News Archives

• Hutchison's dedication to primary care honoured with Emmett Hall Lectureship

  15 May 2013

  Brian Hutchison’s lifelong dedication to understanding and improving primary health care in Canada is being recognized with the Emmett Hall Memorial Lectureship, one of Canada’s most prestigious honours. Hutchison, Professor Emeritus at CHEPA and McMaster's departments of Family Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, will present the Hall Laureate Lecture May 29^th at the Canadian Association for Health Services and Policy Research (CAHSPR) annual conference in Vancouver. The lectureship is a lifetime achievement award conferred by health services and policy scholars in Canada.

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• Former Ontario Health Minister to speak at CHEPA seminar

  15 May 2013

  The Hon. Elinor Caplan, left, who was Ontario’s Minister of Health from 1987 to 1990 and was a federal cabinet minister from 1999 to 2003, joins co-authors Tom Bigda Peyton, below, and Maia MacNiven to discuss their book From Innovation to Transformation: Moving up the Curve in Ontario Healthcare, about the Health Transformation Learning Partnership (HTLP) project, in a CHEPA seminar on Wednesday May 15. Their presentation will describe the combination of techniques that were used to transform three healthcare organizations in Ontario: North York General Hospital, York Central Hospital, and the South East Community Care Access Centre.

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• CHEPA celebrates announcement of three-year research funding

  01 Apr 2013

  Congratulations to CHEPA faculty John Lavis and Jeremiah Hurley for successfully leading the application for funds from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care for the research program Harnessing Evidence and Values to Health System Excellence.

  The research program will be supported over three years (April 2013 to March 2016) by a one-time, multi-year grant of $4.9 million through the Ministry’s new Health System Research Fund - Research Awards competition.

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• Seminar looks at implications of altered federal role in health policy

  13 Mar 2013

  The current federal government insists its role in health policy is limited to providing funds to the provinces. In a seminar titled Perspectives on the Federal Role in Health Policy, Pierre-Gerlier (P.G.) Forest, President of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau Foundation, will discuss the implications that this approach to governing health care, which he describes as a departure from the cautious course favoured by previous governments, may have on the adaptive capacity of the national health care system.

  The seminar will take place on Wednesday March 20 in CRL B119, from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m.

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• Candidates sought for CHEPA/Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Endowed Chair in Health Equity

  11 Mar 2013

  McMaster University is seeking an outstanding researcher to assume the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis/Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care Chair in Health Equity. We are looking for a dynamic early- or mid-career scholar who will lead an innovative research program focused on the production and communication of policy-relevant research that addresses issues of equity and efficiency in health and health-care, at the individual or systemic levels.

  Although applications will be accepted until the position is filled, the search committee will begin reviewing applications on April 15, 2013. 

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• Visiting professor a community health activist in South Africa

  06 Feb 2013

  Public health promotion and gender specialist Olagoke Akintola, a senior lecturer in the health promotion program, School of Applied Human Sciences, University of KwaZuluNatal, Durban, South Africa, is a visiting professor in the Program in Policy Decision-making (PPD).

  Akintola’s principal research interest is in health systems development at the primary care level with a specific focus on community health care work and the economics of community/home-based care.

  PhD program welcomes doctoral student from Makerere University

  André Zida, Chief of the Department of National Health Accounts and Health Financing, Ministry of Health, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso and a doctoral student at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda, is spending the winter at CHEPA as a visiting doctoral student in the Health Policy PhD program. He will return to campus in September for an additional three months.

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• CHEPA marks 25 years of studying the health-care system’s most pressing issues

  29 Jan 2013

  How does the way doctors are paid affect health-care costs and quality? How can we fund the need for long-term care of Canada’s growing population of seniors efficiently? How do we make sure care is delivered according to the best available scientific evidence, in a manner that is consistent with professional autonomy and responsive to patients' needs? 

  Those are the kind of questions that have been studied for the past 25 years by faculty at CHEPA, which was officially opened on May 26, 1988 and this year celebrates its silver anniversary.

  The founding and growth of CHEPA parallels the genesis and growth of health economics as a research field. CHEPA researchers, who bring together the tools and methods of social sciences (economics, sociology, political science), humanities (philosophy, ethics), management, and clinical sciences, have directly helped to shape Canada’s health-care system, driving the development of the internationally-recognized Health Utilities Index and implementing methods for the economic evaluation of health-care services, systems and programs, as well as pioneering the field of health policy analysis.

