The Health System Impact Program
Health System Impact Fellowship (Transcript)
Dr. Sacha Bhatia
Population Health and Values Based Health Systems Executive, Ontario Health
Health System Mentor
During the COVID pandemic, we have come to realize the importance that science and research plays in the development and implementation of policy.
Dr. Verna Yiu
President & CEO, Alberta Health Services
Health System Mentor
We have to be adaptive - and the way to be adaptive is to really look at the evidence.
Adalsteinn Brown
Dean, Dalla Lana School of Public Health / Co-Chair CHSPRA Training Modernization Advisory Group
We know we need help [to] transform the system into a learning a health system and at the end of the day, building a system that is more sustainable, that is higher quality, and that is more fair and equitable.
CIHR Health System Impact Fellowship Program
Dr. Meghan McMahon
Associate Director, CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research.
The Health System Impact Fellowship is an embedded research program that places highly skilled, research-trained individuals directly within health system organizations.
Dr. Rick Glazier
Scientific Director, CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research
It's a program designed to modernize the graduate training and post-doctoral training across our healthcare system.
Dr. Meghan McMahon
Fellows receive unparalleled mentorship from senior level decision-makers from within these organizations and academic experts from across the country.
What is the impact in the real world?
Dr. Meghan McMahon
They have created a cohort now of 145 fellows that are connected to 83 health system organizations across the country and 23 different academic institutions.
Dr. Gail Tomblin Murphy
Vice President, Research, Innovation and Discovery & Chief Nurse Executive, Nova Scotia Health
Health System Mentor
Our health system impact fellows working with research teams, working with policy makers, have really influenced bringing that evidence.
Dr. Meghan McMahon
They have contributed to program evaluations. They've contributed to informing the development of new services that will improve the lives of many.
Adalsteinn Brown
You will see organizations transform. They will become more agile, they will react more quickly, and they will react more confidently.
Dr. Gail Tomblin Murphy
We are totally transforming our healthcare system.
Why be a Health System Impact Fellow?
Dr. Deepa Singal
Research Scientist, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy / part-time Assistant professor, University of Manitoba Director, Scientific and Data Initiatives, Canadian Autism Spectrum Disorder Alliance
Health System Impact Fellow 2018
The fellowship has prepared me for the career that I have today. It gave me hands on experience and organizational management and governance.
Rae Jewett
PhD Candidate, Department of Geography and Planning, University of Toronto
Health System Impact Fellow 2019
I was after professional development skills, certainly, and stakeholder engagement skills. These are skills we don't pick up in academia typically.
Dr. Olivier Demers-Payette
Scientific Professional, Institut national d'excellence en santé et en services sociaux
Health System Impact Fellow 2017
[What attracted me to the fellowship was] the opportunity to contribute to a program and to be part of a collaboration between a health services and policy research organization and an academic institution
Dr. Verna Yiu
This fellowship allows you to have an entry or portal into organizations that actually deliver healthcare.
Dr. Meaghan Sim
Scientist, Implementation Science, Nova Scotia Health
Health System Impact Fellow 2018
It is a great opportunity to get outside your comfort zone, to develop skills outside of the academic setting.
Dr. Deepa Singal
The network that future fellows and current fellows have this opportunity to participate in – that's the real magic.
Why host a Health System Impact Fellow?
Dr. Rick Glazier
By having an embedded, really highly methodologically trained person now actually as part of your organization, it can really shorten that cycle of brining the evidence to decisions.
Dr. Sacha Bhatia
That helped our team be able to really conduct complex research projects within a very short period of time.
Dr. Verna Yiu
Having a highly trained fellow who can actually come in and do some value-add work to help inform our system was actually very, very important
Dr. Gail Tomblin Murphy
The difference that they're making for patients and our families, for our clinicians, for our system, and for government is phenomenal.
Rae Jewett
I would say go for it! This is going to enhance your life. It's going to enhance your career.
Dr. Deepa Singal
I don't think there is any other program out there like this.
Dr. Gail Tomblin Murphy
You will be so fortunate if you have the opportunity to host one, and hopefully multiple, fellows.
Dr. Sacha Bhatia
When you think about what is to come in a post-pandemic reality, we are going to need people. It's not a nice to have anymore, it's a have to have. To have researchers who understand how our complex health system and the organizations that sit in its ecosystem work. I can't think of something that is more important as we think about rebuilding our healthcare system and in fact, our society.
