News from the CDC

As the leading public health agency of the U.S. federal government, the CDC is committed to improving the public’s health through practices that are known to make a difference. This commitment is apparent throughout the agency and can be seen clearly in recent activities that aim to prevent and control chronic disease, such as the Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW) initiative. In 2010, CDC awarded over $372 million dollars to states, tribes, and territorial jurisdictions to create healthier communities by reducing obesity, decreasing tobacco use, or both through sustainable, proven, population-based approaches such as broad-based policy, systems, organizational and environmental changes in communities and schools (see http://www.cdc.gov/Features/ChronicPreventionGrants/). CPPW requires applicants to adopt one or more evidence-based strategies that have been specified in a prescribed menu of effective practices. Results of these efforts should lead to measurable improvements in the public’s health while informing CDC and its public health partners and stakeholders about a wide range of translation activities in action. A number of the evidence-based strategies guiding the newly funded work were drawn from recommendations of the U.S. Task Force for Community Preventive Services (i.e., the Community Guide; www.thecommunityguide.org). CDC’s National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (NCCDPHP) has had a long-standing relationship with the staff of the Community Guide through involvement in systematic reviews of strategies to reduce obesity, increase physical activity, reduce tobacco use, and increase screening for certain cancers. As a result of NCCDPHP’s priority to accelerate translation of scientific findings into community practice, a voluntary, multi-disciplinary group called the Work Group on Translation (WGoT) formed several years ago with representatives from each NCCDPHP division and office. The WGoT has worked together to develop a common language in translation and has created a Knowledge to Action Framework to guide discussions of translation and to have broader application to ongoing work in NCCDPHP [1, 2]. At CDC, project officers are the first line of contact for states, tribes, and territories as these entities strive to translate research to practice. The WGoT has been working with the group responsible for NCCDPHP’s project officer training, the Project Officer Resources and Training for Accelerated Learning and Support (PORTALS) Group, to familiarize project officers with the Knowledge to Action Framework as well as to identify the immediate needs of project officers regarding translation. In addition to meeting weekly with project officers on a state-by-state basis, the WGoT recently conducted workshops for them to share tools and resources for providing technical assistance to grantees on the use of evidence. To develop training and resource materials, the WGoT drew upon its knowledge of translation research and other work being conducted throughout CDC, as well as from funded external partners, such as the Cancer Prevention and Control Research Network (www.cpcrn.org) and the Center of Excellence on Translation Research and Training (http://www.center-trt.org/index.cfm). Guided by the Knowledge to Action Framework, the workshop specifically focused on identifying which questions grantees should ask themselves to ensure successful translation as strategies and interventions are identified and selected. Questions emphasized by the training include: “Which characteristics of the intervention should be considered in matching it to the intended delivery system?”; “How can we adapt the intervention without changing it or its effectiveness in the field strategy?”; “What supporting structures are needed for grantees?”; and, “What if no evidence about an intervention exists?” These and other questions are essential to consider as CDC continues to fund extramural research and programs and conduct intramural research focused on translation. CDC has the responsibility to engage public health researchers, practitioners, and constituents in making evidence usable by public health practitioners. At the same time, identifying and understanding components of the process of translating research strategies to interventions used in practice are critical [3]. CDC has led the way in articulating those components from a public health perspective and we will continue to work to realize the greatest public health impact from our research and programmatic initiatives. We are excited about the focus of Translational Behavioral Medicine and, in upcoming issues, look forward to sharing with readers some of the other work CDC is doing to effectively translate research into public health practice.