Informing Canada’s Health System Response to COVID-19: Priorities for Health Services and Policy Research

Abstract

To inform Canada' s research response to COVID-19, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research' s Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR) conducted a rapidcycle priority identification process. Seven COVID-19 priorities for health services and policy research were identified: system adaptation and organization of care; resource allocation decision-making and ethics; rapid synthesis and comparative policy analysis of the COVID-19 response and outcomes; healthcare workforce; virtual care; long-term consequences of the pandemic; and public and patient engagement. Three additional cross-cutting themes were identified: supporting the health of Indigenous Peoples and vulnerable populations, data and digital infrastructure, and learning health systems and knowledge platforms. IHSPR hopes these research priorities will contribute to the broader ecosystem for collective research investment and action. Background The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has had devastating consequences worldwide and revealed the underpreparedness of systems (health, political, economic) to respond swiftly. Health systems are grappling with how to rapidly mobilize, organize and deploy resources to provide effective COVID-19 care while simultaneously attempting to reorganize the provision of non-COVID-19 care effectively and safely. The Government of Canada' s top priority throughout the pandemic has been to keep Canadians healthy and safe (Government of Canada 2020), and one mechanism to achieve this has been to mobilize Canada' s health research community to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. As Canada' s federal health research funder, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has played an active role in the COVID-19 health research response along with its tri-council partners, Canada' s broader health and science portfolios, provincial and territorial research funders and health systems, charities and hospitals, as well as local, academic, private sector and other funders. On February 10, 2020, CIHR, together with funding partners, launched its first rapid research response funding opportunity (CIHR 2020a), which resulted in 99 funded research projects totalling $54.2 million (CIHR 2020b). The Government of Canada then allocated an additional $115 million to CIHR in March for a second round of rapid research funding (CIHR 2020c). Beyond these, CIHR has led several other COVID-19 funding calls, including the COVID-19 Clinical Epidemiology Research Rapid Response, World Health Organization Solidarity Trial and opportunities focused on mental health and substance use. Additional investments are under way to further support research teams with expiring grants, to maintain income support for trainees whose research has been delayed by the pandemic and to support the retention of research staff at universities and health research institutes. The CIHR' s Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR) is one of 13 virtual institutes and one of many players in the health research ecosystem. IHSPR is aiming ...

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