253 A knowledge creation study 8 Background Building upon a knowledge translation framework Knowledge translation (KT) aims to fill the evidential gap between knowledge and practice; a process that is considered by the World Health Organization (WHO) to be one of the most important public health challenges of this century (1). The knowledge gap has often been referred to as the knowledge-to-action (KtA) gap. This term implies a broader application of knowledge, involving decision-makers, health practitioners, patients and the public. Using this broader definition of KT, Graham et al. developed a knowledge-to-action (KtA) framework that conceptualizes the process of KT (2). This framework, comprises two distinct but related components. The ‘Action Cycle’ represents the activities that are needed to apply evidence-based knowledge to practice. This includes tailoring interventions to the local context and identifying and evaluating barriers and facilitators to implementation. The ‘Knowledge Creation funnel’, on the other hand, refers to the simultaneous process of the generation of the tools and key messages that aid in the Action Cycle. These are created by distilling and tailoring core messages from research knowledge to the needs of the knowledge user. In its broadest definition, knowledge users include, policy-makers, health practitioners and the general public. This article will focus on KT to decision-makers (In this article decision-makers include managerial decision-makers (e.g., managers in hospital, community organisations and private business) as well as policy decision-makers at the national, provincial, district and local levels (7) as they are in the best position to influence health decisions and benefit public health through evidence-informed decision making. Even though the action process and the knowledge creation process must form part of any KT model, it remains ambiguous how these processes should be executed. Large inconsistencies can especially be identified in the knowledge creation process due to a lacking systematic approach on how to put the process into practice (3). This article strives to provide a systematic approach on how the knowledge creation process can be put into practice. More specifically it focuses on what, based on the literature, are the core components of the knowledge creation process that every researcher engaging with KT should consider. The use of a case-study will demonstrate how the systematic approach can be used by researchers to effectively establish evidence-informed decision making. With the focus shifting from knowledge dissemination to KT, the role of reciprocity between decision-makers and researchers in facilitating evidence-informed decision making has become widely acknowledged (4). Whereas the traditional and more linear model – ‘the science push model’- underlines the supply of evidence to inform evidence-informed decision making, the interaction model reflects the need of reciprocity and partnership building. The latter, suggests that the more sustained the interaction between researchers and policy-makers is, the larger the impact of evidence-informed decision making becomes (5-9). This interactive KT model is
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