Abstract
BACKGROUND: A serious worldwide effort to strengthen research based knowledge translation (KT) has begun in recent years and some countries, particularly developed ones, are trying to incorporate KT in their health and health research systems. Keeping in mind the recent economic depression and the need to perform more efficient research, we aimed to assess and compare the KT status of selected health research institutes in the Eastern Mediterranean Regions' countries, and to identify their strengths and weaknesses in the field. METHODS: After finding the focal points that would steer the focus group discussions (FGDs) and help complete the 'Self Assessment Tool for Research Institutes' (SATORI) tool, each focal point held two FGDs in which researchers, research authorities and other individuals specified in detail further in the study were held. The scores obtained by each institute were evaluated quantitatively, and the transcriptions were analyzed qualitatively with OpenCode software. RESULTS: For ease of analysis the 50 items of the SATORI were classified into 7 main domains: 'priority setting', 'research quality and timeliness', 'researchers' KT capacities', 'facilities and pre-requisites of KT', 'processes and regulations supporting KT', 'interaction with research users', and 'promoting and evaluating the use of knowledge'. Based on the scoring system, the strongest domain was 'research quality and timeliness'. 'Priority setting' was the weakest domain of all. The remaining domains were more or less equal in strength and were not in a favorable state. The qualitative findings confirmed the quantitative findings. CONCLUSIONS: The main problem, it seems, is that a KT climate does not exist in the region. And despite the difference in the contexts, there are many similarities in the region's institutes included in this study. Collaborative efforts can play a role in creating this climate by steering countries towards KT and suggesting regional strategic directions according to their needs.