John Lavis
CV
John N. Lavis, MD PhD, is the director of the McMaster Health Forum (www.mcmasterhealthforum.org), associate director of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, and a professor (in both the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Department of Political Science) at McMaster University. His principal research interests include knowledge transfer and exchange in public policymaking environments and the politics of health systems. He led the creation and oversees the continuous updating of Health Systems Evidence (www.healthsystemsevidence.org), the world’s most comprehensive, free access point for high-quality evidence about how to strengthen or reform health systems, or how to get cost-effective programs, services and drugs to those who need them. He directs the Program in Policy Decision-Making (www.researchtopolicy.org) and oversees the Policy Liaison Office of the Canadian Cochrane Centre. He teaches an undergraduate course on the politics of health systems for the Bachelor of Health Sciences (Honours) program at McMaster, a simulations course in the same program, and the doctoral seminar for the PhD in Health Policy program. He teaches a week-long module on ‘Promoting the use of research-based evidence in healthcare organizations’ for Canada’s Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA) program and runs one-day and two-day workshops on using research evidence for governments and international agencies. He is co-chair of the World Health Organization (WHO)-sponsored Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) Global Steering Group, president of the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Advisory Committee on Health Research, a member of the WHO Advisory Committee on Health Research, and a member of the Cochrane Collaboration’s Effective Practice and Organization of Care (EPOC) Review Group. He holds an MD from Queen's University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a PhD from Harvard University.
RESEARCH INTERESTS
- knowledge transfer and exchange in public policymaking environments
- politics of health systems
REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS
Lavis JN, Guindon GE, Cameron D, Boupha B, Dejman M, Osei E, Sadana R, Research to Policy and Practice Study Team. Bridging the gaps between research, policy and practice in low- and middle-income countries: a survey of researchers. CMAJ. June, 2010. 182(9): 350-361.
Lavis JN. How can we support the use of systematic reviews in policymaking? PLoS Medicine 2009; 6(11): e1000141. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000141.
Lavis JN, Oxman AD, Lewin S, Fretheim A: SUPPORT Tools for evidence-informed health Policymaking (STP). Introduction. Health Research Policy and Systems. 2009. 7(Suppl 1):I1 doi:10.1186/1478-4505-7-S1-I1.
Lavis JN, Oxman AD, Moynihan R, Paulsen E. Evidence-informed health policy: 1. Synthesis of findings from a multi-method study of organizations that support the use of research evidence. Implementation Science. 2008. 3:53.
Lavis JN, Lomas J, Hamid M, Sewankambo N. Assessing country-level efforts to link research to action. Bulletin of the World Health Organization 2006; 84(8):620-628.
TEACHING ACTIVITIES
- health systems and health policy
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