Health Inequities
Building Equity in China through Conducting Evaluations and Evaluation Capacity Building
Collaboration between the China National Health Development Research Centre, International Development Research Centre and the Evaluation Centre for Complex Health Interventions.
This project involved a partnership with policy makers from the China Ministry of Health both at the National and Provincial levels to help build capacities in the China health system to evaluate health equity initiatives. China embarked on an ambitious program of health systems reform starting in 2009. One of the goals of the health system reform efforts in China was to reduce health inequities between urban and rural parts of China. This project promoted evaluative thinking and evaluation approaches as a means of building the salience of health equity as a performance measure for health systems in China.
Funder: IDRC
Period of Grant: April 2013-September 2016
Evaluation of Health Access St. Jamestown (HASJT): Phase 2
The second phase of the project sought to carry out HASJT at the neighborhood level, by working with community partners to improve access to isolated, high need, hard to serve and/or unattached individuals through targeted outreach, coordinated partnerships and warm transfers. The theory-driven outcome evaluation of the HASJT project examined whether and how project activities and innovations led to improvements in the access to, quality of, and utilization of health and social services among high risk residents in the community. This evaluation helped the lead organization of HASJT build evaluation capacity
Funder: Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network
Period of Grant: October 2014-March 2015
Evaluation of Health Access St. Jamestown: Phase 1
The Health Access St. James Town (HASJT) project sought to improve accessibility to holistic care services by establishing a neighborhood-based, client-focused model of integrated, collaborative care in this high need neighborhood. The evaluation took a developmental evaluation approach to better understand the HASJT’s theory of change, assess its implementation progress, elucidate its underlying mechanisms and explore the project’s impacts from different perspectives.
Funder: Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network
Period of Grant: November 2013-March 2014
Evaluation of Scotland’s Anticipatory Care Policy
Keep Well was a National pilot project of the anticipatory care in Scotland, which assisted in the delivery of the Scottish Executive’s health inequalities targets, and was part of the overall implementation of a policy called Delivering for Health. The aim of Keep Well was to reduce health inequalities in cardiovascular disease (CVD) by increasing the rate of health improvement among high risk, hard to reach groups living in the most deprived communities. The aim of the evaluation was to build knowledge about the feasibility and challenges of delivering Keep Well and the success of different approaches to engagement and service re-design with a view to incorporating the lessons learned from the pilots into subsequent waves of implementation and/or policy rollout.
Funder: NHS Health Scotland
Period of Grant: 2009-2011
Development of an Evaluation Framework for ECHO
ECHO was an Ontario Provincial Ministry Agency focused on improving health and well-being and reducing health inequities for Ontario women. The Evaluation Centre developed an evaluation framework for measuring Echo’s outcomes, impacts, quality, and returns on investment. This helped assess ECHO’s performance and the value of its work in relation to its mandate to improve women’s health in Ontario. The project involved collaboration with researchers at the Wellesley Institute, Toronto.
Funder: ECHO
Period of Grant: 2011
Towards a Strategic Approach to Evaluating Interventions Focused on Reducing Health Inequalities
This project promoted a dialogue between commissioners of evaluation from leading organizations focused on health equities (IDRC, WHO, MOHLTC, Health Department of the Scottish Government) and leading evaluation methodologists. The initiative helped bring together a diverse group of stakeholders to explore system-level strategic approaches to evaluating health inequity initiatives.
Funder: Canadian Institute of Health Research
Period of Grant: 2010-2011
Building a performance measurement system for measuring health inequities for the Local Health Integration
This Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network project sought to develop best practices in hospital-level performance measurement systems for addressing health inequities. Data was collected from 18 Toronto hospitals on existing measurement systems for assessing a hospital’s performance in addressing health inequities. This project informed the Accountability agreement between the 18 Toronto hospitals and the Toronto Central LHINs. This project was a collaboration with researchers at the Wellesley Institute.
Funder: Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network
Period of Grant: 2009-2010