Grant: Planning Grants - Priority Announcement: Integrated Knowledge Translation

Public health services research (PHSR) is an emerging subset of health services research. Funding for health services research is directed primarily at the health care system in general, often not at public health services per se. At the 2009 Canadian Public Health Association Conference, we held a workshop to "float" the idea of developing a PHSR agenda for Canada. This session was very well attended and participants from across the country confirmed this need and expressed interest in participating in the process. At that time, the Ontario Agency for Health Promotion and Protection (OAHPP), the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), and three of CIHR's Applied Public Health Chairs all expressed interest in partnering in a process to establish a Canadian agenda for PHSR. The purpose of our proposed invitational Think Tank is to bring together a national group of knowledge users and researchers with international consultants to engage in discussion and debate about PHSR priorities in Canada. The specific objectives of the Think Tank are: 1.To identify research priorities in public health services/systems, 2.To establish a national PHSR agenda 3.To develop a draft five year plan to advance the agenda 4.To establish a pan-Canadian PHSR network. Participants will include Canadian researchers and knowledge users with interest and expertise in PHSR as well as representatives from the two Canadian funding agencies that support health services research (CIHR and CHSRF). Collaborators on this project include PHAC (represented by Dr. Gregory Taylor), the OAHPP (Dr. Heather Manson), the BC Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport (Dr. Trevor Hancock), BCCDC (Dr. Gina Ogilvie), three CIHR/PHAC Applied Public Health Chairs (Marjorie MacDonald - UVIC, Gilles Paradis - U Montreal, and Pat Martens - U Manitoba), and a CIHR New Investigator (Anita Kothari - UWO).