About

The Queen’s Health Services and Policy Research Institute (HSPRI) is a Faculty Institute in the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) at Queen’s University. The Institute supports faculty as they generate high‐impact research and evaluation of the Canadian health-care system. Although based in the FHS and funded by external research grants, HSPRI welcomes faculty across all Queen’s University departments and faculties, as well as researchers external to Queen’s who wish to collaborate with or serve as experts to HSPRI.

Supporting Research and Evaluation: HSPRI provides centralized resources that will enable participating researchers to respond effectively and promptly to requests for health services and policy research and evaluation, including the Canadian Institute for Health Research (CIHR) and the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care (MOHTLC).

HSPRI builds on:

existing interdisciplinary health services and policy research collaboration, and knowledge translation across all three schools within the Faculty of Health Sciences (Medicine, Nursing, and Rehabilitation therapy);
collaborations with faculty members from departments and faculties across Queen’s University; and
national and international institutional partners.

Supporting Training: HSPRI seeks to bring together undergraduate and graduate students interested in health services and policy research, offering experiences to become engaged in faculty led research and evaluation projects, training events and local health partners.

Mandate

The mandate from the Faculty of Health Sciences (FHS) and its partners is to create an Institute that meets the following goals:

Integrate related FHS groups, centres, support centres, and affiliated researchers/emerging groups engaged in CIHR Pillar 3^[1] health services and policy research to create a centralized, well-organized, and multidisciplinary entity.
Attract Queen’s faculty and external researchers who will strengthen health services and policy research through collaborative expertise and enhanced support of research programs.
Support effective knowledge translation by disseminating accessible health services and health policy research to decision makers.
Build on significant progress and achievements by acquiring long-term, targeted policy–related search funding.
Increase research and evaluation of the Canadian health-care system by increasing research productivity of FHS faculty involved in health services and policy research.

HSPRI will accomplish these goals by:

Generating, translating, and disseminating applied, theoretical health services, and health policy research by bringing together the expertise of existing groups, centres, and affiliated researchers /emerging groups under a unified research program.
Supporting educational and research opportunities for undergraduate, graduate, and doctoral students interested in health services and health policy research
Establishing a visible, scholarly presence at the national and international level through HSPRI’s timely research and evaluation of the Canadian health-care system
Expanding membership of interested researchers who are currently conducting relevant health services and health policy research outside existing FHS and Queen’s centres
Optimizing research support and stability by creating a sustainable funding model for HSPRI’s core infrastructure, expanded knowledge translation capacity, and indirect research support costs
Leveraging resources to achieve significant impact within the academic realm and the health-care system, and
Identifying synergies with researchers/emerging groups within Queen’s involved in health services and policy research.

^[1] Research with the goal of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of health professionals and the health care system, through changes to practice and policy. Health services research is a multidisciplinary field of scientific investigation that studies how social factors, financing systems, organizational structures and processes, health technologies, and personal behaviours affect access to health care, the quality and cost of health care, and, ultimately, Canadians' health and well-being.

Source: https://cihr-irsc.gc.ca/e/34190.html#r4

Governance

Organizational Structure

Interim Director

Dr. Michael Green, in his role as Director of CHSPR, had been recommended by the Task Force members and the Dean (FHS) as to serve as the interim director, until June 2018 or upon the Dean (FHS) appointing an inaugural director. Dr. Green is also the Head of the Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Green has authored or co-authored more than 40 scholarly publications and has presented his work to institutions and conference proceedings over 200 times. His lifetime research funding totals $18.8 million with sources of grants including the Canadian Institute for Health Research, Ontario’s Strategy for Patient- Oriented Research (SPOR) Support Unit, and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MoHLTC). Dr. Green holds the Brian Hennen Chair in Family Medicine. He was the inaugural holder of the CTAQ Chair in Applied Health Economics/Health Policy. Dr. Green is a full professor in both the Department of Family Medicine and the Department of Public Health Sciences. He is also a Senior Adjunct Scientist with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).

Dean Reznick extended his sincere appreciation to Dr. Green for his exemplary service and leadership in establishing HSPRI.

Inaugural Director

In 2020 Dr. Catherine Donnelly was appointed Director of HSPRI, succeeding Dr. Michael Green, who served as Director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research and Interim Director of HSPRI.

Dr. Donnelly brings extensive clinical research experience to her role. She joined the School of Rehabilitation Therapy in 2004 and is an Associate Professor with a cross appointment to the Department of Family Medicine. She served as Interim Associate Director, Occupational Therapy Program in 2017. She is an instructor in both the Occupational Therapy and Aging and Health programs and is a practicing occupational therapist with the Queen’s Family Health Team’s Belleville site.

Dr. Donnelly’s focus is on team-based primary care with an emphasis on understanding how interprofessional teams support older adults and individuals with chronic conditions. Her work aligns strongly with the mission of Queen’s, which supports faculty collaboration and interdisciplinary knowledge translation in the development of high-impact research and evaluation of the Canadian health care system. In the past three years alone, Dr. Donnelly has been named in 19 funded research studies examining integrated care and has earned funding from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Ontario Society of Occupational Therapists, and Baycrest Research-Clinician Partnership Program.

Membership

The membership categories will include core faculty, associate faculty, and affiliate members. The core faculty will be members of the Faculty of Health Sciences who would undertake a significant proportion of their research with the support and guidance of HSPRI. The associate faculty are individuals with a faculty appointment in the Faculty of Health Sciences (or in other Departments or Schools within Queen’s University, for example, Economics, Geography, Policy Studies), who (a) have collaborated (or will collaborate) on research projects undertaken by core faculty or (b) would do occasional research projects with HSPRI’s support and guidance. Finally, affiliate members are researchers external to Queen’s, who collaborate with or serve as resources to core faculty member research. An application for (i) core faculty membership may be sent in writing to the Director for consideration by the Executive Committee and (ii) associate faculty and affiliate membership may be sent to the Director for consideration.