Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care’s

Health System Research Fund (HSRF) 2016/17

Program Awards
June 2015
Planning, Research and Analysis Branch (PRAB)
Health System Strategy & Policy (HSSPD)
Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC)
 Overview
1. MOHLTC’s Transformation Agenda
• Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care
• Framework, Objectives, Key Initiatives and Areas of
Focus

2. MOHLTC’s Research Strategy – What Makes Us Unique?

• Health System Research Fund (HSRF)
• 2016/17 HSRF Program Awards
• Defining Success
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 Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care

Government Open, transparent, accountable, effectively managed

Promise government that provides value for tax dollars

Patients First
Health • a caring, integrated experience for patients
• faster access to quality health services
Promise • for all Ontarians at every life stage

Access: Connect: Inform: Protect :

• Providing faster • Providing better • Providing • Ensuring our
access to the right home and information to make universal health care
care community care the right decisions system is sustainable
about your health for generations to
come
Policy
Pillar:

Improve System Modernize Home and Increase the Health Ensure

Integration, Community Care and Wellness of Sustainability
Accessibility Ontarians and Quality

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Framework for Strategic Action

Modernize Home Improve System

and Community Integration,
Care Accessibility
Person
Centered
Increase the
Ensure
Health and
Sustainability
Wellness of
and Quality
Ontarians

Accountable,
Transparent & Evidence-Informed 5
 Key Objectives

1. Modernize Home and Community Care: Enhance capacity to drive

transformation and meet the needs of Ontarians.

2. Improve System Integration: Intensify efforts to enhance integrated

services across the province.

3. Ensure Sustainability and Quality: Expand the culture of quality and

evidence to all parts of the health system.

4. Increase the Health and Wellness of Ontarians: Drive structural changes

to increase access and quality for Ontarians.

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 Creating a System that is Accountable, Transparent & Evidence-
Informed

Key Initiatives and Areas of Focus:

Accountable Transparent Performance Measurement Strategy

Evidence-Informed
Expected Results:
• System level indicators that measure Ontario against
international benchmarks
• Colleges develop transparency measures
• Increased transparency in the health care system
• Publicly report on progress and compare to other
jurisdictions
Reporting Requirements
• Make transparency a priority objective
• Resident quality inspections in Long-Term Care
Homes
Open Data
• Make health data publicly available (where
appropriate)
Quality of Care Information Protection Act
• Review the interpretation and implementation
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 MOHLTC Health Research Strategy
The ministry’s Health Research Strategy aims to ensure an innovative research environment where evidence
informs policy development and decision making by supporting and sustaining local research capacity.

The strategy maximizes:

• IMPACT by aligning funding with health system

strategic priorities.
Quality
• KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION by linking researchers Health
and decision-makers Care

• CAPACITY by attracting, developing and retaining

Translation
Exchange and
Knowledge
world-class health research professionals.

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 Health System Research Fund (HSRF)
The HSRF was designed to generate policy-relevant evidence that drives decision-making
for policy priorities aimed at improving the health system and patient outcomes.
Better
Generating
Patient
Evidence
Outcomes

Health System
Improved Research Fund Building
Health
Capacity
System

Supporting
Priorities
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 HSRF Funding Streams
The HSRF is designed to offer a range of opportunities to researchers and teams across the province.
The cornerstones of the HSRF are research excellence and policy relevance.

Three main streams of support form the foundation of the fund.*

Program Awards
Purpose: To promote collaboration and
to support research and/or knowledge
translation and exchange (KTE) that
will have an impact within 3 year
timeframe
Details: Three-year investments in
large, multi-faceted programs of health
research and/or KTE
Capacity Awards
Purpose: To broker partnerships across
health research funders and increase
funding opportunities for Ontario
researchers
Details: Small grant amounts for a large
number of researchers and students
Specialized Research
Centres
Purpose: To provide long-standing
funding to specialized research
centres/foundations
Details: Funding for the Institute for
Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES), the
Ontario Mental Health Foundation
(OMHF) and the Women’s College
Hospital Women’s Xchange

* HSRF funding may also be administered through calls for targeted research to ensure ministry priorities are addressed.
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 What makes the HSRF Program Awards Unique?

