Development of a framework for knowledge translation: understanding user context.

Objective: To develop a framework that researchers and other knowledge disseminators who are embarking on knowledge translation can use to increase their familiarity with the intended user groups.

Methods: The framework was derived from a review and analysis of the knowledge translation literature and from the authors' own experience with a variety of user groups.

Results: The framework consists of five domains: the user group, the issue, the research, the knowledge translation relationship, and dissemination strategies. Within each domain, the framework includes a series of questions. The questions provide the researcher with a way of organizing what he or she already knows about the user group and the knowledge translation project, of identifying what still is unknown, and of flagging what is important to learn.

Conclusions: Most researchers wishing to engage in knowledge translation are moving out of their own familiar contexts. By using this framework, researchers will learn about the new contexts in which they find themselves. The insights they gain will increase their familiarity with the user group, thus aiding in the implicit goal of the interactive model of knowledge translation: making the researcher a part of the user group context.