Leading Health Economist Appointed to New Research Chair
Dr. Tony Culyer, an internationally renowned health economics scholar, will join the HPME faculty as the Ontario Research Chair in Health Policy and System Design, effective December 1. A respected advisor to government in both the United Kingdom and Canada, Culyer is the former Vice-Chair of the UK's National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). Formerly with the University of York in England, he joined Toronto's Institute for Work and Health in 2003 and is currently a Senior Scientist with the Institute. The Ontario Research Chairs were established by the Ontario government in 2005 to build public policy capacity in Ontario universities.

New Faculty Enhance Health Policy & Informatics Programs
This fall HPME welcomes two new faculty in the area of health technology and health informatics. Fiona Miller joins HPME with an established research program in health technology policy, supported by a CIHR New Investigator Award as well as research grants from CIHR, the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and Genome Canada.

Aviv Shachak, jointly appointed to the Faculty of Information Studies and HPME, is involved in the development of HPME's proposed Master of Health Informatics program. He brings international experience in the areas of physician use of electronic medical records, simulation-based training, and diffusion and implementation of health information systems.

Baker Awarded 2007 Filerman Prize for Innovation
This spring, Professor Ross Baker was awarded the Filerman Prize for Innovation in Health Services Management Education by the Association of University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA). Baker was honoured for introducing modern quality improvement and patient safety knowledge into the health administration curriculum and for creating effective relationships between academic programs, practitioners and health association leaders in the US and Canada. He is the second Canadian to be awarded this prize. Professor Peggy Leatt, former Chair of the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, was the first Canadian to receive the AUPHA award in 1997.

Detsky Named One of JAMA's Eight Contributing Writers
HPME's Dr. Allan Detsky has been appointed as one of eight new contributing writers to the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). These writers will contribute to JAMA's initiative to expand the publication of scholarly articles on the political, philosophical, ethical, economic, historical and cultural aspects of medicine and public health. Detsky is currently Physician-in-Chief at Mount Sinai Hospital.

New Health Technology Assessment Research Group
The Toronto Health Economics and Technology Assessment (THETA) Collaborative is a new multi-disciplinary research group focused on supporting effective health policy through innovative health technology assessment (HTA) research. As a leading source of HTA expertise, THETA will support Ontario's Medical Advisory Secretariat (MAS) in the design, implementation and analysis of health technology assessment studies. The collaborative will also build HTA capacity in Ontario by providing learning opportunities for students and engaging in knowledge translation activities. THETA is funded by a grant from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care. Louise Lemieux-Charles, Chair of HPME, and Murray Krahn, HPME Associate Professor and the F. Norman Hughes Chair in Pharmacoeconomics are co-principal investigators.

New Study Explores Hospital Quality and Efficiency
Hospitals are expected to improve access to high quality care while remaining financially accountable. Yet measuring and assessing the relationship between the numerous inputs and outputs that make up hospital performance is a complex undertaking. A new CIHR-funded study, led by HPME's Walter Wodchis and Audrey Laporte, will use a unique technique called Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) to examine the relationship between inputs and outputs in Ontario hospitals from 1999 to 2006. The findings from this study will contribute to ongoing hospital funding and accountability initiatives at organizational and policy levels.

Primary Care Reform in Ontario: More Access, Better Quality?
Primary care reform has led to new models of care, replacing straight fee-for-service physician compensation with blended capitation models. These new models provide incentives for continuity of care, after hours care and prevention. But do they result in improved access and quality of care? A new CIHR-funded study, led by HPME's Rick Glazier and colleagues, will explore the extent to which new models of primary care have been taken up in Ontario, and their impact on access and quality from 1998 to 2010. Using several provincial databases, investigators will compare a number of care outcomes across models, such as patient claims for primary care and specialist visits, diagnostic tests, prescriptions, emergency care visits and hospital admissions.

Proceedings from Strategic Levers Symposium
In 2006, HPME researchers, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care policy-makers and senior health system decision-makers hosted a two-day symposium, Strategic Levers for a High-Performing Health System. The symposium showcased national and international experiences in decentralized decision-making in two key areas, equity and strategic purchasing. Proceedings from this event are now available in Healthcare Papers: Vol. 8 Special Issue: Strategic Partnerships. Full-text articles can also be downloaded from the HPME website. This collection provides a valuable resource to inform ongoing debates both locally and in other regions and countries.

Events

Clinical Epidemiology Fall Institute
Evidence-based decision-making has become a routine expectation for health policymakers, managers and practitioners. But interpreting and assessing health research requires a new set of skills. The first annual HPME Clinical Epidemiology Fall Institute is a five-day intensive program to introduce clinicians, decision-makers and novice researchers to the fundamentals of research methodology and the practical skills of critical appraisal. The Fall Institute is currently full, but interested individuals can register for the wait list.

HPME Knowledge Translation Seminar Series 2007-2008
This year's star line-up for the HPME Knowledge Translation Seminar Series includes scholars at the forefront of knowledge translation research from across Canada. Seminars for the Fall Session are held on Thursdays from 11:30 am to 1:00 pm in Room 610 of the Health Sciences Building, 155 College Street. The schedule is available on the HPME website.