Knowledge management to transfer results from research into the practice of rehabilitation

Abstract: The programme ‘Rehabilitation Sciences’, funded by the Federal Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF) and the German Pension Insurance Institutes, aims at the process of transferring results from rehabilitation research into the practice of rehabilitation. To support this process of circulation, the rehabilitation research network Freiburg/Badsackingen (RFV) developed a model of transfer whose practicability is investigated at present. This article focuses on the first stage of the model's development, namely, the application of existing approaches from other areas to the field of rehabilitation. There are appropriate concepts derived from the range of knowledge management in particular. Process categories discussed in the context of ‘learning organisations’ like generation, representation, usage (application) and the communication of knowledge provide a useful frame. Successful transfer should pay attention to the individual, the organisation and the society in equal measure. Further, a model of transfer has to refer to results relevant for the provision of medical care and rehabilitation, it has to meet the requirements of the specific context and structures of rehabilitation and it has to address all relevant target groups. As it is known from the public health sector, staff of rehabilitation centres (i.e. therapists, doctors) rehabilitation scientists, multipliers of vocational and advanced training as well as providers of financial resources for medical rehabilitation (as decision maker and authority for research) are the central stakeholders within the process of utilisation. As an example for using the model, results of a research project investigating the epidemiology of mental disorders in medical rehabilitation will be transferred into the practice of rehabilitation. The results reveal a considerable undersupply and thus call for action. Next, stakeholders' needs have to be assessed in order to derive concrete procedures which can be implemented into the practice of rehabilitation.

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