To kick off the year, Denise Kouri provides us with an update on the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy in Montreal, which she ably leads. The Centre aims to increase the expertise of Canadian public health practitioners and partners in promoting healthy public policy and has a particular focus on the public policy process, knowledge transfer, health impact assessment of public policies and risk assessment.
We are also delighted to continue our profiling of the pioneering Centres for Research Development. In this issue, John Myles talks about the exciting research underway at the Centre for Urban Health Initiatives (CUHI) at the University of Toronto, which examines how social and physical conditions in cities affect the health of the people who live there. Researchers at CUHI are working with policy makers, community partners and academics from many disciplines to make great urban health research happen, as John shows.
We also hear about the inspiring work of the Canadian Council on Learning (CCL). Charles Ungerleider is professor of "the sociology of education" at the University of British Columbia, and Irving Rootman continues to examine the link between literacy and health at the University of Victoria. They discuss the work of the CCL and that of the Health and Learning Knowledge Centre, one of five knowledge centres across the country dedicated to addressing key areas of learning in Canada that require urgent attention.
As well, we are pleased to feature an article by Laura Nimmon, a Masters student in Health Literacy Education at the University of Victoria. Laura was one of the 2006 winners of the Population and Public Health Student Awards, and talks about her fascinating research into the use of participatory photonovels designed to help immigrant and refugee women comprehend health information.
It is always nice to kick off the year with funding news, so please make sure you read about our latest funding opportunities, as well as to recognize the fall 2006 competition and recipients.
We would also like to encourage you to re-visit the IPPH website. We have recently introduced a new Student's Corner, with resources to support a new generation of population and public health researchers. We have also updated our Knowledge Translation and Partnerships sections to profile the work underway at IPPH in these key areas.
This edition of POP News also includes an important request for your timely feedback on the recently completed external review of CIHR. The final report from this review, Year 5: International review Panel (IRP) Report, 2000-2005, was made public on CIHR's website in June 2006, demonstrates CIHR's commitment to transparency and accountability to all Canadians by measuring performance and reporting publicly on the value of health research. The review panel applauds CIHR accomplishments to date and includes recommendations for the organization to consider in the next stage of its evolution. These recommendations include, for example, the development, implementation and evaluation of continuing improvements to CIHR's peer review processes and committee structures, an enhanced and increasing role for the Institutes in this process, and the implementation of fewer, larger strategic initiatives rather than many smaller scale requests for applications (RFAs). The review panel also commends the performance of the Institutes based on their respective mid-term review evaluation reports and includes areas in which each Institute could continue to improve its processes and outcomes. For IPPH, in collaboration with our key partners and our Institute Advisory Board (IAB), this means continuing to support the population and public health community through timely and innovative strategic initiatives, peer review improvements and processes to ensure that research results are used to inform and improve policy, practice and programs. It also means continuing to do our best to increase understanding and awareness of the role and importance of population and public health research in improving the health of populations both in Canada and globally.
I sincerely request you respond to this opportunity to send in your comments on the IRP recommendations as outlined on the website: Opportunity to Provide Feedback. Your feedback will help ensure that CIHR receives feedback from researchers representing the full spectrum of health research and knowledge translation. CIHR welcomes your input and is poised to act on the IRP recommendations.
As always, please be in touch with any feedback about the work of the Institute. We wish you all the best for the coming year.
Warm regards,
John Frank
Scientific Director
