IHSPR Transition

Message from IHSPR's new Scientific Director, Dr. Colleen M. Flood

Dr. Colleen M. Flood

As the new Scientific Director of IHSPR, I am thrilled to have the opportunity to continue the tremendous work of Dr. Morris Barer and the Institute team in supporting the innovative research, capacity building and knowledge translation that is so important to strengthening Canada's health care system.

While there will be new faces in our team, and a new physical home for the Institute, our work will build on the solid foundations of IHSPR's first five years to improve the way 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.

Over the next few months, we will be working hard to get to know you better and learn about how the Institute can continue to build and nurture Canada's health services and policy research community.

I hope to meet with many of you at events around the country, and encourage you to get to know the Toronto-based IHSPR team. For Institute news and contact information for our new staff, please visit our Contact Us page.

Sincerely,

Colleen M. Flood
Scientific Director
Institute of Health Services and Policy Research
Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Return to top

Dr. Colleen M. Flood Appointed New Scientific Director of CIHR's Institute of Health Services and Policy Research

OTTAWA (April 27, 2006) - Dr. Alan Bernstein, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), along with CIHR's Governing Council, announced today the appointment of Dr. Colleen M. Flood as incoming Scientific Director of CIHR's Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (CIHR-IHSPR). This appointment is effective September 1, 2006.

"Dr. Colleen M. Flood is a welcome addition to the CIHR leadership team," said Dr. Bernstein. "Her accomplishments in health law and policy will build upon the solid foundation created by the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research over its first phase of development."

Dr. Flood is currently an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Toronto and a Canada Research Chair in Health Law and Policy. She completed her Master of Laws (LL.M.) in 1994 and her Doctor of Juridical Science (S.J.D.) in 1998 at the University of Toronto. Her areas of research interest include comparative health care policy, public/private financing of health care systems, health care reform, and accountability and governance issues. She was the 1999 Labelle Lecturer in Health Services Research and was appointed a Senior Fellow of Massey College in 2004 and in 2006 on to the Corporation of Massey College.

"I am thrilled to have this opportunity to serve the health services research community in Canada" said Dr. Flood. "I look forward to working with colleagues in disciplines that span the breadth of health services research across this wonderful country. Together we can build on the tremendous efforts of Dr. Morris Barer and the team at CIHR-IHSPR to create the conditions for the generation of innovative and excellent research; research that is relied on by decision-makers in Canada and internationally."

Dr. Flood is also the author of numerous health law articles in prestigious journals such as the Canadian Medical Association Journal; the Alberta Health Law Journal; the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics; the Journal of Health Politics Policy and Law; the Canadian Business Law Journal; the Health Law Review; and Policy Matters. She has also been a special guest editor on two separate editions of the Journal of Law, Medicine and Ethics. She is also the author of many book chapters and the author/editor of four books: 1) International Health Care Reform: A Legal, Economic and Political Analysis (London: Routledge, 2000) 2) co-editor (with Jocelyn Downie and Tim Caulfield) of Canadian Health Law and Policy (2nd ed.) (Toronto: Butterworths, 2002), 3) co-editor (with Lorne Sossin and Kent Roach) of Access to Care, Access to Justice: The Legal Debate Over Private Health Insurance in Canada (Toronto: UTP, 2005) and 4) editor of Just Medicare: What's In, What's Out, How We Decide (Toronto: UTP, April 2006). In 2005, she was appointed as an editor with the new IHSPR-supported journal, Healthcare Policy.

"I would also like to thank Dr. Morris Barer for his extraordinary leadership and vision in establishing IHSPR," added Dr. Bernstein. "Over the past five years, Dr. Barer has created a number of innovative new research programs that have demonstrated the importance of health services and policy research in strengthening the Canadian health care system and improving the health of Canadians."

"There are few opportunities in one's professional life quite like that which was granted to me back in 2000. To have had the chance to work with a group of distinguished colleagues from across all areas of health research to shape the architecture and direction of Canada's major health research funding agency has been an extraordinary privilege and pleasure," said Dr. Morris Barer, Scientific Director of CIHR-IHSPR. "I am particularly delighted to be passing the critically important work of IHSPR into Colleen's capable hands, and believe that her background and experience will bring unique strengths to the organization's management team."

CIHR is comprised of 13 Institutes, each led by a Scientific Director, responsible for championing health research at the highest levels of international excellence, establishing and nurturing partnerships, as well as fostering effective communication and knowledge dissemination.

CIHR's Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (CIHR-IHSPR) is dedicated to supporting innovative research, capacity-building and knowledge translation initiatives designed to improve the way 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.

