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PrintForum moves into new venue in Mills Library
September 2, 2010 – The McMaster Health Forum is now conducting its work in a newly purpose-built venue at the core of the McMaster University campus, in Mills Library.
The Forum’s new home on the fourth floor of Mills is uniquely designed to enhance its leadership role as a hub for harnessing information, convening stakeholders and preparing action-oriented leaders to meet pressing health issues creatively.
Visiting leader to describe evidence-based practice unit
August 19, 2010 – The evolution of Australia’s only evidence-based practice support unit will be the focus of a seminar by McMaster Health Forum Visiting Leader Dr. Claire Harris on Sept. 29 in the Forum’s new venue at Mills Memorial Library.
Based in Melbourne Australia, the Centre for Clinical Effectiveness (CCE) is an evidence-based practice (EBP) support unit within Southern Health, a large integrated health service which provides acute, subacute, rehabilitation, mental health, aged care and community services. The role of CCE is to encourage, support and enable educators, health professionals, managers and policymakers to use research evidence in decision-making for clinical practice, service delivery and organizational change.
Student publication examines global health issues
August 17, 2010 – An examination of five pressing global health issues from the perspective of a group of McMaster University students has been published by the McMaster Health Forum.
Student Voices: Advocating for Global Health through Evidence, Insight and Action, is a five-chapter publication written by students who took The Politics & Praxis of Global Health Advocacy course offered to fourth-year undergraduate students through the Bachelor of Health Sciences program in collaboration with the McMaster Health Forum. Offered for the first time in the winter 2010 term, the course is taught by Steven Hoffman, a former Forum Fellow, who edited the publication.
Forum welcomes fellows for 2010-11
August 8, 2010 – Two students in McMaster’s Bachelor of Health Sciences program who each have a keen interest in learning to bring about creative solutions to healthcare delivery problems have been chosen as the McMaster Health Forum Fellows for 2010-11.
Theresa Tang, who is entering the fourth year of the B.H.Sc. program, and Ahmad AlKhatib, who is entering the program’s third year, were chosen from a field of 40 applicants for the $5,000 fellowship awards.
Registration open for Forum's Simulations Course
July 8, 2010 – Registration is now open for the McMaster Health Forum’s Simulations Course which offers students the chance to participate in simulated meetings of influential organizations such as the United Nations, provincial and federal cabinets, hospital boards and Local Health Integration Networks.
This is the second time the course has been offered. Registration is limited to 24 students, who must be in at least the third year of an undergraduate degree program at McMaster, and obtain the permission of the course instructor.
HCC shines spotlight on Forum's work on primary health care
June 2, 2010 – The McMaster Health Forum’s efforts to help shape and improve primary healthcare in Canada is being highlighted by the Health Council of Canada.
Earlier this year, the Forum organized a stakeholder dialogue sponsored by the Health Council of Canada, which brought together 20 healthcare leaders from across the country to talk about ways to strengthen primary healthcare in Canada.
Forum organizing dialogue on Saskatchewan rural health
May 7, 2010 – The McMaster Health Forum is preparing for its first off-site Stakeholder Dialogue to be held in Regina on June 17.
The dialogue will focus on designing a rural health strategy in Saskatchewan and bring together policymakers as well as others working at various levels in the province’s health system, for off-the-record deliberations about the pressing challenges being faced in rural areas.
Health Systems Evidence service provides monthly updates
May 1, 2010 – A new e-newsletter service that provides monthly updates about policy briefs, systematic reviews and overviews of reviews relevant to specific health system topics being addressed by the McMaster Health Forum has been launched.
The first Health Systems Evidence Service update, specific to strengthening primary health care, was distributed in April. Three additional updates, focusing on strengthening chronic disease management, optimizing diabetes care, and enhancing the management of chronic pain, will be delivered this month.
Registration open for Global Symposium on Health Systems Research
March 31, 2010 – Registration and the call for abstracts are now open for the First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research being held in Montreux, Switzerland from Nov. 16 to Nov. 19.
The event will bring together researchers, policymakers, representatives of donorand multinationalorganizations, and other stakeholders representing diverse constituencies to share evidence, identify significant knowledge gaps, and set a research agenda aimed at accelerating universal health coverage.
The deadline for the call for abstracts is April 30.
