Messages from the IHSPR Scientific Director

Dear Health Services and Policy Research community,

I am delighted to share that my role as CIHR-IHSPR's Scientific Director has been renewed for a second four-year term. I am continuously inspired by the excellence of the health services and policy research community, the quality and importance of its work, and its commitment to rigour and evidence-informed solutions. With several ongoing health system crises – including pandemic response and recovery and the healthcare workforce – health services and policy research is more important than ever.

Reflecting on the past four years, I am excited about the launch of our 2021-26 Strategic Plan, which commits CIHR-IHSPR to advancing the Quadruple Aim and health equity. At CIHR-IHSPR, we continue to develop research initiatives alongside partners to support health system transformation and collective impact. For example, we've developed a new multi-faceted major research program, Transforming Health with Integrated Care (THINC), that aims to generate actionable evidence on which innovations, policies, and/or system solutions can lead us to truly integrated care. We're growing and strengthening our flagship Health System Impact embedded research training program, in order to support emerging leaders, develop embedded research capacity within health system organizations, and catalyze collaborations between academia and health organizations to advance learning health systems. And, we collaborated with Healthcare Excellence Canada, four funding partners, and 91 long-term care and retirement homes across Canada to launch a rapid research response focused on strengthening pandemic preparedness in long-term care.

Through my second term, CIHR-IHSPR will focus its efforts and investments in areas that align to IHSPR's strategic priorities, CIHR's strategic priorities, and our commitment areas including environmental sustainability in healthcare, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and Indigenous Peoples' health. We will be nimble and adaptive to support the health services and policy research community in addressing Canada's emerging and complex health system challenges, including but not limited to the current health workforce crisis. We will continue to focus on fundamental issues in Canadian healthcare including the ways that health care services are organized, regulated, managed, financed, paid for, used, and delivered in the interest of improving the health and quality of life of all Canadians. Finally, we will continue to collaborate with our institute partners to support greater investment in health services (pillar 3) research across CIHR. Examples of previous and forthcoming partnerships include: Mental Health in the Early Years Implementation Science Team Grants and CIHR Research Excellence, Diversity, and Independence (REDI) Early Career Transition Award.

I am grateful to work with the CIHR-IHSPR team in pursuit of these goals, including Drs. Meg McMahon and Jessica Nadigel, Associate Scientific Directors, Dr. Bahar Kasaai and Nida Shahid, Project Leads, Erin Thompson, Project Manager, and Johanne Richard, Executive Assistant, and the talented and dedicated CIHR-IHSPR Institute Advisory Board. I am also grateful to ICES, where I work as a Senior Core Scientist, for hosting the CIHR-IHSPR team in Toronto and their continued support for our work.

Our vision is to position Canada as a global leader in optimizing health and health outcomes in the population through the provision of evidence-informed healthcare services. This can be realized with continued partnership and engagement with the health services and policy research community, including researchers, policymakers, providers, patients/public/caregivers, and communities. I look forward to our continued work together.

Sincerely,
Dr. Rick Glazier

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