Continuing Medical Education as a Translational Science Opportunity for Health Communication Researchers: The BCERP Model.

Health communication researchers often work across health issues to engage in research that bridges distance between bench scientists and practitioners. This translational activity is essential to increase the likelihood that emerging science from the laboratory makes it into the hands of health professionals who can integrate it into their everyday practice with patients. An underutilized translational approach by communication researchers is the development of continuing medical education (CME) opportunities that incorporate a communication science approach to the uptake of recommended practices based on emerging science. This manuscript explains the nature of translational science, highlights the role of CME as an integral strategy for engaging in it, and then provides the exemplar of a training and evaluation project funded by the National Institute for Environmental Health Sciences for the Breast Cancer and the Environment Research Program (BCERP). Lessons learned are discussed as they relate to developing a translational opportunity for the BCERP.