Harkness Project Title: How do Canadian Research Organizations Transfer Research Knowledge to Decision-Makers?

Biography at time of Fellowship: John N. Lavis, a 2001–02 Canadian Associate of The Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellows Program, holds the Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Uptake, and is an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, and member of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis at McMaster University. Lavis is also a scientist at the Institute for Work & Health and a Liberty Health Scholar at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research. His principal research interests include knowledge transfer and uptake in public policy-making environments; the social determinants of health; especially the links between labour-market experiences and health; the funding, organization, and delivery of health care; and disability compensation systems. He coordinates a course at McMaster on the social determinants of health and he co-directs the Educational Initiative in Health Economics and Health Policy Analysis for Health Professionals in Training with Professor Greg Stoddart at McMaster. He supervises the Knowledge Transfer Programme of the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis and he is the inaugural chair of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Health Policy and Systems Management grants review Committee. He is the president of Fife House Foundation, a not-for-profit agency that provides 90 percent of the supportive housing available to people living with HIV/AIDS in Toronto, and he chairs the Task Force for Secure and Affordable Housing for People Living with HIV/AIDS. Dr. Lavis holds an M.D. from Queen's University, an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Project: Lavis explored the extent to which Canadian research organizations transfer research knowledge to decision-makers, and how this aligns with current evidence on effective knowledge transfer.  He surveyed the directors of applied research organizations in Canada to assess their current practices in knowledge transfer to decision-makers, including on: what is transferred, to whom and by whom, how is it transferred, and with what effects.

Career Activity Since Fellowship

• Professor, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, 2009
• Research Associate, European Observatory on Health Systems and Policies, 2007
• Canadian Health Services Research Foundation Family Award, 2007
• Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Exchange, 2001 and reappointment in 2006
• Associate Professor, Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics, McMaster University, 2003

E-Mail: lavisj@mcmaster.ca

Harkness-Related Publications

Lavis J, Gruen R, Davies H, Walshe K, Farquhar CM.  Working Within and Beyond the Cochrane Collaboration to Make Systematic Reviews More Useful to Healthcare Managers and Policymakers.  Healthcare Policy 2006; 1(2):21-33.

Collins P, Abelson J, Pyman H, Lavis J. “Are We Expecting Too Much From Print Media: An Analysis of Newspaper Coverage of the 2002 Canadian Healthcare Reform Debate,”  Social Science and Medicine 2006; 63:89-112.

Lavis J, Davies HTO, Oxman A, Denis J-L, Golden-Biddle K, Ferlie E. “Towards Systematic Reviews That Inform Health Care Management and Policy-Making,” Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 2005; 10(3), suppl 1: 35-48.

Abelson J, Mendelsohn M, Lavis JN, Morgan SG, Forest P-G, Swinton M. “A 2002 Survey Shows That Canadians’ Attitudes Towards Health System Changes Are in a State of Flux,” Health Affairs 2004; 23(3):186-193.

Lavis JN, Ross SE, McLeod CB, Gildiner A. “Measuring the Impact of Health Research.” Journal of Health Services Research and Policy 2003; 8(3):165-170.

Lavis JN, Robertson D, Woodside JM, McLeod CB, Abelson J, and the Knowledge Transfer Study Group. "How Can Research Organizations More Effectively Transfer Research Knowledge to Decision Makers?" The Milbank Quarterly 81(2): 2003.

Lavis JN, Ross SE, Hurley JE, Hohenadel JM, Stoddart GL, Woodward CA, Abelson J. “Examining the Role of Health Services Research in Public Policymaking” The Milbank Quarterly 2002; 80(1):125-154.

Lavis JN, Robertson D, Woodside J, McLeod CB, Abelson J, Bartram J, Clark KM, Dobbins M, Abernathy T, Gold I. “How Do Canadian Research Organizations Transfer Research Knowledge To Decision-Makers?”  Report submitted to the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care May 2002.

Hutchison BG, Abelson J, Lavis JN. “Primary Care Reform in Canada: So Much Innovation, So Little Change,” Health Affairs 2001; 20(3):116-131 (May/June 2001 with associated correspondence: November/December 2001; 20(6):315-316.