听听 Strategic Research PlanHealth Services, Organizations, and Policy Research
FMHS is committed to advancing research on health services, organizational dynamics, and healthcare policy to improve healthcare delivery systems at both local and global levels. This focus on health services research complements our strengths in fundamental, epidemiological, and clinical research, providing a holistic approach to addressing health challenges. By understanding how health services are organized, delivered, and experienced by patients, FMHS aims to generate actionable insights that inform policy and improve healthcare outcomes. Key areas include primary care models, health services evaluation, health professions education, and the impact of healthcare policies on vulnerable populations.
FMHS is also committed to advancing clinical trials, epidemiologic studies, and population health research to bridge the gap between research and practice. Utilizing big data from health administrative databases and clinical data repositories, we aim to develop and support learning health systems that continuously evolve based on data-driven insights. These efforts will ensure that research findings are translated effectively into practical healthcare improvements. FMHS will continue to support initiatives to deploy the infrastructure necessary for large-scale clinical and epidemiological studies, enabling breakthroughs in disease prevention, diagnosis, and management.
Transforming Discovery into Healthcare Impact
Effective healthcare improvements often stem from a continuum between foundational research and practical clinical questions and applications. FMHS is committed to fostering increased collaboration across all its Schools, Research Centres, Institutes, and affiliated healthcare institutions. We aim to enhance interactions among diverse research groups and establish partnerships that span the entire spectrum of research, innovation, and practice. This includes laboratory scientists, clinical investigators, health professionals, and patients, forming novel alliances with the potential for high-impact innovation.
These interdisciplinary groupings are instrumental in training the next generation of health researchers and health care professionals within a dynamic and productive environment. Central to our implementation strategy is the translation of research findings into tangible health benefits, health professions education, and improved treatments. While knowledge translation can take various paths, we advocate for a structured approach that encompasses basic laboratory research, clinical trials, implementation of innovations, person-centered outcomes, and broader impacts on families and communities.
Overall, FMHS recognizes the growing importance of value-based healthcare, which aims to optimize patient health outcomes, patient experiences, effectiveness and efficiency of care, workforce well-being and safety, and health equity. Implementation science helps understand the broader implications of innovations on these interdependent outcomes. In particular, sustainable change requires collaboration between researchers, healthcare providers, and patients to co-design and implement solutions that address identified needs. FMHS is committed to using implementation science principles to guide these efforts, ensuring that research findings translate effectively into practice and contribute to systemic, lasting improvements.
Driving Quality and Equity in Health Services
Healthcare systems are perpetually evolving, embracing innovative care approaches, integrating new technologies, and striving for quality improvement to achieve safer, better, and more equitable care for everyone. Key areas include primary care models, health services evaluation, and the impact of healthcare policies on vulnerable populations. Evidence-based decision-making and policy development, which apply across the full spectrum of care鈥攅ncompassing primary to quaternary care, prevention, rehabilitation, and self-care, are essential to drive improvements. Engaging with various community groups, including vulnerable populations, is critical to the success of these efforts.
Equity is a core priority in all research conducted at FMHS. This includes ensuring equitable access to research opportunities, diverse representation in research studies, and addressing health disparities through our work. FMHS is dedicated to embedding equity considerations across all research themes, from conceptualization to implementation, ensuring that our research reflects and serves the diverse communities it impacts. FMHS is also committed to addressing health disparities globally, ensuring that our research and quality improvement initiatives benefit vulnerable communities everywhere.
To drive quality and equity in health services, it is crucial to engage a wide range of stakeholders, including decision-makers, managers, clinicians, and other healthcare staff. Quality improvement initiatives often require organizational or practice changes that can impact many facets of healthcare delivery. Ensuring that these changes are sustainable requires buy-in and active participation from all individuals involved in healthcare delivery.
FMHS also recognizes that health services alone are not sufficient to address the complex health needs of individuals and communities. Social services play a vital role in addressing broader social determinants of health, such as housing, education, and economic stability. FMHS aims to provide a more holistic approach to health that addresses both medical and social needs. This approach will ensure more sustainable and equitable health outcomes, particularly for vulnerable populations facing multiple barriers to well-being.
Strategy: Evidence-Based Innovation
Through the following concerted strategies, FMHS aspires to not only bridge the gap between research and clinical practice but also to continuously adapt and improve healthcare in response to both local and global health needs.
- Implementation Science and Knowledge Translation: Effective healthcare innovation requires a robust focus on implementation science to ensure that innovations are not only developed but also effectively delivered and scaled. This includes using co-design approaches that engage patients, communities, and healthcare providers in sustaining implementation. Knowledge translation at FMHS will prioritize collaborative and bottom-up processes to ensure that research findings meet the needs of diverse populations and contexts.
- Translation to Clinical Practice: The pathway to clinical application involves validating disease models in human studies, assessing diagnostic and therapeutic prospects, and obtaining regulatory approval for healthcare innovations. Subsequent phases focus on disseminating these advancements to key stakeholders鈥攑atients, healthcare providers, and regulatory bodies鈥攖o foster community integration and uptake. This inclusive strategy also entails evaluating implementation hurdles, gathering evidence of success and areas for improvement, and utilizing population research to monitor outcomes, all while considering demographic and socio-cultural shifts. Innovative graduate programs ensure that researchers trained at 91社区 have the knowledge and skills necessary to link research, practice, and policy.
- Interdisciplinary approaches to health equity, bioethics, and policy research: The School of Population and Global Health and the newly established Department of Equity, Ethics, and Policy (DEEP) are instrumental in advancing interdisciplinary approaches to health equity, bioethics, and policy research. Future initiatives in those areas should leverage their leadership, networks and expertise, promoting evidence-informed policy solutions and person-centered care.
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