Want to better understand how the health and social systems work and how you can better advocate for changes that would improve these systems for you and your family? Enhance your knowledge with one of our free courses for citizens:
Finding and using research evidence: A guide for citizens
In this free online course, you’ll be provided with solutions to overcome the most commonly cited frustrations people have when trying to access research evidence. Prepared by the McMaster Health Forum with support from the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit, the course is now available online as a set of eight videos:
Here are helpful resources that are drawn on in the course:
- Definitions for word and phrases used in the modules
- How to make sure health information is trustworthy
- Links to online sources mentioned in the modules
Don’t miss the most important resource for citizen-targeted evidence about healthy aging:
Understanding how to navigate the health system
Knowing how your health system works will better you to navigate the system, identify opportunities to make things better, and advocate for changes that you’d like to see. This free online course describes the 'building blocks' of Ontario’s health system as well as how those building blocks are used to provide care in the province in different ways (e.g., by sector, condition, treatment, population). While Ontario is the example, these principles are useful to understanding health systems other jurisdictions in Canada and internationally.
Prepared by the McMaster Health Forum with support from the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit, the course is now available online as a set of six videos:
Here are helpful resources that are drawn on in the course:
- Free download of chapters from Ontario’s Health System: Key Insights for Engaged Citizens, Professional and Policymakers. The Ontario book is also helpful in understanding other health systems
Don’t miss the most important resource for citizen-targeted evidence about healthy aging:
Masterclass on patient-oriented research
The Forum’s masterclass was designed to prepare future champions for the conduct and use of patient-oriented research and future mentors to others becoming involved in the conduct and use of patient-oriented research. While we are not currently planning any sessions for the masterclass on patient-oriented research, you can access all of the course material to learn more about patient-oriented research.
Forum Assistant Director awarded CIHR research grant to support optimal approaches in addressing frailty in older adults
The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) recently announced that an interdisciplinary team of researchers, co-led by the McMaster Health Forum’s Assistant Director Michael Wilson, has been awarded a $100,000 grant to support optimal approaches in addressing frailty in older adults.
Frailty has been associated with greater risks of disabilities in basic and instrumental activities of daily living, chronic illnesses, greater reliance on in-home services, hospitalization, institutionalization, and premature mortality.
Frail elderly are “older adults or aged individuals who are lacking in general strength and are unusually susceptible to disease or to other infirmity”. Many systematic reviews have evaluated the effectiveness of interventions to prevent, delay, or decrease frailty symptoms, but no effort has been made to identify, map, and synthesize the findings from reviews across the full spectrum of interventions.
Wilson and team will conduct an overview of systematic reviews that will address this gap by:
- synthesizing findings from all existing systematic reviews evaluating interventions for preventing, delaying onset, or decreasing the burden of frailty symptoms; and
- examining different conceptualizations of frailty that have been used in the development and implementation of interventions.
The resulting overview of systematic reviews will then be used to develop an evidence brief that mobilizes the best available evidence about the problem related to supporting integrated care for frail older adults, and identifies three policy and programmatic options to address the problem and implementation considerations. The evidence brief will then be used as the input into a stakeholder dialogue, which will engage 18-22 Canadian health-system leaders (including policymakers, health providers, researchers and other stakeholders) in ‘off-the-record’ deliberations to inform future actions and policymaking.
- McMaster Forum
