Grant: Applied Public Health Chair

Canada has fallen behind other developed nations in public health family planning policies, equitable health service delivery and surveillance of population health indices. The United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, the United States and most European countries realize cost-savings and population health and health-equity gains through implementation of public health policies, programs and surveillance not currently available in Canada. The Problem is significant inequity among Canadians in the ability to plan and space pregnancies. Vulnerable populations disproportionately face a myriad of economic, education-related, work and social consequences due to unplanned childbirth and recurrent abortion. The Solution is to determine the evidence (currently unknown for the Canadian context) to inform population health interventions for health system change. Health policy and services supporting the equitable ability to utilize family planning knowledge and services have proven value leading to population-level gains in terms of health and health equity around the world. The proposed Chair builds upon proven national leadership of several large collaborative research initiatives, decades of clinical expertise and will benefit from stimulating research environments within UBC, the Michael Smith Foundation of Health Research, BC Women's Hospital, Perinatal Services BC and The BC Centre for Disease Control. With the committed engagement of an integrated team of decision maker collaborators led by Dr. Perry Kendall, Provincial Health Officer of BC, I lead a national network of interdisciplinary and inter-sectoral collaborators, the Contraception Access Research Team\Groupe de recherche sur l'accessibilité à la contraception network (www.cart-grac.ca). The proposed program brings exceptional potential to achieve national policy and health service improvements to public health and health equity for women, girls, boys, men and their families throughout Canada.