Background: Modernizing Health Services and Policy Research Training for Greater Impact
CHSPRA’s vision for successful training modernization is a learning health system that harnesses the full talents of PhD-trained individuals for continuous health system improvement.
The Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance (CHSPRA) identified modernizing the health services and policy research (HSPR) training enterprise as a top priority for pan-Canadian collaborative action. In 2015, a Training Modernization Working Group – co-chaired by Dr. Stephen Bornstein (Memorial University of Newfoundland) and Dr. Adalsteinn Brown (University of Toronto) – was created to develop a pan-Canadian Training Modernization Strategy. The Strategy aimed to identify new, strategic directions to modernize university-based HSPR doctoral and post-doctoral training programs for optimized career readiness and impact.
The Training Modernization Working Group recognized the disconnect between the prospective career trajectories of today’s PhD graduates (which are diverse and which often involve multiple sectors) and existing PhD training programs that remain predominantly geared towards academic careers. Within health services and policy, the potential contribution of well-prepared PhD graduates to inform health policy and system transformation is considerable. The Training Modernization Strategy outlines a roadmap to harness this potential. The full report is available online: Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance: Report from the Working Group on Training [ PDF (323 KB) - external link ].
The Training Modernization Funding Initiative
To encourage experiential learning as a core element of HSPR training, CIHR-IHSPR and CHSPRA launched a multi-pronged, multi-partnered funding initiative:
- Start-Up Grants to foster the conditions and partnerships necessary for successful pan-Canadian training modernization (launched August 2016).
- Health System Impact Fellowship awards for doctoral trainees and post-doctoral fellows
- 2017 funding opportunity and funded fellows
- 2018 funding opportunity and funded fellows
- 2019 funding opportunity and funded fellows
- Current competition: 2020 funding opportunity and Host Partner Linkage Tool (application deadline: February 18, 2021)
- 2020 Health System Impact Fellowship National Cohort Retreat (NCR) funding opportunity to support the development and implementation of an annual NCR (application deadline: March 20, 2020)
Meet the Health System Impact Fellows
- Career Profiles of Health System Impact Fellow alumni
- 2017 Health System Impact Fellow profiles
- 2018 Health System Impact Fellow profiles
- 2019 Health System Impact Fellow profiles
Meet the Health System Impact Fellowship Partners
The Health System Impact Fellowship program is led by CIHR-IHSPR, but made possible because of partnerships with many organizations across the country.
CIHR and IHSPR are proud to partner with:
- Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (MSFHR)
- Fonds de recherche du Québec –Santé (FRQS) (in French only)
- New Brunswick Health Research Foundation (NBHRF)
- Research Nova Scotia(formerly the Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation (NSHRF)
- Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation (SHRF)
- Mitacs
- CIHR’s Institutes of: Aging (IA), Cancer Research (ICR), Circulatory and Respiratory Health (ICRH), Gender and Health (IGH), Indigenous Peoples’ Health (IIPH), Infection and Immunity (III), Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis (IMHA), Neurosciences, Mental Health and Additions (INMHA), Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (INMD), Population and Public Health (IPPH), and the Science Policy Branch.
Health System Impact Fellowship partners are joining forces with the more than 80 health system organizations and 23 universities across the country that collaborate to host fellows.
The Benefits of Becoming Involved
What’s in it for you?
For trainees:
- Your research and analytic talents will contribute to addressing the critical challenges facing health system organizations outside of the traditional university setting (e.g., public, private for-profit, and not-for-profit organizations that are not universities). In addition, you will develop professional experience, new skills, and networks;
- You will learn first-hand how health system organizations work, how decisions are made, and how research and analytic skills contribute broadly to improving an organization’s performance;
- You will acquire unique professional development training and develop an expanded set of competencies (e.g., leadership, negotiation, project management, change management) all designed to accelerate your professional growth and better prepare you to embark on a wider range of career paths with greater impact;
- As a participant of a national cohort of fellows and leaders from academic and health system and related organizations, you will benefit from unparalleled mentorship and networking opportunities.
For health system organizations:
- You will benefit from direct access to the country’s rising stars in health services and policy research and related fields (e.g., population health, epidemiology, data science, health economics);
- Your organization will benefit from fellows’ expertise in cutting- edge methodologies and analytics to advance your goals and priorities, generate innovative solutions grounded in the best available evidence, and build in-house capacity for research;
- Your organization will expand its relationships with the academic sector and the health research community;
- By contributing to training, mentoring, and preparing a cadre of the country’s up-and-coming brightest minds, your organization will be playing a leadership role in securing a bright future for your sector by developing the careers of future leaders of evidence-informed health and health system improvement.
