Understanding the decision-making environment also helps researchers to expose information
and data needs that matter most to decisions affecting population health, which can then be
translated into research questions for future research (or informed by dissemination of existing
data). If approached correctly, one-on-one meetings with key decision makers or other change
agents—e.g., legislators or their staff, agency heads, business executives, civic officials—can yield
important insights about the obstacles to funding or implementation of the actions favored by
relevant change agents. Crucial to eliciting this information is to eschew an advocacy or critical
posture and to convince the decision maker that the discussion is free of agendas and aimed solely
at learning and eliciting advice. A sense of safety allows both parties to abandon defensive stances
and speak freely about challenges and opportunities.
With this tone established, the researcher and decision maker can work together to consider
which types of information (data or otherwise) could be most useful in addressing their top concerns
about a population health problem and which align best with their priorities. Decision makers who
request scientific evidence may misunderstand the data they need, the scientific method, or the
kinds of information that research can realistically supply. Open dialogue helps decision makers
clarify (or even change) their approach once they know more about the evidence. The informed
468 Woolf et al.
Annu. Rev. Public Health 2015.36:463-482. Downloaded from www.annualreviews.org
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decision maker may be able to identify critical questions that data collection and analysis could
inform.Translational Research And Population Health Management Essay
STAKEHOLDER AND COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT
The Role of Stakeholders
The translation of research into action often depends on the engagement of stakeholders—those
who have an interest in an outcome (see sidebar). Foremost among these is the impacted community, which we discuss next. The engagement of other stakeholders can also be vital, not only
because successful implementation depends on their buy-in, leadership, or material support, but
also because their insights help enhance the researcher’s understanding of the issues. The medical profession has come to recognize the importance of the environment outside the clinic—in
the community—where patients and caregivers can find support for managing diabetes and other
chronic diseases (1, 76) and, more recently, for addressing obesity and lifestyle issues. Interest in
closer collaboration between primary care and public health (2, 38) has been resurging, along with
increasing enthusiasm for broader partnerships (beyond public health and medicine) to achieve
transformational change in health outcomes.
Because the most important opportunities for advancing the public’s health are often the most
complex, multisector engagement is necessary to develop real-world, sustainable solutions (19).
The Health in All Policies movement (70) calls for engaging nonhealth sectors—e.g., transportation, housing, employers, schools, retailers—to change living conditions in ways that can meaningfully improve health, but engaging decision makers in sectors that lack a public health mission
often requires advocates to demonstrate the value of the proposition. Making that case begins by
explaining how decisions potentially impact health—a connection many have not considered—
and by demonstrating how the interests of stakeholders in nonhealth sectors might benefit from
improved health outcomes.
Engaging stakeholders often succeeds when incentives are aligned to create a win-win situation
in which all parties have something to gain by collaborating (7, 24). In numerous US cities, diverse
sectors—from real estate to finance—have joined hands to achieve “collective impact” (44) that
improves the bottom line for all concerned, such as lowering health care costs while also creating
jobs, preventing crime, and yielding other societal benefits (24). Research and evaluation are
important in these initiatives, as actors from multiple sectors look to a common set of metrics and
data dashboards to track whether their programs and policies are improving outcomes. Although
these multisector collective impact initiatives often operate at the local level, national and state
initiatives can also be important to population health and require their o
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