The challenge of implementing the prevention goals: some questions for researchers and communicators

Two important issues in achieving change are how biomedical and behavioral research advances are viewed and used and the problem of "translation"--that is, how the results are put into practice. Momentum in federally funded research has been continued because we are betting that today's knowledge is limited relative to what remains to be learned about the prevention of disease. Those who administer programs, give primary care, and educate health professionals would benefit if they became fully sensitized to the world of research, and the planning of research would be invigorated by the perceptions of administrators and practitioners. The process of translation depends on the information function, and this function is as important as research and delivery. The schools and the media have created a public interested in science and medicine, but persuading people to change lifestyles is relatively unexplored territory. More knowledge in this area would help to decrease, for example, the number of smokers in the population and the number of accidents on the highways and in the workplace.