This collection is the result of a 2016 national leaders conference sponsored by Queen’s University to explore the prospects for a pan-Canadian healthcare innovation strategy. The conference themes were inspired by the 2015 report of the federally commissioned Advisory Panel on Healthcare Innovation, led by David Naylor, which examined how the federal government could support innovation. A Canadian Healthcare Innovation Agenda features original commissioned chapters from academics and healthcare leaders addressing a range of issues such as the meaning of healthcare innovation, how a national healthcare agency and investment fund could be governed, the need for big data and evidence, adding value through Canadian supply-chain management, overcoming regulatory barriers to innovation, policy innovations for indigenous, military and elderly populations, the role of medical professions in promoting innovation, education, and the development of medical innovators. The Canadian healthcare system is so fragmented that any thought of a system-wide strategy for healthcare innovation is considered a far-distant ideal at best. This book presents a contrary view, outlining an agenda for Canadian healthcare innovation. It shows that Canada does indeed have the building blocks for innovation, and concludes that the time to act is now.

While Canadians are proud of their healthcare system, the reality is that it is fragmented and disorganized. Instead of a pan-Canadian system, it is a "system of systems" - thirteen provincial and territorial systems and a federal system. As a result, Canadian healthcare has not only become one of the costliest in the world, but is falling well behind many developed countries in terms of quality. Canadians increasingly realize that their healthcare system is no longer fiscally sustainable, yet change remains elusive. The standard claim is that Canada's multijurisdictional approach makes system-wide reform nearly impossible. Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians disputes this reasoning, making the case for a comprehensive, system-wide, made-in-Canada healthcare strategy. It looks at the mechanics of change and suggests ways in which the various participants in the system - governments, healthcare professionals, the private sector, and patients - can work collaboratively to transform a second-rate system. Addressing critical issues of health human resources, electronic health records, integrated care, and pharmacare, Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians shows how a system-wide strategic approach to this crucial policy area can make a difference in Canada’s healthcare system in the future.

Research Paper (postgraduate) from the year 2010 in the subject Health Science, grade: 89.0%, The University of Western Ontario, language: English, abstract: The Canada Health Act (CHA) of 1984 was enacted with the mandate "to protect, promote and restore the physical and mental well-being of residents of Canada and to facilitate reasonable access to health services without financial or other barriers" (L. Hughes- Marsh, personal communication, September 20, 2010). The Act has five principles: public administration, comprehensiveness, universality, portability and accessibility (Canadian Health Care, 2004). The CHA principles have assisted in creating the universal, glorious and free healthcare system that historically Canadians have been so proud to adopt as part of their identity. The 2010 Report Card however, suggests that this attitude is shifting. When compared with six other developed nations on the performance of their healthcare systems, Canada ranked sixth, only placing ahead of the United States, the one country that did not have universal healthcare coverage; factors measured include: quality of care, access, efficiency, equity and health outcomes. These findings suggest that Canadians no longer hold the same value for their once glorified, universal healthcare system. Instead, the system receives an abundance of criticism for its inability to provide quality care to all citizens and is thus currently facing many challenges and structural reforms. This report will outline three recommendations to improve the current Canadian healthcare system: going lean in healthcare, establishing universal prescription drug coverage programs and incorporating virtual health practices into the Canadian healthcare system.

On taking power in the fall of 2015, the Canadian In this Commentary, we analyze the role of Liberal government appointed a minister of healthcare technology and innovation as drivers innovation, science and economic development to of the nation's productivity performance. [...] Jane Philpott, the federal minister of health, has However, there are reasons to believe that stated that some of the ideas in the 2015 report healthcare R&D in the past - as a result of of the Advisory Panel on Healthcare Innovation misaligned incentives in health systems - did (commonly referred to as the Naylor Report, after not focus enough on cost-reducing innovations. [...] Implicitly, therefore, the GDP statistics estimates of the economic value of better health - reflect only the cost of the resources that go as in particular, the value of longer life expectancy as inputs into the healthcare sector, not the value of a result of reduced mortality from serious health 3 In the absence of good direct measures of technology's contributions to health, the most common mea [...] This level of Commonwealth Fund Survey that asks patients, unnecessary care is comparable to that in the United the general public, and primary-care providers in States, the only country whose healthcare system is 11 developed countries about access to healthcare ranked lower than Canada's by the Commonwealth and the quality, efficiency, and equity of care. [...] In the Canadian setting, the issue of incentives is also complicated by the many different actors who are involved in decisions about the adoption of new technology (drugs, biologics, imaging and radiation machines, diagnostic equipment, and the like), as mentioned in note 1. 1 1 Commentary 480 and emulate them in a manner most appropriate to system.

Canada’s fragmented healthcare system is one of the most expensive among the OECD countries, yet the quality of its performance is mediocre at best. Canada lacks a system-wide healthcare strategy that brings together many individual federal, provincial, and territorial strategies into a comprehensive and coherent whole. Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy is a collection of ten policy research essays by leading Canadian and international scholars who address three important questions. First, if Canada had a unifying strategy, how would the country measure its success and monitor its performance? Second, who are the agents of change to bring about a Canadian system-wide strategy? Third, how can the jurisdictional realities of Canada’s political system be managed to bring about strategic reform? The final section in the volume explores ways to overcome the barriers and impediments that preoccupy Canadians’ concerns about healthcare. A companion volume to Toward a Healthcare Strategy for Canadians, the contributors to Managing a Canadian Healthcare Strategy turn to the critical importance of how necessary healthcare changes can be best implemented.