For university training programs:
- By aligning scholarship with health system improvement, your institution will be well positioned to demonstrate the versatility of PhD graduates and the value-added quotient that they bring to help inform health policy and system transformation;
- You will foster meaningful and impactful career paths outside of the academy, accelerate career growth and impact, and encourage the skills and expertise of PhD trained individuals for broader societal contribution;
- You will contribute to the expansion and enrichment of the traditional training environment by engaging health system and related organizations in preparing a cadre of promising PhD graduates for successful careers.
Partners Involved in the Health System Impact Fellowship Program
Health System Organizations:
- AdvantAge Ontario
- Alberta Health Services
- Alberta Health Services, Strategic Clinical Networks
- Alberta Ministry of Health
- Amaris Consulting
- Arthritis Alliance of Canada
- Autism Ontario
- BC Academic Health Science Network
- BC Cancer Agency
- BC Centre for Disease Control
- BC Ministry of Health
- BC Ministry of Mental Health & Addictions
- BC Observatory for Population & Public Health
- BC Patient Safety and Quality Council
- Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) Ontario
- Canada Health Infoway
- Canadian Agency for Drugs for Technologies in Health
- Canadian Blood Services
- Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement
- Canadian Institute for Health Information
- Canadian Nurses Association
- Canadian Red Cross
- Canadian Society for International Health
- Cancer Care Ontario
- Centre intègre universitaire de santé et de services sociaux du Centre ouest de l’Île de Montréal
- Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de Chaudière-Appalaches
- Centre intégré de santé et de services sociaux de la Montérégie-Centre
- Centre intègre universitaire de santé et de services sociaux l’Ouest de l’Île de Montréal
- Centre intégré universitaire de santé et de services sociaux de la Capitale-Nationale
- Centre for Addiction and Mental Health
- Champlain Maternal Newborn Regional Program
- Child Health BC - BC Children's Hospital
- Children’s’ Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)
- CIET Canada
- City of Hamilton, Public Health Services
- Community-Based Research Centre
- Community Living BC
- Correctional Service Canada
- Deloitte LLP
- Dignitas International
- First Nations Health Authority
- Fraser Health Authority
- Government of Saskatchewan
- Gwich'in Tribal Council
- Hamilton Niagara Haldimand Local Health Integration Network
- Health Standards Organization
- Healthy Child Manitoba
- Heart and Stroke Foundation
- Hospital for Sick Children
- Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ)
- Institut national d'excellence en santé et services sociaux (INESSS)
- Institute for Circumpolar Health Research
- Institute of Clinical Evaluative Sciences (IC/ES)
- IWK Health Centre
- Joseph Brant Hospital
- Manitoba Health
- National Microbiology Laboratory, PHAC
- North York General Hospital
- Northern Health Authority
- Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness
- Nova Scotia Health Authority
- Ontario Hospital Association
- Ontario Long Term Care Association
- Ontario Neurotrauma Foundation
- Peel Public Health
- Policy Wise for Children and Families
- Public Health Agency of Canada
- Public Health Ontario
- Queen's Family Health Team
- SE Research Centre
- Saint John Human Development Council
- Saskatchewan Health Authority
- Saskatchewan Ministry of Health
- Saskatoon Health Region
- See Things My Way
- St. Michael's Hospital
- Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
- Toronto Rehabilitation Institute
- The City of Calgary
- The Eastern Ontario Regional Laboratory Association
- Trillium Health Partners
- University Health Network
- University of Ottawa Heart Institute
- Vancouver Coastal Health
- Victoria Hospice
- Women's College Hospital
- York Region Paramedic and Senior Services
Universities:
- Carleton University
- Concordia University
- Dalhousie University
- McGill University
- McMaster University
- Mount Saint Vincent University
- Simon Fraser University
- Université de Sherbrooke
- Université Laval
- Université de Montreal
- University of Alberta
- University of British Columbia
- University of Calgary
- University of Guelph
- University of Manitoba
- University of Northern British Columbia
- University of Ottawa
- University of Regina
- University of Saskatchewan
- University of Toronto
- University of Victoria
- University of Waterloo
- University of Western Ontario
Resources
- Collection of manuscripts on Training Modernization in a November 2019 special issue of the journal of Healthcare Policy
- Minister’s announcement: A new $5.8 million investment embeds PhD graduates within healthcare organizations for greater impact
- Training Modernization Strategy (Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance: Report from the Working Group on Training [ PDF (323 KB) - external link ])
- Enriched core competencies for HSPR
- Inventory of Canada’s university-based HSPR doctoral training programs
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