Professor, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Member, Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis

Mita Giacomini is a Professor in Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics at McMaster University, and a member of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis.  She holds graduate degrees in health services and policy analysis, history of medicine, and public health.  Her publications have addressed topics including ethical and political reasoning in health technology assessment, health care rationing, interdisciplinarity in health research, the idea of “values” in Canadian policy rhetoric, and the clinical uses of qualitative evidence.  Current research projects focus on argumentation and evidence in health technology coverage decisions, values and ethics in Canadian health policy, and life support technologies in intensive care. Giacomini has provided consultation and service to local, provincial, national and international health agencies in areas related to technology assessment and health policy.  She is currently a member of the Ontario Health Technology Assessment Committee.  Giacomini teaches in the areas of philosophy of science, qualitative research methods, and health policy analysis.

RESEARCH INTERESTS

• social and ethical dimensions of health technology assessment
• health resource allocation
• ethics and values in health policy analysis

REPRESENTATIVE PUBLICATIONS

Giacomini M.  One of these things is not like the others:  The idea of precedence in health technology assessment and coverage decisions. Milbank Quarterly,  2005; 83(2):193-223.

Kenny N, Giacomini M.  Wanted: a new ethics field for health policy analysis.  Health Care Analysis: An International Journal of Health Care Philosophy and  Policy, 2005; 13(4) (in press).

Giacomini M.  Interdisciplinarity in health services research:  dreams and nightmares, maladies and remedies.  Journal of Health Services Research and Policy,  2004; 9(3):177-183.

Giacomini M, Miller F, O’Brien B.  Economic considerations for health insurance coverage of emerging predictive genetic tests Community Genetics, 2003; 6:61-73.

Giacomini M,  Hurley J, Gold I, Smith P, Abelson J.  The policy analysis of ‘values talk’:  lessons from Canadian health reform.  Health Policy, 2003; 67:15-24.

Giacomini M,  Baylis F.  Excluding women from medical research:  reasons and rejoinders.  Clinical Researcher, 2003; 3(10):2-5.

Giacomini M, Miller F, Browman G. Confronting the ‘grey zones’ of technology assessment: evaluating genetic testing services for public insurance coverage in Canada. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 2003; 19(2):301-315.

Giacomini M,  Cook D, Streiner D, Anand S.  Guidelines as rationing tools:  A qualitative analysis of psychosocial patient selection criteria for cardiac procedures. Canadian Medical Association Journal, 2001; 164(5):634-640.

Giacomini M,  Cook D, Streiner D, Anand S.  Using practice guidelines to select candidates for medical technologies:  an ethics framework for clinicians and policy makers. International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, 2000; 16(4):984-999.

Giacomini M,  Cook D.  A user's guide to qualitative research in health care:  Part II.  What are the results and how do they help me care for my patients?  JAMA, 2000; 284(4):478-482.

Giacomini M,  Cook, D. A user's guide to qualitative research in health care:  Part I.  Are the results of the study valid?  JAMA, 2000; 284(3):357-362.

Giacomini M, Hurley J, Stoddart G.  The many meanings of deinsuring a health service:  the case of IVF in Ontario.  Social Science & Medicine, 2000;  50(10):1485-1500.

Giacomini M.  The 'which' hunt:  Assembling health technologies for assessment and rationing.  Journal of Health Politics, Policy, and Law, 1999; 24(4):715-758.

Giacomini M.  A change of heart and a change of mind?  Technology and the redefinition of death in 1968.  Social Science and Medicine, 1997; 44(10):1465-1482.

TEACHING ACTIVITIES

• Philosophy of Science
• Health Policy Analysis