 |
|
     |
|
 |
NORTH OF THE BORDER: CANADIAN INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH INFORMATION
Thanks to the Canadian Institute
for Health Information, citizens from Newfoundland to the Northwest Territories
know how their region stacks up when it comes to the number of specialty
physicians and the odds of returning to the hospital after treatment for
a heart attack. But CIHI, as it is known, produces much more than a yearly
report card on Canadian health and health care. As the CIHI’s director and deputy director of research explained to an audience at the Center for the Advancement of Health this month, the not-for-profit organization was established in 1994 by Canada’s health ministers to be the country’s primary agency for health information analysis. CIHI provides the information necessary for evidence-based decision making at a variety of levels, from hospital procedures to national policy. Although CIHI is supported by government funds and includes government officials on its board, the organization is not a government agency. “One of our main objectives is not to get bogged down in politics, or advocacy. We generate analysis only,” said CIHI Director Carmen Connolly. “We work to insert quality evidence at the front end of the decision making process.” Along with developing and publishing national health indicators and standards, the organization supports original studies, manages national and regional health databases and conducts some health care policy analysis. CIHI also oversees the Canadian Population Health Initiative, which has expanded the scope of health information to examine how factors like education, housing, employment and environmental quality affect Canadian health, particularly with respect to racial and ethnic health disparities. CIHI works hard to ensure that its analyses and research find their way into applications and policy, according to Stephen Samis, CIHI’s deputy director for research. For instance, CIHI-funded researchers sign a grant contract specifying that they must address applications and policy implications in their final report, and asking them to participate in meetings with politicians and other researchers to discuss their findings. “We’ve come up with a bunch of ways to keep that research from sitting in a journal,” Samis said. To read more about CIHI, go to http://secure.cihi.ca/cihiweb/splash.html.
|
|
|||||
 |
|||||||