Acknowledgements
CIHR's Institute of Health Services and Policy Research would like to thanks all of its funding partners, including the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, the Fonds de recherche du Québec – santé, the Saskatchewan Health Research Foundation, the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation and Mitacs, for being instrumental to the Health System Impact Fellowship's reach, uptake and success.
The Institute would also like to thank the Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance, let by Dr. Diane Finegood, and its training modernization working group, co-chaired by Dr. Steini Brown and Dr. Stephen Bornstein, for providing the direction and leadership necessary to put Canada on the path towards training modernization.
Thank you to all of our partners:
- 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
- Carleton University
- Dalhousie University
- McMaster University
- Mount Saint Vincent University
- Simon Fraser University
- Université Concordia
- Université Laval
- Université McGill
- Université de Montreal
- Université d'Ottawa
- Université de Sherbrooke
- University of Alberta
- University of British Columbia
- University of Calgary
- University of Guelph
- University of Manitoba
- University of Northern British Columbia
- University of Regina
- University of Saskatchewan
- University of Toronto
- University of Victoria
- University of Waterloo
- University of Western Ontario
About the program
The Health System Impact (HSI) program provides highly qualified PhD trainees, postdoctoral researchers, and (new!) early career researchers in health services and policy research/related fields with the opportunity to develop embedded research projects/programs that address the most pressing problems faced by health system organizations and to support evidence-informed decision-making.
Overall, the HSI program aims to:
- Support emerging leaders to develop their embedded research experience, professional competencies, and potential for impact
- Grow a strong cadre of embedded researchers positioned to play a key role in evidence-informed health system improvement that advances the Quadruple Aim and health equity
- Develop embedded research capacity within health system organizations and catalyze collaborations between academic and health system organizations to contribute to advancing learning health systems across Canada
- Support diverse and impact-oriented career pathways for health system embedded researchers
Program components
The HSI program comprises three streams aligned to different career stages:
- PhD & Postdoctoral Fellow Streams: These streams are for PhD trainees and postdoctoral researchers who are currently enrolled in a doctoral program or have completed their PhD, and provides a one or two-year embedded research experiential learning opportunity within a health system organization. Learn more.
- Early Career Embedded Researcher Stream: This stream is for early career researchers and provides a four-year award to develop their role, program of research, and contributions as embedded researchers within health system organizations. Learn more.
Together, 328 fellows (111 PhD trainees and 217 postdoctoral researchers) and 12 early-career researchers have been or are currently embedded within 139 health system organizations and connected to 25 universities to advance evidence-informed health system improvement. Learn more about their contributions and impacts in our Embedded Research Impact Casebook.
Background
Funding Opportunities
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Health System Impact Training Platform
Partnerships
Profiles
Resources
Modernizing Health Services and Policy Research Training for Greater Impact
The Health System Impact (HSI) program was one of several outputs of the 2015 Pan-Canadian Training Modernization Strategy, which identified key strategic directions to modernize university-based Health Services and Policy Research (HSPR) doctoral and post-doctoral training programs for optimized career readiness and impact. It started in 2017 as the HSI Fellowship for doctoral trainees and post-doctoral fellows. Since then, embedded research career pathways were identified as a priority for consideration and in 2022, the HSI program was refreshed to include a new stream for early career researchers (ECRs). This stream is intended to help establish a career pathway for embedded researchers and generate additional research capacity to advance learning health systems (LHSs) across Canada.
Central to this program is participation in a national cohort and professional development aligned to the HSPR Enriched Core Competency Framework.
The HSI program is led by the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research's (CIHR-IHSPR) in collaboration with multiple CIHR institutes and initiatives, funding agencies, health system organizations and universities.
The program supports CIHR-IHSPR's 2021-2026 strategic plan priority 3, “Integrate evidence into health services and policy decisions for improved health care system performance and outcomes,” and priority 4, “Strengthen capacity for solution-oriented research and evidence-informed health care system transformation.” It also advances CIHR's strategic plan priorities A (A1. Champion a more inclusive concept of research excellence), B (B3. Enhance training and career support) and E (E1. Advance the science of knowledge mobilization and E3. Strengthen Canada's health systems through innovation).
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