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Smaller TextCanada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Exchange
John Lavis
Associate Professor, Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Email: lavisj@mcmaster.ca
Web:
Research Involves
Studying whether, how, and under what conditions, federal and provincial policy makers make use of research knowledge.
Research Relevance
Identifying how to put research knowledge to use in governing the health care system and in improving the health of Canadians.
Getting Research into Policy
Advances in health research take place every day. The research will either suggest better ways to finance, organize and deliver health care, or better ways to improve the health of Canadians.
If federal and provincial policy makers are not aware of the research and do not make use of it in the policy making process, then both our health care system and our health could suffer needlessly.
John Lavis intends to make sure policies change as a result of new discoveries. The McMaster University professor will use this chair to determine whether, how and under what conditions, research knowledge influences policy making. He will then develop tools for researchers to help them better transfer their research, and for policy makers to help them better use that research, and promote these tools through the Program in Policy Decision-making (PPD).
Multidisciplinary research techniques and real-world issues come together in this research program. Lavis will draw on the fields of political science, organizational decision-making and knowledge utilization to develop a conceptual framework for this research field. He will also conduct a systematic review of what has already been learned about these issues, and undertake new field research.
Lavis has already made a mark among his peers through previous research contributions. One project examined the role of health services research in Canadian provincial policy making. Another assessed whether federal and provincial policy makers in finance, labour, social services and health departments were influenced by research knowledge about the determinants of the health of populations.
Drawing on his medical training at Queen’s and his research training at the London School of Economics and Harvard, Lavis is committed to seeing health research guide public policy. Awarding him this chair will help to create a critical mass of expertise at McMaster concerning the use of research knowledge in health decision making.
