What role can ‘health decision-makers’ play in supporting knowledge translation of health and medical research?

Key points• Failure to translate health research into policy and practice has financial costs, system costs and impacts health outcomes • Embedding research end-users into the research process can support knowledge translation, but there is limited evidence of the role of health decision-makers as research partners • Health decision-makers bring their broad understanding of systems to a research team and are able to support the implementation of findings when the research is completed • Different partnership structures can be further explored, including consultation, co-creation, co-design and co-production AbstractEmbedding research users into the research process can better support its translation into health systems and services.Still, the role of health decisionmakers (HDMs) as research partners is poorly understood.HDMs, such as policymakers, administrators, directors or other managers, understand the broader contexts of a health service and have a mandate to facilitate change where appropriate, so they could play an important partnership role in research activities.