Testing a collaborative research utilization model to translate best practices in pain management.

While millions of dollars are being spent developing the seeds of research to improve the care we give to patients, significant barriers to using empirical evidence by health care professionals and policymakers still exist. The gap between what we know from research and what we use in practice is at the heart of the translation research problem. How do we get empirical knowledge uptake and use by clinicians in the fields of practice? In addition, how do we measure if practice changes are occurring? This article describes a program of translation research in which the intervention, called the Collaborative Research Utilization model, was developed and tested in four clinical studies over 18 years.