Knowledge translation is founded in theories and principles about asking who needs to know information, and how, when and where they need to receive it. One of the roles we play as that bridge is to turn language and findings from research that is not accessible to all audiences into either lay language or strategies that can be used with various audiences, whether that's to inform what a policy looks like or that in some cases is an industry change that needs to be made, or key messages or actions to parents. Not everyone is going to read published manuscripts of research, so our job, or my job in particular, is to understand what the research is telling us, what the leaders in Canada and internationally are saying about concussion, and to make sure that gets translated into action.
For example, Dr. Zemek talked about the changes in terms of activity levels. We want to make sure that information gets into the hands of parents and medical professionals who speak to parents. Some of our role is to arm an intermediary, whether that's a health care professional or a policy-maker, in terms of what they're communicating to the people who really are the ones we are trying to impact with that research.