Summer Institute to focus on health policy making

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BY FHS Advancement

June 15, 2007

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/mdcl1.jpg” caption=”The Ontario Training Centre in Health Services and Policy Research will hold its Summer Institute at the MDCL next week. Photo by Enrique Rabade.”]Students of the Ontario Training Centre in Health Services and Policy Research (OTC) will gather at McMaster University next week for the centre's annual Summer Institute.

The theme for this year's institute is Regionalization of Health Services in Terms of Planning, Funding and Delivery. There will be a special focus on Ontario's Local Health Integration Networks.

The institute begins with a welcome dinner on Sunday, June 17, followed by a five-day program during which the students will hear from various researchers and decision-makers from across Canada involved in regionalized health services delivery.

The students will also work in interdisciplinary teams to design and develop research plans that will address major issues affecting the regionalization of health services. Topics that will be covered during the week include regionalization of health services in Canada; international, national and provincial perspectives on regionalization; implementing regionalization and its impact on service delivery; and translating and exchanging knowledge.

The OTC is a consortium of six Ontario universities that offers graduate training in health services and policy research. It includes McMaster, Lakehead, Laurentian, Ottawa and York universities, and the University of Toronto.

The Summer Institute is an annual program that provides students with the chance to hear from and work directly with researchers, practitioners and decision-makers in the health services and policy research field.

The institute is co-sponsored by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF), the CIHR Institute for Health Services and Policy Research, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and McMaster's Collaborations for Health.

About 30 students from across the province will attend this year's institute.

Several McMaster University faculty members have key roles in the institute, as organizers, speakers or facilitators. They include:

  • Kevin Brazil, chair of the institute's planning committee and an associate professor in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics;
  • Alba DiCenso, director of OTC and professor in nursing and clinical epidemiology and biostatistics;
  • Miguel A. Perez, program manager for the OTC;
  • Julia Abelson, director of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis and associate professor in clinical epidemiology and biostatistics;
  • Wendy Sword, assistant dean of research for the School of Nursing;
  • Susan Watt, a professor in the School of Social Work.

    The OTC was established five years ago to provide elite training to the next generation of health services and policy researchers. It is funded by CHSRF and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.