Grant: Training Grant

The SARS crisis, the tainted blood scandal, the massive public health burden due to tobacco products, controversy over the HPV vaccine, and many other recent events highlight both the importance of public health and the central role of public policy in maximizing the health of populations. Despite the importance of public health policy, no formal academic training in this field currently exists in Canada. The Strategic Training Program in Public Health Policy will address this gap, bringing together faculty from a broad range of disciplines and areas of expertise, to offer an outstanding training program in public health policy that is sustainable in the long term. Fellows will be trained in public health policy research, policy evaluation, policy analysis and policy change, and will be exposed to a variety of content areas including tobacco control policy, food security and nutrition policy, immunization policy and environmental health policy. They will also gain real-world experiences through work with public health policy professionals and participation in public health policy action teams, and will develop important professional skills, including a strong grounding in research ethics and public health ethics, through public health policy rounds, a summer institute, and a variety of opportunities for sharing their findings. Mentors are accomplished public health leaders: they represent a range of academic units including the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, the Department of Nutritional Sciences, the School of Public Policy and Governance, the Faculty of Law, the Joint Centre for Bioethics, and organizations such as the Public Health Agency of Canada and the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion. By addressing society's pressing and emerging public health priorities, the proposed training program will have a direct impact on improving the health of populations in Candada and abroad.