The Road from Science to Health: The Importance of Designing For, Measuring, and Communicating Impact in Public...

Scientists are facing increasing challenges concerned with improving the health of the public. Declining trust in expertise, new diseases, widening disparities in access to care, and environmental changes all challenge population health science to lean into work that can help move societies closer to solutions. To do this work effectively, we need to nudge population health science toward research that engages with consequential health challenges, which will require a reprioritization of how we generate, measure, and articulate health impact. In this review, we provide a history of evaluating impact, along with a comprehensive framework for conceptualizing future public health research impacts. In addition, we review evaluation models and highlight best practices for measuring impact. We introduce a new framework that builds on realist evaluation principles for assessing the impact of public health research and addresses the need to communicate these impacts to diverse audiences. To achieve this reprioritization, we recognize the need for organizational and systemic changes that can incentivize, prioritize, and reward impact-driven engagement.