Governments and patient advocacy groups are calling for the views of patients to be at the centre of health policy and service improvement activity. However, integrating research findings into health service planning and improvement activity presents many challenges; it seems to be particularly problematic for qualitative research. This paper will present an analysis of health service researchers, planners, managers and clinicians' views on barriers to and enablers of the 'knowledge translation' process, which is a term often used to describe the process whereby research outcomes are converted into policy production and service improvement activity. A case-study presenting the experience of the knowledge translation process involving applied research investigating patients' views of the service issues and successes on the journey from home through to an Auckland City Hospital ward will be presented.