About the Framework

Researchers from the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences (ICTS) at the School of Medicine and the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis have created a framework that public health and clinical scientists can use to measure the impact of their work in a variety of settings.

The Translational Science Benefits Model is intended to provide benchmarks to assess the impact of research that applies scientific findings to enhance public health and well-being. A paper explaining the development of the framework was published September 8, 2017 in Clinical and Translational Science.

The model identifies benefits of clinical and translational research in four areas:

• Clinical and Medical Benefits (Procedures & guidelines, Tools & products)
• Community and Public Health Benefits (Health activities & products, Health care characteristics, Health promotion)
• Economic Benefits (Commercial products, Financial savings & benefits)
• Policy and Legislative Benefits (Advisory activities, Policies & legislation)

We encourage you to use the Translational Science Benefits Model in your work. When doing so, please include the following attribution:

Institute of Clinical & Translational Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. Translational Science Benefits Model website. https://translationalsciencebenefits.wustl.edu. Published February 1, 2019. Accessed [insert date].

Our short Translational Science: from research to impact animated video demonstrates the process of translational science and shows where the TSBM fits into the path of translating research for community impact. The second version includes captioning.

We encourage you to share our framework and tools and adapt them for your needs while providing attribution to our project and team at Washington University in St. Louis. Please refer to the Creative Commons license for details and use this attribution language:

The Translational Science Benefits Model and Translating for Impact Toolkit © 2017-2023, created by the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis and available at translationalsciencebenefitsmodel.wustl.edu, is licensed under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0). 

You may also consider adding some brief language to establish the connection between your project and the TSBM work. This statement would appear before the above attribution language.

The [insert name of your tool/product] is adapted from the [TSBM framework/tool/product], part of the Translating for Impact Toolkit.

Please feel free to contact us at tsbm@wustl.edu to discuss your specific project and needs with a member of our team.

If you’d like to use the TSBM logo on your materials, please contact Laura Brossart at lbrossart@wustl.edu for image files and guidance.

This diagram provides another way of looking at the process of translational science. Resources flow into Scientific Activities, which lead to Scientific Outputs and Translational Science Outcomes, which lead to Translational Science Benefits. All steps are impacted by Scientific, Financial, Organizational, Political, and Social Environmental Influences.