Transition Message from the Scientific Director – Dr. Colleen M. Flood

Dear Colleagues:

It is hard to believe that it is already time to write this farewell letter. As Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, it has been an honour and a privilege to represent such a committed, talented and diverse group of researchers across this equally diverse country that is Canada. I want to thank you all for your support of the work of the Institute, and of our efforts to build capacity in research, fund excellence in research, invest strategically and wisely, and bring research into the hands of decision makers.

Looking back over the last four years, we have many achievements to be proud of. Our Institute has driven hard on creating programs that fund research that is better connected to decision making. We have worked hard to enrich and expand the Partnerships for Health Systems Improvement (PHSI) program to reflect the tremendous effort and skill it takes to work with decision makers over time on research, and in doing so we garnered additional CIHR money for our efforts and a marked spike in applications as a result. Related to this has been the development of Evidence on Tap and a renewed commitment to supporting provincial decision making. Our new Best Brains program required us to listen to what governments needed in terms of timely evidence on particular topics, and bring in evidence (in the form of talented researchers) for a one-day exchange. This has been an enormously successful program that we will now roll out to all ten provinces and three territories. In addition, we have developed a program of Expedited Synthesis to provide timely, high-quality synthesis of all existing evidence on topics that are critical to decision makers.

We have also created capacity in three core strategic areas: access to quality care across the continuum (particularly primary health care), drug policy and health information. We have created a series of mid-career Chairs to support and reward excellence among those who excel not only in research but also in working with decision makers to render that research relevant. We have also created a number of national teams across the country in strategic areas to take advantage of the natural experiments emerging from ten separate provincial and three territorial health care systems.

There are many other specific programs and initiatives, and I will make mention of just one more. Our Institute is proud to have shepherded through the Drug Safety & Effectiveness Network at CIHR. This national network, in partnership with Health Canada, will support and build capacity in order to do rapid and longer-term research on the effect of drugs in patient populations after the point of approval by the regulator.

None of our achievements would be possible without the support and enthusiasm of our President, Vice-Presidents, and Scientific Directors of all Institutes and their staff – thank you all for making it such a pleasure to come to Ottawa every month and supporting us in our efforts to promote "Pillar III".

At our Institute, we have built upon the superb work of the previous Scientific Director, Morris Barer, and his talented team. In terms of challenges that remain, we have to continue to convey the importance and validity of health services and policy research to those in the CIHR family who may remain sceptical about its relative importance. With well over 10% of our GDP devoted to expenditures on health care services (and close to 50% of total public spending in many provinces now devoted to health care), an aging population and growing expectations, we hope that the challenges will be fewer in demonstrating how important this kind of research is and will continue to be. Within our own broad community of health services and policy research there is still significant work to be done to ensure greater respect and understanding of the multiple approaches and methodologies that may be employed by the diverse group of scholars loosely assembled in the domain of health services and policy research. We have the unfortunate tendency to judge research by a very harsh standard relative to our biomedical, clinical and population health colleagues. Finally, a future challenge relates to the possibilities of international collaboration in health services and policy research in both the developed and developing world—an opportunity we have yet to tap appropriately.

Of all that has happened over the last four years, I am most proud of the creation and ongoing work of our Institute team. First, our superb Institute Advisory Board, led by Jean-Louis Denis, who has supported us tirelessly—providing us with the insight and advice that is so essential when developing programs to support the multitude of disciplines and areas inherent in health services and policy research. And last but first in so many ways are the staff of the Institute, past and present: Ellen Melis, Bernadette Mount, Dale McMurchy, Michelle Gagnon, Kim Gaudreau, Meghan McMahon, Melissa Casco, Stephanie Soo, Jennifer Critchley, Michèle O'Rourke, Andrea Eccleston, Tony Chin, Chris McCutcheon and Leah Jurkovic. These are incredible people who have worked long and hard, with great conviction that as a team we could respond to any challenge. I thank them from the bottom of my heart for all their efforts and look forward to seeing their own promising careers continue to develop and flourish.

Sincerely,

Colleen M. Flood

Message from Dr. Alain Beaudet, CIHR President, about IHSPR's Transition