”?

[1] What we’re doing isn’t new, but we have refined and networked a practice that has happened ad hoc and haphazardly

[2] There are lots of us, but we are isolated in our own disciplines – we need some transdisciplinary space so that brokers in environmental policy can speak to those working in health services, education, immigration & settlement…

[3] Many different paths can lead to practice, but a little study along the way doesn’t hurt

[4] Be open to new people, new ideas and new ways of knowing and doing. You can’t own or control it – share your slice of the knowledge mobilization pie.

Visit David and ResearchImpact at:

dphipps@yorku.ca
www.researchimpact.ca
www.researchimpact.wordpress.com
www.twitter.com/researchimpact

To cite:

MLA format
Phipps, David, "Knowledge broker stories: How to go from broke to broker in 17 short years." Weblog Entry. Knowledge Mobilization Works Blog. Posted October 24, 2009. Accessed (enter date). http://bit.ly/1VQpLs

APA format
Phipps, D. Knowledge broker stories: How to go from broke to broker in 17 short years. Retrieved (enter date) from http://www.knowledgemobilization.net [http://bit.ly/1VQpLs]

If you would like to contribute a story to the Knowledge Broker Series, please contact Peter Levesque

Knowledge Broker Stories: Work history taking tool by Hal De Lair

My story begins in 2003, when I took on a new and innovative role at the Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) as Director of the Ontario Occupational Health Services Network (OOHSN).  The central aim of the Network was to link occupational medicine expertise to the front line of health care, particularly primary care delivery.   With access to that expertise, it was believed that front line physicians and nurses would be supported in more effective treatment of occupational injury and illness.

Through a collaboration in 2002 between occupational medicine specialists at the WSIB and the Ministry of Labour, a work history-taking tool was created for use by primary care physicians.  It consisted of a 4-page document covering various exposures and risks the working individual might encounter.   The intent was for this information to be collected historically and stored in a patient's file.  When that patient presented with symptoms that might be work related, this information would help inform treatment and secondary prevention options.

The problem was a very limited uptake of the work history-taking tool by physicians in Ontario.  They did not have time to fill out a long form, especially one that only provided a potential to enhance treatment.  Our approach to this problem was to create a pilot project in a primary care group practice for the purpose of understanding what might be possible and relevant to front line practitioners.  That project was undertaken in a group practice of physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners and social workers.  As the knowledge broker, we supplied a student nurse practitioner with a background in occupational health nursing.  She spent 2 days a week for a couple of months on site at the group practice.  She also had the back-up and support of occupational medicine specialists through he Network.

The pilot was structured as a continuous improvement project, beginning with a file review to determine current practice in ascertaining work related health information.  That process analysis, which is usually the first step in any continuous improvement model, led to a clear identification that occupational information was generally missing and that patient care could be compromised as a result.  The problem however still remained that routinely filling out that work history form on thousands of patients was way beyond the capacity of the clinic.

The solution crafted by the pilot was to reduce the history taking down to 5 essential questions that could routinely be asked of every patient and entered into the electronic medical record.  Those questions then became the basis for the current, universally available Work Health Exposure Screening Tool which you can find at http://www.stmichaelshospital.com/pdf/programs/occupationalhealth_work_exposure_screening.pdf This tool, or some variation of it, would go on to be applied in numerous, additional group practices in Community Health Centres and Family Health Teams in Ontario.

In subsequent years this approach of piloting new knowledge through local, continuous improvement projects, would extend to many areas. OOHSN conducted pilots in noise induced hearing loss and occupational asthma and dermatitis.

I'm sure this brief story will resonate with a lot of people involved in knowledge dissemination. It promotes the mechanism of continuous improvement projects to refine knowledge components, especially tools, to make them relevant and useful.  This would mean that any KT strategy should include resources to engage target audiences in test pilots on uptake and outcomes.

Hal De Lair

To cite:

MLA format
De Lair, Hal, "Knowledge broker stories: Work history-taking tool." Weblog Entry. Knowledge Mobilization Works Blog. Posted October 19, 2009. Accessed (enter date). http://bit.ly/2eDwGX

APA format
De Lair, H. Knowledge broker stories: Work history-taking tool. Retrieved (enter date) from http://www.knowledgemobilization.net [http://bit.ly/2eDwGX]

If you would like to contribute a story to the Knowledge Broker Series, please contact Peter Levesque