1. Policy relevant and

high impact research

Improved health
system

HSRF Program
Awards

3. Local research Better patient

capacity outcomes

2. Closing the
“knowledge to action” Sustainability
gap
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 Key Features of the 2016/17 HSRF Program Awards
1. Identified priorities and cross-cutting components

2. Proposed measures and evaluation of expected impacts of

the program

3. Strong collaborations, especially with Knowledge Users and

patients (individuals, groups, or organizations)

4. Strategies for obtaining/maximizing leveraged funding

5. Data sharing
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1. Identified priorities and cross-cutting components ensure funded research/KTE programs
are aligned with evolving policy priorities
2016/17 Strategic Priority Research Areas and Cross-Cutting Components

Priority Area Cross-Cutting Components

Community and Home-Based Care

Equity
Health Promotion
Health System Performance and
Sustainability Aboriginal Health

Mental Health and Addictions

Patient-Centred Care
Quality Improvement and Safety
Implementation Science
Long-Term Care

*See Appendix for definitions for priority research areas and cross-cutting components
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2. Identifying measures and evaluation of expected impacts of the program
will be required

Measuring and evaluating

outcomes

What are the potential outcomes

Who will be impacted?

How will they be impacted?

What is the level of impact?

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3. Stronger collaborations, especially with Knowledge Users and patients will
be encouraged

• A confirmed Knowledge User (KU) in the NOI is

now required.
Knowledge HQO, PHO,
CCO, and
Users eHO
• Identification of how KUs and patients are
involved in research design/ methodology and KTE
plan.

• Criteria assessing comprehensiveness of the HSRF

Other
Researchers Program
network/centre/team will include involvement Awards
collaborators
and role of KUs/patients in activities.

• Patient Reviewers will assess applications prior to

the Scientific Review Panel.

• Collaborations with Health Quality Ontario, Public Patients

Health Ontario, Cancer Care Ontario, and eHealth
Ontario, when applicable, are strongly
encouraged.

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4. Strategies for obtaining/maximizing leveraged funding

Leveraged funding
(cash/in-kind)
• Access to more resources
• Augment budgets
• Increase collaborations & partnerships
• Reduce duplication of work

Leveraged funding promotes the sustainability of the HSRF Program Awards by

maximizing its impacts and capitalizing on other funding resources
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 5. Encourage data sharing
Data sharing will leverage and maximize the impact, productivity, and
return on investment of data collected under HSRF funding. It will
promote data that is:

Accessible

Reusable

Lower
Cost
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 Defining Success
A successful research award will have a broad range of impacts and does not end with a publication.

Research Productivity Strategic Value

- Publications
- Social media statistics
- Knowledge products
- Applied Health Research Questions
(AHRQs)
-Influenced behaviour?
- Demonstrable impact on the system?
- Influenced a program or policy
process?

Productivity
and Impact

Knowledge Translation and Capacity Building

Exchange - Leveraged funding
- Collaborations - Human resources
- Knowledge User Engagement - Capacity building activities
- AHRQs

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For more information

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 Appendix
Definitions for Priority Areas
• Community- and Home -Based Care: This priority focuses on how to improve and integrate health care services
provided outside of the acute or long-term setting (e.g. hospitals, long-term care homes). Community and
home-based care is a core feature of the “connect” component of the 2015 Patients First: Action Plan for Health
Care. This emphasis of the redesign of the community and home care sector is also reiterated in the 2014
Mandate Letter: Health and Long-Term Care and the 2014 Ontario Budget.

