Dr. Robyn Tamblyn Appointed Scientific Director of CIHR's Institute of Health Services and Policy Research
| For immediate release - | 2010-32 |
Ottawa (December 21, 2010) – Dr. Alain Beaudet, President of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), along with CIHR's Governing Council, announced today the appointment of Dr. Robyn Tamblyn as incoming Scientific Director (SD) of CIHR's Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (CIHR-IHSPR). This appointment is effective January 1, 2011.
"Dr. Tamblyn is a welcome addition to the CIHR leadership team," said Dr. Beaudet. "Her accomplishments in e-health technologies, drug management systems, pharmaco-epidemiology and drug policy evaluation not only make her the ideal candidate to take CIHR-IHSPR forward, but will also prove invaluable to the organization as we move forward with large-scale initiatives such as Community-based Primary Healthcare, the Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network, and the Strategy on Patient-Oriented Research."
Dr. Tamblyn is a professor in the Departments of Medicine, and Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Faculty of Medicine of McGill University. She is a James McGill Chair and also holds a position as Medical Scientist at the McGill University Health Center Research Institute. Dr. Tamblyn completed her PhD in epidemiology at McGill University.
Dr. Tamblyn directs a CIHR-funded team to investigate the use of e-health technologies to improve patient safety and support integrated care for chronic disease. She also leads initiatives such as the Medical Office of the 21st Century (MOXXI) to optimize drug management, improve the safety of drug prescribing, and enhance the early uptake of evidence into primary care practice. As Scientific Director of IRIS-Quebec, a novel, Canadian Foundation for Innovation-funded provincial infrastructure for health care and research, she integrated clinical data from four academic university health centers and their extended primary care networks with the provincial administrative data repository. She is the Scientific Director of the Clinical and Health Informatics Research Group at McGill University. She has been a member of the CIHR-IHSPR Institute Advisory Board since 2005.
"It is a great privilege to lead the Institute at this time. We have tremendous opportunities ahead—a need to investigate how to best re-engineer health care delivery to manage chronic disease, empower patients, and create new approaches to deliver the best care for Canadians within the context of finite resources. Our community is able to build on the important initiatives already started by Dr. Flood in community-based primary health care, drug policy, health information, and health care system sustainability. Innovations in personalized medicine, health information technologies, as well as new capacity to address cultural, social and ethical aspects of health care delivery, will create an unprecedented opportunity for our Institute to generate knowledge to inform how health care should be delivered in the future".
Dr. Tamblyn is the author of over 100 peer-reviewed articles in prestigious journals such as the Journal of the American Medical Association, the Canadian Medical Association Journal, the Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, and the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association; a member of the editorial board of Healthcare Policy; and the author of multiple book chapters. She has been awarded the CHSRF KT award for her research in improving the use of medication as well as the ACFAS Bombardier award for innovation in the development of the computerized drug management system.
"I would also like to thank Dr. Colleen Flood for her extraordinary vision and leadership in shepherding innovative research programs and capacity building initiatives to address health services and policy priorities, while fostering strong linkages with health services and policy researchers, decision makers and the broader community on key issues facing the health care system," added Dr. Beaudet. "Thanks to Dr. Flood's exceptional vision and collaborative abilities, CIHR has been a sought-after partner at the forefront of healthcare policy in Canada."
"It has been a privilege to represent the Institute and to work with such a committed, talented and diverse community of researchers, decision makers, partners and many others to make health care better for Canadians through high quality and cutting edge health services and policy research," said Dr. Colleen Flood, Scientific Director of CIHR-IHSPR. "I am thrilled that Dr. Robyn Tamblyn will be taking over the leadership and critically important work of CIHR-IHSPR. Dr. Tamblyn is recognized nationally and internationally as an outstanding researcher both in health services and in health policy. She will build upon the many achievements of the Institute to date in order to support Canadian researchers to lead internationally on challenges facing health care systems around the world. I want to thank my wonderful IHSPR team, my Board (and in particular our Board Chair and Vice Chair, Jean-Louis Denis and Anne Sales) and my scientific colleagues at CIHR for their incredible dedication and accomplishments. I also want to thank our community of health services and policy researchers who everyday work to improve health care and health services for Canadians."
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-IHSPR champions and supports excellent health services and policy research and knowledge translation to identify, understand and address health system needs and challenges and to contribute to health system accessibility, responsiveness, effectiveness, efficiency and sustainability.
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About Canadian Institutes of Health Research
For the past 10 years, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has supported better health and health care for Canadians. As the Government of Canada's health research investment agency, CIHR enables the creation of evidence-based knowledge and its transformation into improved treatments, prevention and diagnoses, new products and services, and a stronger, patient-oriented health-care system. Composed of 13 internationally recognized Institutes, CIHR supports more than 13,600 health researchers and trainees across Canada.
Further information:
David Coulombe
CIHR Media Relations
Phone: 613-941-4563
Cell: 613-808-7526
E-mail: mediarelations@cihr-irsc.gc.ca