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Improving Practice–Research Connections through Technology Transfer Networks

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Abstract

This paper presents a first look at network and survey data collected to ascertain the salience and value-added of technology transfer networks in reducing the science-to-service gap in behavioral healthcare services. The National Child Traumatic Stress Network served as the case setting upon which administrative and survey data were analyzed. Results show a rich set of formal relationships within the National Child Traumatic Stress Network and suggest participants found these relationships and this medium useful in altering their day-to-day practices and increasing their professional knowledge. The implications of these findings are that technology transfer networks are useful mechanisms worthy of investment of scarce resources.

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Notes

  1. This paper does not seek to perform a full-scale network analysis on these networks but, rather, to use social network analysis as a tool to understand if connections were made that could facilitate information exchange. The presentation thus limits the findings to those metrics that tell that story rather than reporting a full network work-up that includes measures such as centrality, density, cluster analysis, etc. While these measures are important, they do not get to the point of this paper.

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Acknowledgements

The lead author would like to thank Columbia University’s School of Public Health’s Calderone Research Prize for Junior Faculty for providing the resources to field the survey and perform the analysis of these data. Both authors would like to thank John Fairbank of the National Center of the NCTSN for facilitating the survey project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Health Policy and Management, Columbia University, 600 West 168th St. 6th floor, New York, NY, 10032, USA

    Kimberley R. Isett PhD, MPA

  2. Jane Addams College of Social Work M/C 309, University of Illinois, Chicago, 1040 W. Harrison St., Chicago, IL, 60607, USA

    Susan D. Phillips PhD

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  1. Kimberley R. Isett PhD, MPA
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  2. Susan D. Phillips PhD
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Correspondence to Kimberley R. Isett PhD, MPA.

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Isett, K.R., Phillips, S.D. Improving Practice–Research Connections through Technology Transfer Networks. J Behav Health Serv Res 37, 111–123 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-009-9183-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11414-009-9183-1

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