Streamlining research by using existing tools

Over the past two decades, the health research enterprise has matured rapidly, and many recognize an urgent need to translate pertinent research results into practice, to help improve the quality, accessibility, and affordability of US healthcare. Streamlining research operations would speed translation, particularly for multisite collaborations. However, the culture of research discourages reusing or adapting existing resources or study materials. Too often, researchers start studies and multisite collaborations from scratch-reinventing the wheel. Our team developed a compendium of resources to address inefficiencies and researchers' unmet needs and compiled them in a research toolkit website (http://www.ResearchToolkit.org). Through our work, we identified philosophical and operational issues related to disseminating the tool kit to the research community. We explore these issues here, with implications for the nation's investment in biomedical research.