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How do you care for the growing number of people living with chronic diseases? How can those living with chronic pain be better supported? How do you ensure people have a sustainable source of water in an age of pollution and climate change? All are pressing health questions facing policymakers, researchers and the general public. The McMaster Health Forum seeks to help stakeholders learn more and do more to address these pressing concerns. To learn more about the Forum's work on each of the following topics, please visit our Products page.
Chronic disease management
Chronic diseases are a significant and growing challenge in the province of Ontario. A stakeholder dialogue, and the evidence brief prepared to inform it, aimed to address the lack of co-ordinated and proactive chronic disease management in the province by working through the underlying problem, options for addressing it and key implementation considerations. One key challenge identified by dialogue participants lies in supporting people to live well with their chronic conditions.
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Chronic pain management
Chronic pain is a serious health problem given its prevalence, associated disability, impact on quality of life and the costs associated with the extensive use of healthcare services by people living with chronic pain. Overall, provincial and territorial health systems do not adequately support the management of chronic pain. An evidence brief and a stakeholder dialogue involving participants drawn from across Canada, examined the problem in order to develop creative, sustainable ways to support those with chronic pain.
Civil society engagement
The lack of civil society engagement in supporting research use was the focus of an issue brief and a stakeholder dialogue that convened participants from more than a dozen countries. Civil society can be considered to be any voluntary organization apart from those under the direct control of governments or for-profit firms. Dialogue participants noted that typically civil society is not engaged in supporting research use in health systems, and there are few enablers to promote such engagement. However, they identified a number of promising ways forward.
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Diabetes management
The burden of diagnosed diabetes in Ontario continues to grow, yet components of comprehensive diabetes management programs are not available or accessible to all Ontarians. Both an evidence brief and stakeholder dialogue addressed the need for greater co-ordination and integration within and across the many services, programs and initiatives that can support optimal diabetes management in Ontario. Stakeholders suggested one possible next step being the provincial government developing a comprehensive policy framework for enhancing and coordinating the key features of a diabetes-management system.
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Housing for people with HIV/AIDS
Many Ontarians with HIV struggle to find and maintain appropriate, stable housing, which affects their health and well-being as well as their access to health services. The purpose of this issue brief and stakeholder dialogue was to identify ways to address several fundamental problems, such as existing housing and housing-related services not meeting the needs of people with HIV, delivery methods for housing and HIV services that complicate access to these services, and funding arrangements and jurisdictional issues that make it more difficult to provide services that meet the housing and health needs of these individuals.
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Primary health care
An evidence brief drawing on the best available research evidence about primary healthcare strengthening, an issue brief drawing on more than 40 key informant interviews, an issue brief that focused on the sub-topic of quality improvement, and a series of three stakeholder dialogues aimed to improve access to and the quality of primary healthcare across the country. This work addressed the overarching problem of limited or inequitable access to sustainable, high-quality community-based primary healthcare in federal, provincial and territorial publicly-funded health systems.
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View Topic Overview on quality improvement in primary healthcare
Rural health
Although all people living in Saskatchewan should have equal access to publicly insured healthcare programs and services, those living in rural areas may not be receiving the healthcare they need. With more than one third of the province’s population living in rural areas, geographic location can be an important factor affecting health, healthcare and quality of healthcare, yet Saskatchewan does not have an integrated approach to addressing the healthcare challenges in these areas. An evidence brief and stakeholder dialogue were undertaken to help the province with its strategic planning process, and specifically to create a framework to address the problems underlying the current organization of rural healthcare in Saskatchewan.
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