E-News

CHEPA News is an electronic newsletter published three times a year, and available by subscription or on the CHEPA website. If you would like to subscribe, send an e-mail to chepa@mcmaster.ca. If your e-mail address is changing, please let us know.  

What’s New

CHEPA has received funding from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for the establishment of the CHEPA/MOHLTC Research Chair in Health Equity. A search committee is being formed to find a suitable candidate who will lead a successful research program around the theme of equity in health services, health systems, and health care. More details will be available soon at www.chepa.org.
 
Two students with international educational and work experience have been awarded CHEPA Doctoral Fellowships for the 2009-10 academic year. Kaelan Moat, who has completed his Master of Science degree in International Health Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and Yaw Owusu, who has a Master of Science degree in Environmental Sciences, Public Policy Administration from the Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, have joined McMaster’s Health Policy PhD program. They are among five new students who joined the PhD program this month. For more details, click here.

Spotlight on Research

CHEPA member John Eyles is a principal investigator on a newly-funded research project to explore professional and public perceptions regarding the use of pathogen inactivation of the blood supply. The three-year project is being funded by more than $300,000 from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canadian Blood Services. Pathogen inactivation is a new technology being researched as a proactive way to destroy organisms which may cause infection.

Stephen Birch is co-investigator on a $150,000 UK Department of Health project entitled Research on the health inequalities elements of the National Health Service resource allocation weighted capitation formula.

Julia Abelson received a $20,000 grant from the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation for a four-month research project entitled Effective Strategies for Public Engagement in the Development of Healthcare Policy and Program Delivery – A Commissioned Research Project.

Stephen Birch was co-author of a Canadian Nurses Association report that predicts Canada's health system will be short 60,000 registered nurses over the next 15 years, unless urgent action is taken. Tested Solutions for Eliminating Canada’s Registered Nurses Shortage recommends instituting a series of policy measures that could help alleviate the predicted shortage. For details, click here.

Presentations

CHEPA researchers were active at the International Health Economics Association 7th World Congress in Beijing, China in July. Stephen Birch gave three presentations related to the topics of antiretroviral treatments in Africa, breast screening in Australia and economic evaluation of family practice. Doctoral student Jinhu Li presented a paper she co-authored with CHEPA member Paul Contoyannis entitled The evolution of health outcomes from childhood to adolescence. Li also presented a paper entitled Physician response to pay-for-performance: Evidence from a quasi-natural experiment in Canada. Doctoral student Emmanuel Guindon presented a paper entitled The impact of tobacco prices on smoking onset in Vietnam: Duration analyses of retrospective data.

Paul Contoyannis gave a presentation entitled The impact of physical and sexual abuse in childhood on adult economic outcomes at the 43rd annual conference of the Canadian Economic Association in Toronto.

John Lavis presented Research use in public health management and policymaking at a pre-conference workshop of the Canadian Public Health Association 2009 Annual Conference in Winnipeg. He also gave a presentation entitled Developing capacity for evidence-informed policymaking at the Joint LatinCLEN IX and Ibero-American Cochrane Network VIII Meeting in Bogota, Colombia, and a presentation on Supporting evidence-informed policymaking at the 8th Annual Symposium of the International Network Health Policy and Reform in Krakow, Poland.

Looking ahead

CHEPA Seminars: The first CHEPA Seminar for the 2009-10 academic year will be held on Sept. 23, from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in HSC 1J7. Lydia Kapiriri, assistant professor in the Department of Health, Aging and Society at McMaster University, will give a presentation on a study involving the views of health system decision makers in Uganda, Norway and Canada on fairness in the health system. All are welcome.

The November CHEPA seminar will be given by Damien Contandriopoulos, an associate professor in the Faculty of Nursing and a member of the Interdisciplinary Research Group on Health at the University of Montreal. He will discuss a CIHR-funded systematic review on knowledge transfer and exchange strategies to inform policymaking. The seminar is on Nov. 18 at 12:30 p.m. in HSC-4N55A.

The annual Labelle Lecture will take place on Oct. 7, at 3 p.m. in HSC-1A1. Anirban Basu, an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Chicago, will deliver a talk entitled Comparative Effectiveness Research: Another Emperor With No Clothes? Basu is also a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. For details click here.

On Oct. 8, CHEPA researchers will be participating in Health Research Showcase 2009, organized by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to profile the work of health researchers in Ontario. The theme of this year's showcase is Linking Health Research and Quality Health Care for Ontarians. CHEPA Associate Director Michel Grignon will be presenting work entitled Equity of access and health care utilization in Canada and Ontario: A summary of studies . CHEPA emeritus member Brian Hutchison will be presenting work entitled Prioritizing unattached primary health care patients based on relative need. Julia Abelson will moderate a session at the showcase.

Julia Abelson will lead a plenary session on public engagement in health research at the inaugural conference to launch the New Brunswick Health Research Foundation, being held in Fredericton Oct. 4-6. She will discuss the increasing importance of effective public engagement in health care policy and program development.

CHEPA will be hosting an invitational Workshop on Equity in Health Care being held at McMaster University on Dec. 3-4. Keynote speaker will be John Roemer, an American economist and political scientist who is the Elizabeth S. and A. Varick Stout Professor of Political Science and Economics at Yale University. Michel Grignon is chair of the workshop.