HPME News
Approaches to Accountability
By: Raisa Deber
 Accountability is a key component of many current reform efforts in Canada and internationally. But there is increasing recognition that one size does not fit all, and that it is important to “unpack” the concept and to clarify both what the term means and which approaches to achieving accountability might work where.
Our research project
I lead an HPME team that was recently awarded a small but ambitious grant under the CIHR Partnerships for Health System Improvement program. Our project is called Approaches to Accountability. It features collaboration amongst an accomplished interdisciplinary team, working in partnership with senior policy-makers across multiple health-care sub-sectors. Our aim is to clarify what is known about best practices to achieve accountability under various circumstances.
Our approach and team
In order to manage this complex project, we are using a decentralized management approach: senior researchers head up the multiple sub-study teams, with ongoing coordination to ensure that we all build from a common template and can learn from one another.
Many of our sub-studies involve alumni as partners working closely with the researchers and graduate students (including a number of students completing MSc and PhD theses). In fact, many of you might already be involved. If you have not heard from us already, you may soon!
Valerie Rackow is the project manager. The other HPME members of the research team are professors G. Ross Baker, Jan Barnsley, Audrey Laporte, Whitney Berta, Paul Williams, and Walter Wodchis. We are also joined by Andrea Baumann of the School of Nursing at McMaster University, Rob Schwartz of the Tobacco Research Unit at the University of Toronto, Janet Lum of Ryerson University, Mark Dobrow of Cancer Care Ontario, Nancy Kraetschmer of Toronto’s Mount Sinai Hospital, Brenda Gamble of HPME and the University of Ontario Institute of Technology, and Heather Manson of the Ontario Agency for Health Promotion and Protection.
New ARAMARK Healthcare Administration Fellow
 Congratulations to soon-to-be-alumna Deborah Winick! Selected from a worldwide pool of 140 applicants, Deborah is one of just three people – and the first Canadian – selected to receive an ARAMARK Healthcare Administrative Fellowship for Clinical Support Services.
Deborah will be graduated from HPME’s MHSc in Health Administration program in June 2011. Soon after, she will take up her fellowship at Vancouver Coastal Health, focusing on helping the health system integrate services to ensure maximum value.
Deborah and the two other ARAMARK fellows were chosen based on three criteria: academic excellence, leadership qualities, and commitment to community service. During her year-long fellowship year, Deborah will gain hands-on experience as a health-care administrator and be mentored by Vancouver Coastal executives.
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