Journal of Pediatric Psychology | 2019
Commentary: Methods and Designs for T1 Translation in Pediatric Psychology
Abstract
According to the Institute of Medicine (Sung et al., 2003), the first stage of translational research (T1) focuses on “the transfer of new understandings of disease mechanisms gained in the laboratory into the development of new methods for diagnosis, therapy, and prevention and their first testing in humans.” T1 research, when “bench” findings are directly applied to the “bedside” and carefully evaluated before considering even a small-scale clinical trial, is less common in the behavioral arena including in pediatric psychology. New interventions in pediatric psychology must be developed and tested to meet NIH goals of “fail early, often” (Lauer, 2014). New methods have emerged to increase the rigor of early-phase trials and to optimize interventions for maximum effect or fidelity, minimize participant burden or cost, or tailor to specific subpopulations. The purpose of the current article is to describe innovative methods and designs for T1 translation within a specified framework of T1 behavioral intervention research to guide intervention development in pediatric psychology.