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Bridging the medical knowledge and practice gap: antecedents of successful scientist-physician collaboration

Wang, Yunmei
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1396616643

Abstract Details

2014, Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, Management.
The substantial resources being invested in biomedical research have generated revolutionary discoveries in medical science. However, only about 14% of research findings make their way into clinical practice to benefit patients. And this 14% takes on average 17 years to be utilized into practice. This gap between science and practice has been labeled as “the Valley of Death”. Improving scientist-physician partnership (SPP) has recently been identified as a mechanism that could improve the transfer of medical science to clinical practice. However, research on SPP is scarce, and the mechanisms of SPP are unclear. I report on an exploratory multi-phase mixed method study of the experience of SPP by both physicians and scientists. Specifically I ask: what is involved in SPP, and what relationships and factors influence SPP and its outcomes at personal, organizational and socio-cultural levels? I used a grounded theory approach in the first phase to identify the factors involved in SPP. My interviews with scientists and physicians revealed that the gap between medical knowledge and clinical practice is not only a language translation problem, but a wide cross-professional collaboration challenge, in which individual attributes, organizational structures and socio-cultural forces all affect the participation in and success of SPP. In order to confirm and validate the findings of the qualitative study, a theoretical model founded on phase 1 was formulated and empirically tested using a survey of 440 physicians and scientists who have had cross-professional collaboration experiences. Three studies compose the second phase. The first study focuses on the role of personal attributes influencing SPP. I find that professional identity, recognition motivation, challenge motivation, introversion and conscientiousness all affect SPP satisfaction and outcomes directly or indirectly. The second study investigates the influence of institutional forces and organizational infrastructure on SPP. I find that academic promotion criteria serves as an incentive and has a positive effect on communication and SPP outcomes, including satisfaction and academic and clinical outcomes. Organizational collaboration mechanisms have a positive effect on communication, and communication mediates the effects of institutional factors including academic incentives and organizational collaborative mechanisms on satisfaction and academic outcomes. Difficulty to Access collaborators is negatively related to SPP effectiveness. The third study examines the impact of socio-cultural factors. This study uncovers the link between shared vision and goals, mutuality, perceived socio-cultural difference, professional language difference and social support with SPP outcomes. Overall, this research makes theoretical and empirical contributions to literature on SPP and to cross-professional collaboration research. It provides novel insights about and practical implications for SPP in medical knowledge production and transfer. The findings are useful for understanding other inter-professional collaborations, and for informing institutional policy makers, organizational decision makers and individual collaborators.
Kalle Lyytinen, PhD (Committee Chair)
Richard Boland, PhD (Committee Member)
Antoinette Somers, PhD (Committee Member)
Daniel Simon, MD (Committee Member)
318 p.
Health Care; Health Care Management; Management; Organizational Behavior; Social Research
scientist physician partnership; collaboration; individual attribute; organizational factor; socio-cultural influence; academic outcome; clinical outcome, medical knowledge and practice gap; knowledge transfer

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wang, Y. (2014). Bridging the medical knowledge and practice gap: antecedents of successful scientist-physician collaboration [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1396616643

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Yunmei. Bridging the medical knowledge and practice gap: antecedents of successful scientist-physician collaboration. 2014. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1396616643.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Yunmei. "Bridging the medical knowledge and practice gap: antecedents of successful scientist-physician collaboration." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=case1396616643

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

case1396616643
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© 2014, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Case Western Reserve University School of Graduate Studies and OhioLINK.