Supporting the use of evidence – new partnership between McMaster and the Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development
The McMaster Health Forum is pleased to announce a formal collaboration with the Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development (CCHSRD) at the University of the West Indies’ Augustine Campus in Trinidad and Tobago. This agreement builds on a long-standing partnership we’ve developed with Donald Simeon and Andrea Yearwood, two former staff of the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA), who now play key roles in the CCHSRD.
“This is a great opportunity for us to continue building our networks in the Caribbean and promoting evidence-informed health- and social-systems,” said John Lavis, Director of the McMaster Health Forum. “We look forward to this opportunity to learn from each other and to build capacity to better support the use of evidence in policymaking.” John will continue to serve on CCHSRD’s Advisory Board, which he was appointed to in the fall.
The collaboration will take many forms, including:
- sharing and promoting materials and resources of mutual interest
- developing research proposals and projects and exchanging relevant scientific information
- participating in webinars and other knowledge-translation initiatives;
- exploring the development of university-based educational programs and community-based training programs
- facilitating the exchange of faculty members, research staff, and students for research, teaching, and professional training
“We are excited to formalize our collaboration with McMaster University,” said Donald Simeon, Director of CCHSRD, “and look forward to building on our past work to enhance the capacity and stimulate opportunities to support the use of evidence in policymaking in the Caribbean.”
The Caribbean Centre for Health Systems Research and Development of the Faculty of Medical Science of The UWI has a pivotal role to generate and facilitate the use of research evidence in order to strengthen health systems and policymaking processes. The Centre has a mandate to conduct health systems, health services and health policy research, responsive to the needs of the decision-makers and health-system leaders; assist policymakers and health-system leaders to utilise the best available research evidence in health policy and health system decision-making, by providing them with a suite of user-friendly products and services; assist decision-makers and health-system leaders to engage with communities as partners in health, by convening forums and dialogues with citizens to deliberate on current health system problems and to identify evidence-based solutions to address contemporary health issues; and to build the competencies of health-system managers, policymakers and other health professionals. The work of the Centre is facilitated through inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral collaboration, priority setting, and embedded research.