  Photo shows CHEPA's founding faculty in 1988: From left: David Feeny, coordinator Greg Stoddart, Roberta Labelle, associate coordinator Jonathan Lomas, Amiram Gafni, George Torrance.

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• CHEPA seminar considers: It is time to retire the World Health Organization?

  16 Jan 2013

   

  As the World Health Organization celebrates its 65th anniversary in 2013, many have raised the difficult question of whether it is ready for retirement. Kelley Lee, Director of Global Health in the Faculty of Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University, will present a seminar on Monday, January 28, that looks back at the history of WHO, what it was created to do, what governance constraints it currently faces, and how it must change to meet the world's health needs of the 21st century if it is to avoid obsolescence.

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• CHEPA mourns the death of Gavin Mooney

  21 Dec 2012

  Members of CHEPA were devastated to learn of the death on Dec. 20 of Professor Gavin Mooney at his home in Tasmania, Australia.  

  A proud Scotsman, Gavin was a  close friend of the Centre and a colleague to many of us.  He was passionate about equity in health and health care systems and was active in both his professional and private lives in pursuing fairer societies.

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• Vancouver Sun article highlights CHEPA director’s long-term care study

  19 Dec 2012

  An article proposing a new system for financing long-term care, written by CHEPA director Michel Grignon and Nicole F. Bernier, research director of the Faces of Aging program at the Institute for Research on Public Policy, was published recently in the Vancouver Sun.

  The article, How to cover the costs of long-term care in Canada, ran on the newspaper’s Issues & Ideas page. It drew on research the pair conducted for the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) and published in the study report Financing Long-Term Care in Canada.

  That study concludes it should be a national priority to ensure that adequate long-term care is accessible to every Canadian who needs it and that the government should adopt a universal public insurance scheme for long-term care, along the lines of what Medicare already does for medical care in Canada.

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• 'Mythbusters' knowledge translation tool subject of CHEPA seminar

  15 Nov 2012

  The effectiveness of Mythbusters, a knowledge translation tool used to measure and evaluate the uptake of information from knowledge transfer initiatives, is the subject of a seminar on December 19 presented by Jon Sachs, an evaluation specialist at the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement in Ottawa.

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• The effect of physician numbers and fees on hospital treatments subject of seminar

  25 Oct 2012

  Research showing that having a higher concentration of physicians and paying them based on output increased the number of hospital treatments in Holland for nine analyzed conditions will be the subject of the CHEPA monthly seminar on November 14, presented by visiting professor Ilaria Mosca of Erasmus University Rotterdam.
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• Pan American Health Organization conference at McMaster a first for Canada

  12 Oct 2012

  A conference involving senior officials from South, Central and North American countries who are working to improve global health through better research is being held at McMaster University Oct. 17^th to 19 – the first time the event has been staged in Canada.  

  More than 25 delegates and invited guests involved with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), which is the regional office of the Americas for the World Health Organization, will attend meetings as part of the 45^th session of PAHO’s Advisory Committee on Health Research (ACHR) chaired by John Lavis, director of the McMaster Health Forum and associate director of CHEPA.

  A public talk by PAHO director Mirta Roses Periago on Oct. 17 will look at disparities in health among the nations of the Americas, drawing on research findings from a newly-published and exhaustive report showing that despite the huge strides made in improving population health in all of the countries of the Americas during the past decades, the continuing high level of inequality in the distribution of health and well-being in the region requires urgent attention.

  In conjunction with the conference, an Art for Research exhibit, commissioned by PAHO to illustrate how health research generates wealth in countries and contributes to economic and social development as well as equity in health, will run at the Lyons New Media Centre.

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• Tracking the steps of international medical graduates en route to Canadian licensing

  01 Oct 2012

  International medical graduates (IMGs) often travel a long and convoluted road en route to being licensed to practice medicine in Canada. A federally-funded initiative that tracks IMGs on their paths to licensure, using annual data submitted by 38 organizations, will be the subject of the CHEPA monthly seminar on Oct. 10 in CRL-B119 from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m.

  Three representatives of the Canadian Post-M.D. Education Registry (CAPER), which is the home of data and statistics on postgraduate medical education and IMGs in Canada, will describe how the IMG database tracks the progress of foreign medical graduates through evaluating exams, assessment centres, residency training programs, certification bodies, and into licensed medical practice. Examples will also show how post-M.D. training trends shed light on Canada’s response to specific health care priorities.

  The seminar will be presented by Steve Slade, vice-president of research and analysis at the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada (AFMC), Tamara Brown, national IMG database project manager at the AFMC, and research associate Linda Bourgeois.