In conjunction with the symposium, scholarship opportunities are being offered for up to 300 participants from low- and middle-income countries, and an essay competition is being held for young researchers. There will also be satellite meetings to allow organizations to take advantage of the presence of participants, and a marketplace for organizations or institutions to display their projects, new initiatives, publications or products.
For details and to register for the symposium, visit http://www.hsr-symposium.org.
Poverty's affect on health examined at public lecture
March 9, 2010 – Jim Dunn, an adjunct faculty with the McMaster Health Forum who researches the effects of poverty on health, was the keynote speaker at the Social Science in the City Anti-poverty Lecture series on March 10.
Dunn explored the issues of why more money is associated with better health in his lecture entitled Housing, Neighbourhoods and Health: Poverty Traps or Trampolines?, at The Hamilton Spectator Auditorium.
Student event explores media influence on women's health
March 8, 2010 – The Student Sub-Committee of the McMaster Health Forum hosted a public event featuring noted Canadian physician Marla Shapiro, to mark International Women’s Day on March 8.
Dr. Shapiro, an author and health consultant for Canadian news programs, explored how media coverage of women’s health issues can have a major impact on public sentiment, particularly regarding pharmaceuticals.
She provided an inside look at how the different types of media make decisions about which health topics to cover, and provided several examples of how that coverage significantly influenced opinions and decisions about health care.
Her talk was followed by a panel discussion featuring Pat Campbell, CEO of Echo: Improving Women's Health in Ontario, a provincial organization that promotes equity and improved health for women, and Shari Graydon, a writer and consultant who works to help individuals and organizations communicate effectively about education, health and social justice issues. There was also a question and answer session. The presentation was the Forum’s second Student-Led event in the Dialogue and Debate series.
Students invited to apply for Forum Fellowships
February 5, 2010 – Applications are now being accepted for the 2010-2011 McMaster Health Forum Fellowships that offer an exceptional opportunity for students to be part of the Forum community.
Two fellowships are offered for undergraduate students who will interact with Forum staff, faculty and visiting leaders as they work to creatively address pressing health challenges. Forum Fellows will meet many health system stakeholders such as heads of medical associations, hospital CEOs, government and World Organization representatives, and concerned citizens who participate in Forum events. They will also develop work plans to advance the aims of the Forum and support their own development, and undertake an internship in an organization charged with meeting pressing health challenges.
The fellowships are open to students who have completed the second or third year of any McMaster undergraduate program by April 2010, and plan to enrol full-time in the third or fourth year of their program of study in September 2010.
Deadline to apply is Wednesday, 24 February 2010, at 4 p.m. For full details, click here.
State-of-the-art facilities planned for Forum's new venue
January 6, 2010 – The University Library and Collaborations for Health, an interfaculty initiative, are jointly establishing two new state-of-the art facilities in Mills Library to house the McMaster Health Forum and the Lyons New Media Centre.
The facilities are being built in adjacent space on the fourth floor of Mills, with construction scheduled to start in January and to be completed by early May, 2010.
Forum events focus on engaging civil society
December 1, 2009 – A dynamic two-day series of events on the topic of engaging civil society in supporting research use in health systems allowed the McMaster Health Forum to showcase its mandate to engage influential thinkers and doers, as well as concerned citizens and leaders of the future, in efforts to improve health outcomes through collective problem-solving.
The November events involved national and international health system stakeholders, and faculty and students from McMaster University, and it included a 1.5-day-long, by-invitation-only stakeholder dialogue, a by-invitation networking opportunity for students to interact one-on-one with the policymakers, civil society representatives and researchers who came to McMaster for the dialogue, a public talk by a leading a public health consultant at the Centre for Public Health and Equity in Bangalore, India, and a student-led dialogue on grassroots activism for HIV/AIDS.
PAHO, Forum to collaborate on public health initiatives
November 17, 2009 – The McMaster Health Forum has undertaken a new initiative with an international organization that works to improve public health in the countries of the Americas.
A memorandum of understanding between the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) and McMaster University will see the Forum, with the support of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, collaborate with PAHO in various ways to strengthen capacities and technical co-operation for knowledge translation in public health.
Primary health care, chronic diseases subjects of dialogues
November 9, 2009 – The McMaster Health Forum has to date convened three successful stakeholder dialogues on pressing healthcare issues at the provincial and national levels.
The first dialogue, held in the spring, brought together representatives of the Health Council of Canada to discuss improving access to primary healthcare in Canada. The evidence brief produced to inform the discussions and the dialogue summary are available on the Forum’s website.