Bringing Transdisciplinary Aging Research From Theory to Practice

Abstract

There is a growing emphasis to use a transdisciplinary team approach to accelerate innovations in science to solve complex conditions associated with aging. However, the optimal organizational structure and process for how to accomplish transdisciplinary team science is unclear. In this forum, we illustrate our team’s experience using transdisciplinary approaches to solve challenging and persistent problems for older adults living in urban communities. We describe our challenges and successes using the National Institutes of Health four-phase model of transdisciplinary team-based research. Using a de-identified survey, the team conducted an internal evaluation to identify features that created challenges including structural incongruities, interprofessional blind spots, group function, and group dynamics. This work resulted in the creation of the team’s Transdisciplinary Conceptual Model. This model became essential to understanding the complex interplay between societal factors, community partners, and academic partners. Conducting internal evaluations of transdisciplinary team processes is integral for teams to move beyond the multi- and interdisciplinary niche and to reach true transdisciplinary success. More research is needed to develop measures that assess team transdisciplinary integration. Once the process of transdisciplinary integration can be reliably assessed, the next step would be to determine the impact of transdisciplinary team science initiatives on aging communities.

How transdisciplinary research teams learn to do knowledge translation (KT), and how KT in turn impacts transdisciplinary research: a realist evaluation and longitudinal case study

“…These findings build on recent investigations of transdisciplinary research in ageing that highlight the importance of assessing the team’s shared understanding of KT, going beyond research productivity such as counts of shared grants and publications (e.g. Sargent et al [ 50 ]).…”

COVID in Context: The Lived Experience of Richmond’s Low-Income Older Adults

“…The interview recordings were professionally transcribed, de-identified, and the transcripts were analyzed in Atlas.ti v9 ( https://atlasti.com/ ). Using an inductive approach, a team of six transdisciplinary aging researchers ( Sargent et al, 2020 ) began by independently reading two transcripts and highlighting words/phrases that summarized or represented what was being said (“in-vivo coding”) ( Saldana, 2011 ). The initial codebook was then developed through team discussion and categorization of the in-vivo codes.…”

Socioeconomic Effects on Psychosocial Factors Among Low-Income Older Adults

“…To date, RHWP has conducted over 170 telephonic visits to complete wellness visits, assess risk, and determine care coordination and supportive needs for the individuals we serve ( Winship et al, 2020 ). This academic-community partnership is at the heart of building trusted relationships thereby, facilitating community-engaged research with a population often excluded from research ( Parsons et al, 2021 ; Sargent et al, 2020 ; Zanjani et al, 2018 ).…”