CHSPR Fall Health Policy Workshop

Health Policy Foundations in Canada

The UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research Fall Health Policy Workshop will provide an introduction to how health policy is conceived, made, implemented, and evaluated in Canada. The workshop will describe how health policy decisions are shaped by internal and external forces – explicit and implicit values, public opinion, interest group advocacy, media narratives, partisan politics, institutional structures, and Canadian federalism. It will address the role of research-based evidence in policy-making and how it varies. Participants will gain insights into policy development and evaluation.

Objectives

The workshop is designed to create a common understanding of the key features of Canadian health policy-making. The workshop will include analyses of:

• An overview of the core concepts associated with health policy and their significance;
• Identification of key health policy laws, regulations, actors, structures, and processes that shape health policy making;
• Ethical and allocative dimensions of health policy, especially as they relate to resource allocation and equity;
• The factors that affect the impact of research-based evidence on decision-making;
• The basic elements of the policy-making process and its stages;
• Basic approaches to developing and evaluating health policy options.