Knowledge Broker Q&A: Anneliese Poetz

Once upon a time, Leah pondered the age old question of what exactly *is* a knowledge broker (KB) in her post “I got the job!…So, um, what’s a knowledge broker?” This got us thinking about the role and how it differs throughout the world of health research depending on the needs and objectives of the project. We decided to reach out to our network of KBs across Canada and ask them to describe what it’s like to have a “day in the life of a knowledge broker….”

Enter Anneliese Poetz, this week’s guest blogger. Anneliese is the Manager of the Knowledge Translation Core for the Kids Brain Health Network (formerly NeuroDevNet). Funded by the Networks of Centres of Excellence, this network is the first trans-Canada initiative to focus on improving diagnosis, treatment and support for families raising children with brain-based disabilities.

Here’s what Anneliese has to say about her role in the world of knowledge translation.

How do you describe what you do to your friends and family?

I have found the best explanation is to say “I help researchers to maximize the usefulness of their research to society.”

What’s the most unique project/task you’ve ever worked on?

We were asked to provide KT planning support to 4 “high impact projects” but couldn’t find a KT planning tool to suit the job. So, we created our own. We needed something form-fillable (for ease of use), that offered a combination of KT planning and project management concepts.

After incorporating feedback from the project teams and staff (e.g. shorten the form-fillable tool and put the instructional/background information in a separate ‘guide’), we finalized the content and design, hired a graphic designer and created the document. One of the design features included a link to tables so that the user wouldn’t have to re-enter information they’d already put into the form. This made it easier to use and helped researchers see how the different elements of the KT plan fit together.

This was something we’d never done before and we learned a lot, which will form the basis of a practice based KT paper. We presented this tool at Waypoint and the Canadian Knowledge Mobilization conferences and received positive feedback. In fact, several organizations wanted to speak to us further about adapting the design for use in their own organizations, including a health organization in Australia.

What advice would you give to a new knowledge broker starting out in health research?

Advice #1: Knowledge translation is common sense, don’t overcomplicate it.

There are many frameworks out there for thinking about KT, and some of them are for helping you “do” KT. It’s confusing at times. [Editor’s note: Guilty as charged — there are a lot of blog posts too. See here and here]. My advice is, don’t get too bogged down in trying to understand and use the models presented in the literature. Many models are not evidence-based or represent only one researchers’ visualization of KT and how it works (or should work). Some of them are really weird and make no sense to me at all!

In practice, I use the logic-model-based, Co-Produced Pathway to Impact, by David Phipps and PREVNet. However, some people (including researchers) still find it confusing. Basically, it helps you think through the process of research from an integrated KT perspective — from the formation of the research question through to impact (change to society). It also incorporates end-of-grant KT, represented as ‘dissemination’. Kids Brain Health Network uses this framework but even before I learned about it, I used common sense as a knowledge broker:

1. What is the change we want to make? (the impact you are striving for)
2. Who has the power to make these changes? (your target audience)
3. Who can help us refine the project ideas with insights and knowledge? (your collaborators and partners)
4. What do we have to do? (your research questions and methodology for getting the needed knowledge; your dissemination plan for getting that knowledge to your target audience, collaborators and partners).
5. How do you know when you have achieved your goals? (evaluation)

Advice #2: KT (and knowledge brokers) can look different across health research… but the concepts are the same.

I often get asked, how do you do KT for basic science research? [Editor’s note: Us too!]. This can be a head-scratcher because basic science research is about discovery and doesn’t always inform direct changes to practice or policy. Well, as I said above, KT is common sense, so, what is the change you want to make? Usually, a new discovery will trigger spin-off research projects to further confirm or refine the discovery. While not directly applicable to society, the target audience in this case is ‘other researchers.’ Perhaps other researchers and non-profit organizations could collaborate, or industry partners who could help commercialize discoveries.

Advice #3: Be flexible, willing and motivated to constantly learn and expand your skill set — whether formally (e.g. courses) or informally (e.g. blogs and other online tidbits).

There will be many opportunities in your job to learn. Be open to it, even if it is beyond your job description or current skill set. There may be times that your team or supervisor needs something that you’ve never done before or is not in your job description. Don’t panic — take the opportunity to enroll in a course or teach yourself. Look for tutorials, blogs, articles or examples online — in this day and age you can find videos for pretty much anything (e.g. — how to use Adobe Illustrator or Photoshop, write a blog post or create an infographic). At times, you may have to invest your own time or money to acquire some of these skills, but it all becomes part of your ‘toolbox’ of transferable skills and will make you more marketable as a knowledge broker in the end.

Are you a knowledge broker looking to tell your story?

Let us know in the comments section below or Tweet at us @KnowledgeNudge.