The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) is the Government of Canada's agency for health research. CIHR's mission is to create new scientific knowledge and to catalyze its translation into improved health, more effective health services and products, and a strengthened Canadian health care system. Composed of 13 Institutes, CIHR provides leadership and support to close to 10,000 health researchers and trainees across Canada. www.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/

For further information:

Marie-France Poirier
CIHR Media Relations
Tel.: 613-941-4563
mediarelations@cihr-irsc.gc.ca

Return to top

Message on Transition

Dear Colleagues:

This past June marked the fifth birthday of CIHR, and the end of this year will represent the same milestone for its Institutes. In keeping with the original vision of CIHR, the leadership and location of Institutes must be periodically refreshed to ensure continual renewal of energy and ideas. We have come to that point in the life of the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research where it makes sense for these and for personal reasons, to initiate its first transition of leadership. To that end, effective the end of next summer, I will pass the torch to a new Scientific Director.

The transition process will result in more than just new Scientific Directorship. It will likely mean some (but certainly not all) new staff, and possibly a new physical home for the Institute, since location will be determined by the next Scientific Director. IHSPR staff in Vancouver and Ottawa, the Institute's Advisory Board, and senior CIHR management in Ottawa will be working through a series of steps to ensure this transition proceeds smoothly and seamlessly, to be completed by August 31, 2006

The staff at CIHR and the Institute, as well as our Advisory Board, are fully committed to ensuring continuity and stability during this period of transition. Programs underway, as well as those currently in development, will continue to move forward without interruption. The role of the Institute Advisory Board is particularly important in this respect, as many of its current members will continue on past the point of transition. They have been central in the evolution of the Institute's strategic plan, and so are committed to ensuring that the important work we have begun together is sustained and enhanced.

Being the Institute's first Scientific Director has been a remarkable privilege, and an enormous challenge: at times exhilarating, at other times humbling, often frenetic, but never boring. The single greatest privilege has been to be able to work with the members of our Advisory Board, past and present, our research community and stakeholders, with CIHR's President and senior staff, with my Scientific Director colleagues, and with our dedicated and talented staff in Vancouver and Ottawa. Their passions, energy, insight, humour, and dedication to the journey on which we have embarked together has been truly amazing. I am confident that they will hasten my successor's ascent of the inevitable learning curve.

Both CIHR and this Institute have achieved much together, in a breathtakingly short time. In the case of the health services and policy research community, we can reflect back on some remarkable changes over the past five years. Not only are there more funded researchers than ever before, but we have created a number of innovative new research teams and training programs, we have seen the evolution of a new professional association, we are just witnessing the launch of a new Canadian journal, new research communities are beginning to emerge, we have proven able to respond rapidly to emerging challenges and opportunities, and we have developed and benefited from some wonderful partnerships with other research funding organizations.

And yet there is much still to be done. CIHR, and IHSPR in particular, face significant challenges in the years ahead to meet the expectations of the early years. We are still not doing all we need to do to support careers in health services and policy research; nor have we come close to capitalizing on international partnership opportunities. We need to ensure that our new journal and our new professional association survive and thrive. We need to nurture closer partnerships with a broader range of health care system decision-making organizations. We have, as an organization, still not reached maturity in our knowledge translation efforts, and there continue to be opportunities to improve peer- and merit-review. We need to find ways to engage more of our community in these latter activities. And we face growing challenges in our efforts to support the development of, and access to, the data and tools necessary to the best possible Canadian health services research. I am confident that my successor will be able to provide the necessary vision and leadership to address these challenges.

Within a short time, the formal search for the next Scientific Director of IHSPR will begin. We will be providing periodic updates on the process through our web site and newsletter. I encourage everyone in our community to get engaged in this important process. Spread the word: encourage those you think would be perfect for the job to respond to the call. And even if this position is not a fit with your interests or career stage, think about other ways in which you can support the organization. There will be opportunities to serve on Advisory Boards, on ad hoc or Advisory Board working groups, or on peer- and merit-review panels.

And of course when the new Scientific Director is chosen early next year, I know you will offer a warm welcome and provide the same level of support that my staff and I have enjoyed. The success of the Institute and of CIHR more generally, will continue to depend critically on the community's input and support. Personally, I look forward to continuing to work with our Advisory Board, our Institute staff, the staff of CIHR, my Scientific Director colleagues, and all of you. It is my interactions with the researchers and decision-makers who take the time to be in touch, to help out when asked, to offer words of encouragement, that have made the journey so much fun, and that will continue to sustain me over this coming year.

With warmest regards,

Morris Barer, PhD, MBA
Scientific Director
CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research