Department of Community Health Sciences
University of Calgary
Research Chairs
A number of Community Health Sciences faculty members have been awarded Research Chairs in a variety of areas that reflect the diversity of interests in the department. These include:
CIHR/PHAC Chair in Applied Public Health: Economics of Population Health
Chair: Dr. Alan Shiell
The aim of this chair is to increase the quality, quantity and usefulness of evidence pertaining to the economic value of social interventions to improve population health and reduce inequalities in health. Social interventions include policies and programmes believed to impact health that are delivered outside the health care system. Examples include interventions to improve the built environment, early childhood development, income policy, housing and employment. The programme of work combines large, primary evaluations of the economic value of interventions (the first being the cost-effectiveness of improving walkability as a means of increasing physical activity), with rapid appraisals of cost-effectiveness based on available data (e.g., supported housing for homeless people with severe mental illness, bans on the use of cell-phones by drivers), and systematic reviews of the economic evidence (e.g., financial benefits as a means of promoting child health in low income families). Knowledge exchange is especially emphasized by the CIHR/PHAC programme and an early focus will be on methods of improving the usefulness of economic evidence. Further details can be obtained from our website: www.ucalgary.ca/phirc .
Canada Research Chair in Complementary Medicine
Chair: Dr. Marja Verhoef
The increased use of and demand for Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) has major implications for research and practice. Safety and efficacy of CAM, psychosocial aspects of CAM use (eg., information seeking behaviours, decision-making), integration of conventional medicine and
Aside from research, (1) building research literacy and capacity in CAM practitioners, (2) building understanding of CAM core concepts in undergraduate medical education, and (3) training graduate students in
Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research
Chair: Dr. William Ghali
The Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research focuses on a combination of applied and methodological projects in the related areas of (1) cardiac disease, (2) diabetes, (3) cerebrovascular disease, and (4) venous thromboembolic disease. These all represent serious medical conditions that clearly have a large impact on the Canadian health care system and influence the health and quality of life of many Canadians. Cardiac disease, cerebrovascular disease, and venous thromboembolic disease share the common thread of being serious vascular diseases that constitute the focus of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada. Meanwhile, diabetes is a high prevalence condition that in many instances leads to these vascular diseases. Improved health care delivery to individuals with diabetes has the potential to positively impact the health care system through a reduced burden of vascular disease in Canada.
John A. Buchanan Chair in General Internal Medicine
Professorship: Dr. William Ghali
The vision for this Professorship is an effective, efficient, and equitable health care system for Canadians with the mission to develop a world-class clinical research and academic training program housed within the Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Calgary that focuses on the evaluation and improvement of health care delivery.
The specific objectives are:
- To recruit qualified faculty to academic appointments in the Department of Medicine (time-protected, research-focused positions, with anticipation that most would seek cross-appointments to the Department of Community Health Sciences)
- To recruit promising trainees to research fellowship and/or clinical scholar appointments in the Department of Medicine (with expectation that the majority of these individuals would seek graduate training in the Department of Community Health Sciences).
- To invite accomplished academic researchers to Calgary for either typical academic visits (i.e., lectures, meetings with selected faculty over 2 to 3 days) or for more extended ‘visiting scholar' periods. These visits will present "John A. Buchanan lectures' or in the case of extended visits, will be designated the ‘John A. Buchanan Visiting Scholar."
- To contribute to infrastructure development (and/or maintenance or existing infrastructure) for academic research in the Department of Medicine. This will be achieved through a contribution to the "Ward of the 21st Century Initiative" in year 1, and through maintenance of the holder's existing human and equipment infrastructure for research.
Markin Chair in Health and Society
Chair: Dr. Penny Hawe
The Health and Society program is focused on the social determinants of health and the actions we can take at a community and public policy level to improve health. Only a small proportion of the population's health can be attributed to what is done in the health services to care for illness, the rest is explained by broader factors. These factors include socioeconomic status and policies which affect the distribution of resources in society, the investments we make in education, the impact of the environment, and people's sense of their own meaning, purpose and quality of life. The program brings together researchers from urban studies, economics, psychology, anthropology, sociology and philosophy of science.
There are three strands to this work: (1) aetiological research, looking at how health is created by the physical and social environments where people live and work (2) methodological research, trying to ‘capture' and measure properties of communities and local environments and to value the benefits of programs and policies to bring about health improvements, and (3) population-level intervention research. Our chief focus in intervention research is on demonstration projects, in particular the design and evaluation of programs in schools and communities that improve health and well being.
The chair program funds trainees, studentships, workshops and events related to the research program. More information can be found from the website of the Population Health Intervention Research Centre within which the Markin Chair in Health and Society is situated. Go to www.ucalgary.ca/PHIRC.
In May 2006, Dr. Hawe was renewed for a second five-year term as Markin Chair in Health and Society.
The Svare Professorship in Health Economics
Chair: Dr. Herbert Emery
The mandate for the Svare Professorship is for the holder of the position to provide leadership in terms of health economics research and teaching. Currently, there are a large number of individuals working on research relevant to health economics in Community Health Sciences and many other areas at the University of Calgary. Despite the national and international recognition of these individuals, the collective recognition of the group of scholars has not emerged to the extent that the University of Calgary is known as a leading institution for health economics research. With the goal of creating an integrated collective research environment, creating an environment that encourages the conversation, if not collaboration, across disciplines will enhance the social impact of the health economics research produced at the University of Calgary. Central to achieving this goal is the joint health economics initiatives between the graduate programs in Community Health Sciences and the Department of Economics established by the previous Svare Chair, Cam Donaldson. A key objective for the Svare Professor is the recruitment of students to the Masters and PhD programs in Community Health Sciences and the Department of Economics.