March 29, 2000
(Health and Community Servicds)

$500,000 commitment to health research

In the absence of my counterpart, the Minister of Health and Community Services, I am pleased to inform honourable members today that the province has provided $500,000 to the new Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research at Memorial University.

The centre is an independent research institute which reports to a management committee representing the university, the Department of Health and Community Services, and the health boards. The centre will develop linkages with other similar research units elsewhere in Canada and play a role on national research panels and associations.

The new Newfoundland Centre will focus on 'applied' health research, that is, research using utilization data that is directly relevant to public policy making in health, health care, community services, health promotion, prevention and community health. Its mission will be to interact with policy makers in government and in the health system to develop a research agenda that responds to their needs. The centre will assist government in making "evidence-based" health decisions.

The health sector will benefit from being able to make decisions that take into consideration up-to-date data on the health status and health needs of the population, on the changing demographic and economic context, and on the relative effectiveness and costs of different approaches to a given problem.

The $500,000 provided by the Department of Health and Community Services will be used on both infrastructure and research activities. And, I am pleased that a key objective of the centre will be to make the results of the its research available to all stakeholders--policy makers in government and the health-care system, health care professionals, associations and groups, and the public at large.

A key aspect of the centre's mission is to seek external funds for health research; in particular, the centre will target the expanded federal funding that will be available through the new Canadian Institutes of Health Research. By funding interdisciplinary research teams, by building research partnerships between academic researchers and community organizations and government agencies, and by using provincial funding as leverage, the centre hopes to make possible a substantial increase in the amount of federal health research funding coming into the province.

Increased research on subjects identified as priorities by health policy makers can mean more efficient use of provincial resources, better identification of needs and therefore better delivery of services for the people of Newfoundland and Labrador.

2000 03 29                                                                 2:25 p.m.