Bridging the Gap Between Aging Research and Practice: A New Strategy for Enhancing the Consensus Workshop Model.

Area of Science:

• Gerontology
• Health Services Research
• Cancer Care

Background:

• The Research-to-Practice (RTP) Consensus Workshop Model aims to bridge aging research and practice.
• A limitation of the RTP model is the lack of a quantitative method to assess the relative importance of ideas.
• This study explored integrating a quantitative survey into the RTP model.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of incorporating a quantitative survey into the RTP model.
• To identify key barriers and strategies for implementing psychological interventions for older adults with cancer (OACs).

Main Methods:

• A mixed group of stakeholders (older adults with cancer, caregivers, researchers, clinicians, advocates) participated in an RTP workshop.
• Following the workshop, participants completed a survey to rate the importance of implementation barriers and strategies.
• Survey data was analyzed to identify factors with the greatest impact.

Main Results:

• Seventeen out of 35 participants completed the survey; most were clinicians.
• Barriers and strategies related to the care team and institutional factors were rated as most impactful.
• The quantitative survey provided novel data on implementation priorities.

Conclusions:

• Quantitative ratings enhance the RTP model by providing a method to prioritize implementation factors.
• This approach can potentially improve the impact of aging research on practice.
• The findings highlight the importance of care team and institutional factors in implementing interventions for OACs.