Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

HealthCareCAN has developed and is now refining and testing a set of indicators for the identification of organizations that play a substantial role in research and innovation in Canada. The indicators are a response to calls from the field. They are based on an analysis of various datasets, feedback from the field, and shortly, a pilot which will be completed by the end of 2015. These organizations are foundational in a Learning Health System because they are living laboratories that generate and utilize research and innovation in real time as part of their mission and mandate. The objectives of this dissemination activity, which is proposed to begin in May 2016, are to disseminate the indicators resulting from our research through media and mechanisms tailored to national, federal and provincial policy leaders. Why is this important? In previous years, the Canadian Institute for Health Information identified academic centres as those having a membership in the national association for academic centres. This association has now merged into a larger association, HealthCareCAN, representing all types of healthcare organizations. As such, we have no mechanism in Canada at this time for identifying organizations that play a national role in the identification, testing, scale, spread and implementation of innovation. By ensuring that policy makers are aware of the indicators for academic centres they can (1) find and understand how these organizations may be leveraged in policy and planning and (2) help to ensure that the conditions for the generation and use of research and innovation are present in each province and across the country.