Grant: Health System Impact Fellowships - PostDoc Central Canada 2 year

This Health System Impact Fellowship application for Dr. Farah Mawani, hosted by Dignitas International (health system organization) and School of Public Health, University of Alberta (academic institution), focuses on the growing Canadian and global challenge of non-communicable disease (NCD) inequities between and within countries. Worldwide, non-communicable diseases (mainly cardiovascular diseases, cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes, and mental illnesses) account for 70% (39.5 million) of global deaths, and a growing burden of disease. Dr. Mawani will lead, in partnership with Indigenous, Canadian, and global health policymakers, researchers and civil society members, a program of work that will strengthen Canadian and international NCD surveillance systems so that they illuminate, rather than mask, NCD inequities within and across populations in Canada and globally. Dr. Mawani will lead a team in creating, sharing, applying, and evaluating knowledge sharing plans for a minimum set of NCD equity indicators; and a process for including Indigenous, excluded, and underserved populations in developing NCD surveillance systems. She will focus on Indigenous communities, and immigrants/refugees in Ontario, Alberta and at the national level in Canada, and share learning to enable impact beyond those communities. This is a vital step to reducing NCD inequities, and improving NCD outcomes of Indigenous, excluded, and underserved populations. Through this clear focus, Dr. Mawani will further develop professional skills including leadership, mentorship, collaboration, communication, knowledge sharing, negotiation, and change management to enable her to have greater impact on transforming health systems.