TY - JOUR
T1 - Drawbacks and benefits associated with inter-organizational collaboration along the discovery-development-delivery continuum
T2 - a cancer research network case study
AU - Harris, Jenine K.
AU - Provan, Keith G.
AU - Johnson, Kimberly J.
AU - Leischow, Scott J.
N1 - Funding Information:
Representatives of organizations involved in cancer research across Arizona that were represented on the research committee for the Arizona Cancer Control Program were invited to participate by completing a survey [18]. The Program is comprised of academic institutions, hospitals, the state health department, research institutes, and non-profit organizations involved in cancer research. The Program was formed by the Arizona Department of Health Services as part of a grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in 2003 to establish a comprehensive cancer control program. To identify members of the Program actively involved in cancer research, a working group comprised of Program research committee members reviewed research committee membership and identified 34 organizations. All 34 organizations were contacted; nine organizations indicated they were not involved in cancer research and several hospitals were found to be part of multi-hospital systems for which a single participant would be appropriate. After addressing these issues, the network consisted of 21 members. Most participating organizations named an administrative or medical director of cancer services or a director of research activities as the survey participant. Surveys were administered in 2007 with some follow-up to gather missing information in 2008.
PY - 2012/7/25
Y1 - 2012/7/25
N2 - Background: The scientific process around cancer research begins with scientific discovery, followed by development of interventions, and finally delivery of needed interventions to people with cancer. Numerous studies have identified substantial gaps between discovery and delivery in health research. Team science has been identified as a possible solution for closing the discovery to delivery gap; however, little is known about effective ways of collaborating within teams and across organizations. The purpose of this study was to determine benefits and drawbacks associated with organizational collaboration across the discovery-development-delivery research continuum.Methods: Representatives of organizations working on cancer research across a state answered a survey about how they collaborated with other cancer research organizations in the state and what benefits and drawbacks they experienced while collaborating. We used exponential random graph modeling to determine the association between these benefits and drawbacks and the presence of a collaboration tie between any two network members.Results: Different drawbacks and benefits were associated with discovery, development, and delivery collaborations. The only consistent association across all three was with the drawback of difficulty due to geographic differences, which was negatively associated with collaboration, indicating that those organizations that had collaborated were less likely to perceive a barrier related to geography. The benefit, enhanced access to other knowledge, was positive and significant in the development and delivery networks, indicating that collaborating organizations viewed improved knowledge exchange as a benefit of collaboration. 'Acquisition of additional funding or other resources' and 'development of new tools and methods' were negatively significantly related to collaboration in these networks. So, although improved knowledge access was an outcome of collaboration, more tangible outcomes were not being realized. In the development network, those who collaborated were less likely to see 'enhanced influence on treatment and policy' and 'greater quality or frequency of publications' as benefits of collaboration.Conclusion: With the exception of the positive association between knowledge transfer and collaboration and the negative association between geography and collaboration, the significant relationships identified in this study all reflected challenges associated with inter-organizational collaboration. Understanding network structures and the perceived drawbacks and benefits associated with collaboration will allow researchers to build and funders to support successful collaborative teams and perhaps aid in closing the discovery to delivery gap.
AB - Background: The scientific process around cancer research begins with scientific discovery, followed by development of interventions, and finally delivery of needed interventions to people with cancer. Numerous studies have identified substantial gaps between discovery and delivery in health research. Team science has been identified as a possible solution for closing the discovery to delivery gap; however, little is known about effective ways of collaborating within teams and across organizations. The purpose of this study was to determine benefits and drawbacks associated with organizational collaboration across the discovery-development-delivery research continuum.Methods: Representatives of organizations working on cancer research across a state answered a survey about how they collaborated with other cancer research organizations in the state and what benefits and drawbacks they experienced while collaborating. We used exponential random graph modeling to determine the association between these benefits and drawbacks and the presence of a collaboration tie between any two network members.Results: Different drawbacks and benefits were associated with discovery, development, and delivery collaborations. The only consistent association across all three was with the drawback of difficulty due to geographic differences, which was negatively associated with collaboration, indicating that those organizations that had collaborated were less likely to perceive a barrier related to geography. The benefit, enhanced access to other knowledge, was positive and significant in the development and delivery networks, indicating that collaborating organizations viewed improved knowledge exchange as a benefit of collaboration. 'Acquisition of additional funding or other resources' and 'development of new tools and methods' were negatively significantly related to collaboration in these networks. So, although improved knowledge access was an outcome of collaboration, more tangible outcomes were not being realized. In the development network, those who collaborated were less likely to see 'enhanced influence on treatment and policy' and 'greater quality or frequency of publications' as benefits of collaboration.Conclusion: With the exception of the positive association between knowledge transfer and collaboration and the negative association between geography and collaboration, the significant relationships identified in this study all reflected challenges associated with inter-organizational collaboration. Understanding network structures and the perceived drawbacks and benefits associated with collaboration will allow researchers to build and funders to support successful collaborative teams and perhaps aid in closing the discovery to delivery gap.
KW - Cancer research
KW - Exponential random graph modeling
KW - Network analysis
KW - Translational research
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U2 - 10.1186/1748-5908-7-69
DO - 10.1186/1748-5908-7-69
M3 - Article
C2 - 22831463
AN - SCOPUS:84866314414
SN - 1748-5908
VL - 7
JO - Implementation Science
JF - Implementation Science
IS - 1
M1 - 69
ER -