Disentangling the translational sciences: a social science perspective

In this article the author first attempts to disentangle a number of issues in translational science from a social science perspective. As expected in a fledgling field of study being approached from various disciplines, there are marked differences in the research literature on terminology, definition of terms, and conceptualization of staging of clinical research from the pilot phase to widespread dissemination in the community. The author asserts that translational efforts in the social sciences are at a crossroads, and its greatest challenge involves the movement of interventions gleaned from clinical trials to community settings. Four strategies for reaching this goal are discussed: the use of methods derived from health services research, a yet-to-be-developed strategy where decisions to modify aspects of an intervention derived from a clinical trial are triggered by data-based criteria, community based participatory action research (CBPR), and a hybrid system wherein methods from CBPR and traditional experimental procedures are combined to achieve translation. The author ends on an optimistic note, emphasizing the impressive advances in the area over the existing barriers and calling for a unified interdisciplinary science of translation.