The importance of Translational Research (TR) has taken centre stage. Governing bodies, including the National Health Service (NHS), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and Health Canada, have made TR a strategic priority. But what is TR? The popularity of the term has increased to the point where it has been defined and redefined by a multitude of organisations from a variety of disciplines worldwide.
In reality, much like the discipline it represents, the term is ever-changing and adapting to the environment it serves. There is no definitive definition, as there is no single approach to TR. Rather, the approach is adapted to suit the situation.
Put simply, TR is the application of knowledge to improve health. While scientific literature is filled with original empirical and theoretical knowledge in the natural and social sciences, TR attempts to apply this knowledge to solve real-world health problems. While this concept may sound straightforward, applying knowledge in the real world is riddled with complexities, challenges, and barriers. The laboratory of the real world is highly complex. It involves individual people with unique biology who think, act and react in distinctive ways.
Knowledge acquired in the laboratory is not easily translated into the real world, not only because of the variation in people’s biology but because results are also dependent on their environments and behaviours. TR is a strategic approach to developing novel tools, mechanisms, services, drugs, techniques, policies, and protocols that takes these complexities into account to address the health needs of individuals and populations.
The Translational Research Program
HealthEdge Innovations’ (HEI) approach to TR is based on that developed by its founders Dr. Joseph Ferenbok and Dr. Richard Foty, at the University of Toronto Translational Research Program (trp.utoronto.ca). Now in its seventh year, the Translational Research Program (TRP) is a 2-year Master’s Degree that challenges students to think differently in order to champion change and improve health, medicine and care. The heart of the program is the Ferenbok and Foty’s Toronto Translational Framework™ (TTF™), which helps students expedite translation systematically, strategically, and purposely. There are no strict ten steps to follow that will guarantee successful health innovation. Instead, the TTF serves as a guide to navigating translational problems.
The TTF has six stages: 1) Discover, 2) Define, 3) Frame, 4) Ideate, 5) Translate and 6) Implement. The true start of translation begins with a question, or more specifically, an unmet health need. Without a need, an innovation is nothing but a solution to a non-existent problem. If there is nothing to improve upon, there is no real market. In the space of health innovation, if there is no health case, there is no business case.
The first few stages of the TTF ensure that researchers engage with their target populations (end users) to identify and really understand their health needs before defining the problem to be addressed. The TTF also stresses that key stakeholders must be engaged throughout the translational process and that innovations must be co-created with those they intend to serve. Involving these voices and perspectives in ideation and development leads to better innovations that closely align with stakeholder needs and facilitate implementation and uptake.
TR is a highly interdisciplinary endeavour that requires expertise beyond the boundaries of traditional research. As such, TR cannot be conducted in isolation. For this reason, during their first year of study at the University of Toronto, TRP students participate in highly collaborative and practical seminars. Their learning is rooted not in textbooks but in “doing”; by engaging with their peers and experts; through their own research and real-world experiences.
This coursework grounds learners in necessary knowledge domains (e.g. intellectual property, funding, ethics, regulation, and policy), processes (The TTF), and research methods (e.g. qualitative and quantitative). In addition, TRP students are trained in specialised skills necessary to facilitate TR, including critical thinking, creativity, leadership, collaboration, relationship management and effective communication. The TRP culminates in a 2nd-year Capstone project, in which students work in teams to collaboratively apply their learnings to tackle a health problem of their choosing. Students earn their degree by demonstrating their mastery of the knowledge and competencies necessary for effective translation.
At HEI, we have taken these concepts and applied them to the commercialisation of health innovation. HEI operates at the nexus of public, private, and academic sectors, bridging industries, knowledge, and TR expertise to give our clients a competitive edge. Using the TTF, proprietary algorithms and our extensive international network of key opinion leaders, our team verifies the unmet health need before validating the ability of an innovation to address it. This systematic and independent assessment of the innovation’s future potential based on current risk helps investors to make informed decisions and reduce risk.