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

The goal of this fellowship is to build capacity in health system transformation by supporting continuous improvement and system learning across Northwestern Ontario communities, health organizations, and academic institutions. In Northwestern Ontario, specialized health service delivery, health services research, and health professional education are coordinated centrally in Thunder Bay, and most often, through the regional hospitals. To create impact in population health, patient experiences, provider experiences, and sustainability of our health system across Northwestern Ontario, there is a need to assess how regional activities and partnerships are meeting the needs of communities. In this fellowship, I will evaluate regional programs and strategic initiatives by working with multiple networks of system stakeholders. There will be three primary advisory groups guiding this program of work including Northwestern hospital CEOs working group, patient and family advisors, and a social accountability advisory board. This fellowship will build upon my postdoctoral work during which I developed an impact framework for health professional education in Northern Ontario. As part of this program of work, I will lead three distinct projects: 1. Description of current state of regional strategic activities, partnerships, and outcomes, and identify monitoring and outcome indicators; 2. Development of decision-making tools for regional decision-makers and partners based on the outputs of project 1, and; 3. Assessment of the usefulness of these decision-making tools. These projects align with my expertise in epidemiology, northern and rural health systems, and moving knowledge into action.