Abbreviation | EvidenceNetwork.ca |
---|---|
Formation | 2011 |
Type | Creates original media content on public policy topics for publication in the mainstream media and links journalists with policy experts to provide access to non-partisan, evidence-based information. |
Legal status | active |
Purpose | To provide evidence-based research and experts to journalists covering health policy issues. |
Headquarters | Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada |
Region served | Canada |
Official language | English |
Lead | Dr. Shannon Sampert (Director and Editor-in-Chief), Kathleen O'Grady, Managing Editor |
Parent organization | University of Winnipeg |
Affiliations | Canadian Institutes for Health Research, Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, Manitoba Health Research Council, George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation |
Staff | 4 |
Website | http://www.evidencenetwork.ca |
EvidenceNetwork.ca creates media content on public policy topics for publication in the mainstream media and links journalists with policy experts to provide access to non-partisan, evidence-based information. [1] According to their annual reports, they have published hundreds of original articles in every major media outlet in Canada every year since 2011, reprinted over 3700 times across media outlets [2] All of their content carries a Creative Commons license. [3]
EvidenceNetwork.ca was created under the direction of Dr. Noralou Roos, the Founding Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy and co-founded with Dr. Sharon Manson Singer, professor, School of Public Policy at Simon Fraser University. [4] Dr. Shannon Sampert, former Politics and Opinions Editor at the Winnipeg Free Press and academic at the University of Winnipeg edited the project from 2017-2018. Kathleen O'Grady Research Associate at Concordia University was the Managing Editor from 2011-2019. [5] EvidenceNetwork.ca ceased operations as of the end of 2019 but the content and the site remains online under the direction of Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement until at least 2024. [6]
The initiative was originally funded with a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), the Manitoba Health Research Council (MHRC) and the George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation. [7] [8] Additional support was provided by the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement (CFHI). [9] It is currently funded by CFHI with support from individual CIHR institutes. [4]
EvidenceNetwork.ca was established to address the complex debates leading up to the 2014 renegotiation of the Canada Health Accord, and after, to highlight evidence on health policy issues across the country. The Director, Dr, Roos, says, "Health policy issues are increasingly complex and are too often taken over by politics and ideology. We thought the best way to serve the Canadian public would be to create an accessible and reliable resource where journalists can quickly find independent experts and evidence on issues as they arise." [10] [11]
The site provides evidence-based information on controversial health policy issues for journalists such as the sustainability of the health care system, the impact of the aging population,[ citation needed ] the rising costs of drugs, accessibility and appropriateness of care, pharmaceutical policy, obesity, mental health, and the role of the private sector. There is also a section on the comparison between Canadian and international models of healthcare. [12] The site offers background papers and provides a comprehensive list of experts from across the country that journalists can contact quickly as they report on breaking health policy stories. [13] [14]
The British Medical Journal's Evidence-Based Medicine highlighted the work of the network as an example for how to facilitate "the science and art of combining opinion and evidence." [15] University Affairs says of the initiative, "The project aims to break the traditional pattern of academics writing for other academics in journals that aren’t read by the mainstream press, or of professors avoiding the media, leaving a select few to appear again and again." [16] J-Source, a professional publication for the Canadian media says of the network, "it's an ambitious initiative to get the latest and best findings in health sciences and policy research into the broader public conversation by engaging the media." [17] In an article for Healthcare Policy, Dr. Roos et al. state that the project "seeks to improve the Canadian healthcare system and, ultimately, the health of Canadians by ensuring that our best health policy evidence is understood by journalists and accurately communicated to Canadians and policy makers." [7]
EvidenceNetwork.ca was established in consultation with experienced media advisors, health and health policy researchers and third party evidence brokers including the Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement, the Canadian Institute for Health Information and the Health Council of Canada. [18] [19]
The network of more than 80 scholars dedicated to evidence-based health research and policy direction also regularly publishes commentaries (OpEds) and articles in the mainstream media. The network has published more than 1200 commentaries and articles in the Canadian press since its inception, and has made all of the articles available for free re-use and dissemination by putting a Creative Commons license on the material. [2] [20] [21] [15] In 2012, the organization published a compendium of their Creative Commons content in an ebook, Canadian Health Policy in the News: Why Evidence Matters. [22] [23] [24] [25] In 2014, they released a second free ebook collection of commentaries, Making Evidence Matter in Canadian Health Policy. [26] [27] [28] [29] [30]
A sample of the network's published commentaries includes:
The Director of the initiative, Dr. Noralou Roos has said in an interview, "There are key discussions going on in health policy, and academics typically have that evidence, and it’s important for those discussions in the media to be informed by evidence as much as possible." [16]
The University of Manitoba is a public research university in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Founded in 1877, it is the first university of Western Canada. Both by total student enrolment and campus area, the University of Manitoba is the largest university in the province of Manitoba. Its main campus is located in the Fort Garry neighbourhood of Winnipeg, with other campuses throughout the city: the Bannatyne Campus, the James W. Burns Executive Education Centre, the William Norrie Centre, and the French-language affiliate, Université de Saint-Boniface in the Saint Boniface ward.
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A health system, health care system or healthcare system is an organization of people, institutions, and resources that delivers health care services to meet the health needs of target populations.
