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

As new health technologies like mobile apps and artificial intelligence-based tools emerge, Alberta Health Services (AHS) face challenges in deciding which new health technologies are best to invest in. While national and provincial advisory groups, known as Health Technology Assessment (HTA) agencies, exist to support healthcare systems with these investments decisions, their recommendations may take a long time and often lack details about what is happening locally in hospitals. To support AHS in understanding the best scientific evidence and inform decision-making around investments in health technologies, we are creating the Medicine Evidence Decision Support Program (Medicine EDSP). It will be directly integrated into the healthcare system and will have access to local hospital information. The project aims to: 1) find out more about how HTA works and HTA best practices to make the Medicine EDSP work very well, 2) work together with the right people to make the Medicine EDSP better, and 3) test to see how well the Medicine EDSP works in a small study. The research plan involves three phases. First, we will review and study existing HTA programs from published scientific literature and online public sources, then we will talk to people who will use the Medicine EDSP within the healthcare systems to get their thoughts on how to improve it. Next, we will test the framework to see how well it works. It is important to share what we learn so that the Medicine EDSP stays useful and lasting, so we will work with others and share our findings regularly. This project is anticipated to have a positive impact by providing better information for decision making, improving patient experiences, and making sure healthcare investments in health technologies are worth the money. This work is aligned with AHS' goals as a healthcare organization and will help connect what we know with what we do, making decisions about healthcare technology better.