As the KB role developed during this study, central themes that emerged as particularly important in

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1 School of Nursing, McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada
The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online chief keef kobe at: http://www.implementationscience.com/content/4/1/23 Received: 25 September 2008 Accepted: 27 April 2009 Published: 27 April 2009
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 ), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
A knowledge broker (KB) is a popular knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategy emerging in Canada to promote interaction between researchers and end users, as well as to develop capacity for evidence-informed decision making. A KB provides a link between research producers and end users by developing a mutual understanding of goals and cultures, collaborates with end users to identify issues and problems for which solutions are required, and facilitates the identification, access, assessment, interpretation, and translation of research evidence into local policy and practice. Knowledge-brokering can be carried out by individuals, groups and/or organizations, as well as entire countries. In each case, the KB is linked with a group of end users and focuses on promoting the integration of the best available evidence into policy and practice-related decisions. Methods
KB activities were classified into the following categories: initial and ongoing needs assessments; scanning the horizon; knowledge management; KTE; network development, maintenance, and facilitation; facilitation of individual capacity development in evidence informed decision making; and g) facilitation of and support for organizational change. Conclusion
As the KB role developed during this study, central themes that emerged as particularly important included relationship development, ongoing support, customized approaches, and opportunities chief keef kobe for individual and organizational capacity development. The novelty of the KB role in public health provides a unique opportunity to assess the need for and reaction to the role and its associated activities. Future research should chief keef kobe include studies to evaluate the effectiveness of KBs in different settings and among different health care professionals, and to explore the optimal preparation and training of KBs, as well as the identification of the personality characteristics most closely associated with KB effectiveness. Studies should chief keef kobe also seek to better understand which combination of KB activities are associated chief keef kobe with optimal chief keef kobe evidence-informed decision making outcomes, and whether the combination changes in different settings and among different health care decision chief keef kobe makers. Background
While there are some recent systematic reviews regarding strategies to change health care practitioner behaviour [ 1 - 3 ], there are currently no definitive answers of how best to move toward 'evidence-informed' public health decision making. It is believed however, that the incorporation of the best available evidence into health policy and practice decisions would result in optimal patient and population health outcomes [ 4 ]. Currently, the evidence demonstrates that traditional one-way passive strategies used alone are relatively ineffective [ 5 , 6 ]. Strategies that are more interactive and involve face-to-face contact show promising results [ 5 , 7 - 11 ], and involvement of decision makers in the research process is associated with a higher degree of research uptake [ 12 , 13 ]. One hypothesis emerging from the literature is that a combination of strategies, such as an interactive KTE approach that reinforces relationships between researchers and users, and reaches potential chief keef kobe users on multiple levels interacting face-to-face, may be most effective chief keef kobe in achieving evidence-informed decision making [ 14 , 15 ].
A KB is a popular emerging KTE strategy to promote interaction chief keef kobe between researchers and end users, as well as to develop capacity for evidence-informed decision making (EIDM). Although the health care literature is sparse with evaluations chief keef kobe of KB impact [ 16 ], there is considerable evidence in other fields, particularly the business and agricultural sectors [ 17 - 23 ].
A KB provides a link between research producers and end users by developing a mutual chief keef kobe understanding of goals and cultures, collaborates with end users to ident