Health care, or healthcare, is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health professionals and allied health fields. Medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, midwifery, nursing, optometry, audiology, psychology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, athletic training, and other health professions all constitute health care. The term includes work done in providing primary care, secondary care, tertiary care, and public health.
Eric William Hoskins is a Canadian physician and former politician who served as Ontario Minister of Health and Long-Term Care from 2014 to 2018. A member of the Liberal Party, he sat as a member of the Provincial Parliament (MPP) from 2009 to 2018, representing the electoral district of Toronto—St. Paul's in the Ontario Legislature.
A comparison of the healthcare systems in Canada and the United States is often made by government, public health and public policy analysts. The two countries had similar healthcare systems before Canada changed its system in the 1960s and 1970s. The United States spends much more money on healthcare than Canada, on both a per-capita basis and as a percentage of GDP. In 2006, per-capita spending for health care in Canada was US$3,678; in the U.S., US$6,714. The U.S. spent 15.3% of GDP on healthcare in that year; Canada spent 10.0%. In 2006, 70% of healthcare spending in Canada was financed by government, versus 46% in the United States. Total government spending per capita in the U.S. on healthcare was 23% higher than Canadian government spending. U.S. government expenditure on healthcare was just under 83% of total Canadian spending.
Healthcare in Canada is delivered through the provincial and territorial systems of publicly funded health care, informally called Medicare. It is guided by the provisions of the Canada Health Act of 1984, and is universal. The 2002 Royal Commission, known as the Romanow Report, revealed that Canadians consider universal access to publicly funded health services as a "fundamental value that ensures national health care insurance for everyone wherever they live in the country."
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...intended to reduce unnecessary health care costs through a variety of mechanisms, including: economic incentives for physicians and patients to select less costly forms of care; programs for reviewing the medical necessity of specific services; increased beneficiary cost sharing; controls on inpatient admissions and lengths of stay; the establishment of cost-sharing incentives for outpatient surgery; selective contracting with health care providers; and the intensive management of high-cost health care cases. The programs may be provided in a variety of settings, such as Health Maintenance Organizations and Preferred Provider Organizations.
The Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions is a trade union centre in Canada. The CFNU is a federation of provincial unions representing nurses, nurse practitioners, student nurses, and various allied health care workers. It advocates on a national level for issues related to nurses, patient care, the health care system, and working conditions. As of 2023, the CNFU represents nearly 250,000 nurses and student nurses across Canada, who are members of the nine provincial nurses unions and Canadian Nursing Students’ Association.
Hilary Camilla Cavendish, Baroness Cavendish of Little Venice is a British journalist, contributing editor and columnist at The Financial Times, senior fellow at Harvard University and former director of policy for Prime Minister David Cameron. Cavendish became a Conservative Member of the House of Lords in Cameron's resignation honours, but resigned the party whip in December 2016 to sit as a non-affiliated peer.
Health technology assessment (HTA) is a multidisciplinary process that uses systematic and explicit methods to evaluate the properties and effects of a health technology. Health technology is conceived as any intervention at any point in its lifecycle. The purpose of HTA is to inform "decision-making in order to promote an equitable, efficient, and high-quality health system". It has other definitions including "a method of evidence synthesis that considers evidence regarding clinical effectiveness, safety, cost-effectiveness and, when broadly applied, includes social, ethical, and legal aspects of the use of health technologies. The precise balance of these inputs depends on the purpose of each individual HTA. A major use of HTAs is in informing reimbursement and coverage decisions by insurers and national health systems, in which case HTAs should include benefit-harm assessment and economic evaluation." And "a multidisciplinary process that summarises information about the medical, social, economic and ethical issues related to the use of a health technology in a systematic, transparent, unbiased, robust manner. Its aim is to inform the formulation of safe, effective, health policies that are patient focused and seek to achieve best value. Despite its policy goals, HTA must always be firmly rooted in research and the scientific method".
Dan Riskin is an American entrepreneur and surgeon. As an expert in healthcare artificial intelligence, Riskin has promoted healthcare quality improvement and helped shape policy in the US and globally. Riskin's companies, featured in Forbes and The Wall Street Journal, have influenced the care of millions of patients. He continues to practice, teach, and perform research as Clinical Professor of Surgery at Stanford University.
John Lister is a Senior Lecturer in Journalism, and Health Journalism at the Coventry University Department of Media and Communication.
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Manitoba Centre for Health Policy (MCHP) is a public, not-for-profit research unit in the Department of Community Health Sciences within the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. MCHP provides and uses population-based administrative data to inform health policy, social policy and health and social service delivery provincially, nationally and internationally. MCHP also creates population-based research on health and the social determinants of health.
John Norman Lavis is a Canadian physician based in Toronto, Ontario. He is a tenured professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Impact at McMaster University, where he founded and directs the McMaster Health Forum. He is co-lead of Rapid-Improvement Support and Exchange (RISE).
Leslie Leon Roos is a Distinguished Professor in the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada in 2010. He is also a fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and was a founding director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy.
Noralou Preston Roos is an American-Canadian professor emerita of community health sciences. She has won several awards for her work in health policy, public health, publicly funded health care, and advocacy of evidence-based medicine and health promotion.
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