• Health Promotion: This priority focuses on keeping Ontarians healthy through initiatives that prevent illness and
promote wellness while addressing the social determinants of health. Current key focus areas are population
health initiatives that address: childhood obesity, chronic disease prevention, tobacco use, mental health
promotion, and supportive environments for healthy choices. Health promotion is identified in the ministry’s
2014 Mandate Letter and 2014 Ontario Budget. Keeping Ontario Healthy is a core component of the 2015
Patients First: Action Plan for Health Care and 2012 Ontario’s Action Plan for Health Care.

• Health System Performance and Sustainability: This priority focuses on system governance, performance
management and innovative funding mechanisms. Ontario’s Health System Funding Reform (both funding
reform and integration of primary, secondary, and tertiary care) and system integration (including Health Links
and Mental Health and Addictions Service Collaboratives) are key ministry legislation/commitments aimed at
improving system performance and sustainability.

6/26/2015 PRAB 23
 Appendix
Definitions for Priority Areas
• Mental Health and Addictions: This priority focuses on an integrated system of coordinated and effective
mental health and addictions services in Ontario. An example of a government initiative focused on this priority
is Ontario’s 2011 Open Minds, Healthy Minds: Ontario’s Comprehensive Mental Health and Addictions Strategy,
which is a 10-year strategy to deliver MHA services to Ontarians. The recently launched second phase of the
MHA Strategy focuses on five strategic pillars for action and builds on work already underway to transform the
delivery of mental health services to children and youth.

• Quality Improvement and Safety: This priority looks at research focused on assessing and improving outcomes
at the patient, provider, and system level. Quality, and its continuous improvement, is a central principle of the
Excellent Care for All Strategy. Quality Improvements Plans and Health Quality Ontario, the lead agency
responsible for driving continuous quality improvements across the system, are examples of this commitment.

• Long-Term Care: This priority looks at research focused on the services (medical and non-medical) provided to
individuals with a chronic illness or disability who cannot care for themselves for an extended period of time.
Palliative care and home care are included. As part of Ontario’s Transformation Agenda for health care, the
Community Health Links initiative is an example of this focus on integration for those with long-term care needs.

6/26/2015 PRAB 24
 Appendix
Definitions for Cross-Cutting Components
• Equity: Incorporating a health equity lens involves an analysis of the differences in the quality of health and health care (e.g. health
outcomes, access) across different populations (e.g. race, ethnicity, linguistic, sexual orientation, socioeconomic). This analytical
framework places health in a broader context to identify root causes of health issues. For example, ongoing inter-ministerial
strategies and priorities identified in the ministry’s 2014 Mandate Letter would benefit from this type of evidence.

• Aboriginal Health: As part of a broader equity lens, this cross-cutting component involves the specific and distinctive health needs
of First Nations, Inuit, Métis, and urban Aboriginal communities in the research design. Aboriginal health was a strong focus in the
2014 Ontario Budget and identified as a priority in the 2014 Mandate Letter: Health and Long-Term Care.

• Patient-Centred Care: Incorporating a patient-centred care approach involves a consideration of the elements of patient-centred
care into the program including: respect for patients’ values, preferences, and expressed needs; coordination and integration of
care; information, communication and education; physical comfort; emotional support and alleviation of fear and anxiety;
involvement of family and friends; transition and continuity. Not only is a patient-centred care a strong focus identified in Ontario’s
Transformation Agenda and 2014 Ontario Budget, but it is a core feature of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Strategy for
Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR), a key source of leveraged funding for Ontario researchers. These principles are based on the
Picker Principles of Patient Centred Care.

• Implementation Science: The research/KTE program would include an analysis of the barriers and facilitators that influence the
successful implementation of effective interventions in “real world” settings (e.g. factors affecting implementation, the processes of
implementation, how to promote the large scale use and sustainability of a particular intervention, etc.). Identified as a critical gap
in health services/system and population health research and KTE, this analytical framework ensures a focus on putting “knowledge
to action” and therefore, maximizing the practical benefits of ministry investments.

6/26/2015 PRAB 25