[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/Hutchison1.jpg” caption=”Brian Hutchison “]A new Canadian journal is being launched to address the need for dialogue about the development, implementation and impact of health care policy.

McMaster University professor Brian Hutchison has been selected as the first editor-in-chief of the new quarterly journal, Healthcare Policy, which will produce its first issue in the early fall this year.

“This is the culmination of much effort over many years by committed individuals and organizations to establish a Canadian health services, management and policy journal,” said Hutchison.

The journal is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, and the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR).

Healthcare Policy will publish original scholarly and research papers that support health policy development and decision making in spheres ranging from governance, organization and service delivery to funding and resource allocation.

Hutchison said the journal will strive to meet the needs of readers from diverse backgrounds including health system managers, practitioners, policy makers, educators and academics. The journal will be supportive of interdisciplinary research on health services and policy and open to researchers from a broad range of disciplines including, health sciences, social sciences, humanities, ethics, law and management sciences.

Submissions will be welcomed from decision makers or researcher-decision maker collaborations that address knowledge exchange and application.

Themes addressed in the journal will include those identified in the recent national consultation on health services and policy issues in Canada, Listening for Directions II:

• Workforce planning, training, and regulation
• Management of the healthcare workplace
• Timely access to quality care for all
• Managing for quality and safety
• Understanding and responding to public expectations
• Sustainable funding and ethical resource allocation
• Governance and accountability
• Managing and adapting to change
• Linking care across place, time, and settings
• Linking public health to health services

The journal's distinguished editorial team is drawn from both the research and decision making communities nation-wide.

Hutchison invites authors to submit manuscripts to the journal that address health services, management and policy issues that are relevant to the Canadian context. The peer review process will include both academic and decision-maker reviewers and will consider both the scientific quality of the work and its contribution to knowledge that can inform health policy, planning and management.

Manuscripts in both official languages are invited. Papers will be reviewed and published in the language of submission. Abstracts will be translated.

For more information on submitting a paper for peer review or on becoming a reviewer, contact managing editor Dianne Foster-Kent at dkent@longwoods.com.