Clinician Scientists in Occupational Therapy: Bridging the Knowledge-to-Practice Gap

Occupational therapy research continues to expand in breadth and rigor, yet significant gaps persist between what is known and what is done in practice. Across health care, only about 14% of research is ever adopted into practice, and on average, it takes 17 yr for scientific discoveries to be implemented (Hanney et al., 2015; Kowalski et al., 2022; Morris et al., 2011; Munro & Savel, 2016). Therefore, the ability of scientific discoveries to improve patient outcomes will remain limited unless health care professions and researchers can overcome this knowledge-to-practice gap (Bennett et al., 2018). Addressing this gap will require new models that more intentionally integrate research expertise within clinical practice.