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• Equity and efficiency in 21st century health care subject of special CHEPA seminar

  23 Sep 2012

  The impact of primary health care delivery reforms in Quebec on both health care system efficiency and equity across population subgroups will be the subject of a special CHEPA seminar on Friday Sept. 28.

  The Canadian health care system is transitioning from a focus on hospital-based, acute care to continuous, coordinated care for patients with chronic diseases. Providing high-quality care, promoting equity, and constraining costs all create challenges. Erin Strumpf, assistant professor in McGill's Department of Economics and Department of Epidemiology, Biostatistics and Occupational Health, will present results from her evaluation of primary health care delivery reforms in Quebec in this context.

  She will also discuss the potential that preventive health-care policies, including cancer screening and immunization programs, have to affect equity in health care.

  The seminar will take place Friday Sept. 28 in CRL B119, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

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• New faculty members have expertise in issues related to diabetes, mental health treatment

  12 Sep 2012

  CHEPA’s faculty recently welcomed two new members:

  Daria O’Reilly is faculty director, Field Evaluation & Economic Assessment Program (FEEAP), Programs for Technology in Health (PATH) Research Institute at McMaster, and is a member of provincial working groups studying issues related to diabetes treatment and education, rheumatoid arthritis and hyperbaric oxygen therapy and negative pressure wound therapy.

  Gillian Mulvale, an assistant professor of health policy and management at McMaster’s DeGroote School of Business, is also a member of the Mental Health Commission of Canada’s Consumer Group and helped develop the stakeholder and public engagement process for Toward Recovery and Well-being, which laid out the foundational goals upon which the Mental Health Strategy for Canada is based.

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• CHEPA doctoral fellow will augment medical expertise with health economics research

  01 Aug 2012

  A medical doctor from the United States who has taken coursework towards a Master’s degree in public policy in health from UCLA as well as obtaining a Master’s degree in public health in epidemiology from Johns Hopkins University is the recipient of CHEPA’s Doctoral Fellowship for 2012-2013.

  Ahmad Shariff von Schlegell will be among six students joining McMaster’s Health Policy PhD program in September, the fifth cohort for the program since its launch in 2008.

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• Long-term care should be financed by a public insurance program: study

  29 Jun 2012

  Canada should implement a public insurance program to finance long-term care, concludes research conducted for the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP) by CHEPA director Michel Grignon and Nicole F. Bernier, research director for the IRPP’s Faces of Aging program.

  As Canada’s population ages, a growing number of frail seniors will require long-term care services to help them perform daily activities such as eating, dressing or bathing. However, access to long-term care and its cost to individuals vary depending on the region where they live and whether they are still at home or in a residential facility. Their study, Financing Long-Term Care in Canada, concludes that ensuring that adequate care is accessible to every Canadian who needs it and financing it in a transparent way should be a national priority.

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• Link between second-generation antipsychotics and diabetes in adults seminar topic

  20 Jun 2012

  Research showing that the risk of diabetes and mortality increases after adults switch from antidepressants to second-generation antipsychotics will be the subject of a special CHEPA seminar presented by William P. Warburton, PhD, on Friday, June 22.

  Previously used primarily to treat psychosis, second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs) are now used mainly for depression. Warburton will discuss results of a study involving 40 to 60-year-olds in British Columbia who had been treated for depression with an antidepressant and switched to another antidepressant or to a SGA, which found that adults with depression treated with an SGA face both an increased risk of developing diabetes and an increased risk of mortality.

  The seminar will take place in CRL B119, from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend. The seminar will be available remotely for those who are unable to attend. Click here for instructions on how to listen to the presentation through Elluminate.

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• Impact of financial incentives on dental care subject of seminar

  18 Jun 2012

  The impact of financial incentives for both providers and patients in Scotland on the utilization of dental health services will be the subject of the CHEPA monthly seminar on June 20 in CRL B119 from 12:30 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend.

  Stefan Listl, Senior Research Fellow in Health Economics and Econometrics (adjunct) at the Munich Center for the Economics of Aging, Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy, analyzed data for the years 1998 to 2007 from the Management Information and Dental Accounting System, which covered about 1.3 million dental claims for treatment delivered to Scottish NHS patients.

  As well, a special seminar will be held Friday June 22 on The link between second-generation antipsychotics and diabetes in adults. William P. Warburton, PhD, will present research showing that the risk of diabetes and mortality increases after adults switch from antidepressants to second-generation antipsychotics. The seminar will take place in CRL B119, from 12:00 noon to 1:30 p.m. All are welcome.

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