CIHR Helps Address Health Care Wait Times

Improving the health care system is a Canadian priority, which is why CIHR has forged partnerships and mobilized the research community to provide research evidence so that health care wait times do not exceed lengths that have been shown to have negative effects on people's health. CIHR supported research is helping health care professionals, hospital administrators, and all levels of government find ways to deliver the best possible care to Canadians in the most cost-effective manner.

In 2005 CIHR forged a partnership with the provinces to fund eight Canadian research teams in three of the five priority areas identified by the federal and provincial and territorial Ministers of Health. The areas studied were sight restoration surgery, joint replacement and cancer. This work helped establish the first ever national benchmarks for wait times in December 2005.

The reports generated by these eight Canadian research teams will help to guide future research in the area of wait times. Based on the results of these reports and other parallel priority-setting activities, CIHR and our federal, provincial and territorial partners have launched a new call to the research community. The request for applications called the Timely Access to Quality Health Care Initiative, will help bring more evidence to bear on the issue of Wait Times.

CIHR is committed to providing evidence-based solutions that will improve the health care system. Our work in the area of wait times research demonstrates we are delivering on this commitment.

For more information on CIHR's wait times initiatives:

Opinion Piece:

  • IHSPR publishes article describing the success of the rapid-response wait times syntheses on informing health policy making in Healthcare Policy journal [2(3) 2007: 56-61]
  • Access to Health Care: the catalytic role of health research (The Hill Times, February 13, 2006)

News releases:

Research Result Summaries from Toward Canadian Benchmarks for Health Services Wait Times:

Requests for Applications:

  • Timely Access to Quality Health Care – Evidence and Application: Research Syntheses and Pilot Projects
  • Team Grant - Access to Quality Cancer Care
  • Toward Canadian Benchmarks for Health Services Wait Times - Evidence, Application and Research Priorities (archived)

For further information:

Meghan McMahon
CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research
Tel.: 416-978-5172
E-mail: meghan.mcmahon@utoronto.ca

David Coulombe
CIHR Media Relations
Tel.: 613-941-4563
E-mail: mediarelations@cihr-irsc.gc.ca