Welcome to the Spring 2011 newsletter of the School of Rehabilitation Science (SRS) at McMaster University.

I am delighted to welcome you to the first edition of our newsletter for 2011 in my new role as Associate Dean for the School of Rehabilitation Science. As a long time faculty member within the School, I am proud of how much we have grown over the past 20 years. The vision of our early leaders, and commitment and dedication of our faculty, staff and community ,have resulted in outstanding and innovative educational programs and groundbreaking interdisciplinary research. I would like to acknowledge the contributions of Dr. Mary Law over the past 10 years whose leadership propelled us to where we are today. I invite you can take a few moments to update yourself on current happenings within the School.

Remember to stay connected and share your recent activities (including photos) with us.

As always, we welcome your feedback and stories – please send them to kravcht@mcmaster.ca .

Patty Solomon

SRS Newsletter Winter 2011

We've Expanded:

Through funding provided by the Faculty of Health Sciences attributed to our increase in graduate students the School of Rehabilitation Science has been able to develop new space and renovate existing space to maximize our research and educational activities.

In the IAHS building, the atriums in the west and south wings have been filled in to provide research offices, small classrooms, break out labs (pictured below), tutorial rooms and a student resource area.

The RS Graduate student office has been expanded allowing us to increase the number of desks to 36 (pictured below) in order to accommodate our growing RS programs complement of PhD and RS Masters students.

Existing classrooms have been renovated by adding retractable wall systems thus enabling greater flexibility in use, upgrades to audiovisual equipment and the planned installation of audio /video projection systems that will allow instructors to film either one on one or in groups and display on monitors in classrooms.

The SRS has also been awarded space in the newly renovated Communication Research Laboratory (CRL) building. There are 2 dry lab areas, a research office accommodating 8 researchers and an interview room.

2010 Fall Basmajian Award Winner:

The Basmajian awards are given to support travel to scientific meetings for research that contributes to the field of rehabilitation. These awards are presented twice a year.

Following are the Fall 2010 Recipients:

Anita Gross, MSc, SRS: Basmajian Travel Award where she presented at the International World Congress on Pain in Montreal, Canada in September 2010, where there were three posters related to treatment of neck pain that were presented.

Monica Maly: Presented 2 research papers at the International Society for Electrophysiology and Kinesiology in Aalborg Denmark in June 2010. Her oral presentation focused on describing the validity of a measure of cumulative knee loads and her poster presentation highlighted that elevated fatigability of hamstrings muscles may be a risk factor for knee osteoarthritis. This trip was a fantastic opportunity to network with researchers from all over the world, and visit beautiful cottage country in Denmark.

Oren Cheifetz, PhD student, SRS: Canadian Physiotherapy Association Congress, St. John's Newfound Land, July 2010.  Presented two sessions: “Developing and implementing an exercise program for people with cancer”,  and “CanWell: A community partnership to deliver exercise programming for people with cancer” (presented with Dr, Linda Woodhouse). 

Saurabh Mehta, PhD student, SRS: 8th Triennial Congress of the International Federation for the Societies of Hand Therapists in Orlando, Florida in June 2010, presented a paper entitled: “Psychometric Properties of the Hindi version of the Patient-rated Wrist Evaluation”.

SRS Student Activities:

McMaster's Rehabilitation Science Student's Association has been busy this academic year planning events for faculty and students alike! Several committees have spent the last few months organizing events that we look forward to for late spring. The events include the RSA Job Fair, Charity Ball, and the Helen Saarinen Fun Run! The RSA Job Fair is a coveted experience; students meet employers offering job opportunities to graduates across Ontario and even internationally. The annual Fun Run is organized in honour of Helen Saarinen, a former physiotherapy faculty member who battled cancer. The Fun Run is our way of showing spirit and camaraderie as we come together as a community for a great cause. Keep your ears open for our associated lectureship in the Fall where we acknowledge and learn from an individual who has contributed to the profession of physiotherapy and embodies the admirable qualities of Helen Saarinen. Lastly, Charity Ball is a night of glitz and glamour! In the 2009-2010 academic year, over $8,000 was raised in support of Camp Trillium and this year we would love your attendance as we dine, dance, and raise awareness for Neuromuscular and Mitochondrial Disease Clinic of the McMaster Children's Hospital on May 27th, 2011 . Don't forget to buy a raffle ticket for great prize packages as well! The prizes will be on display and tickets will be available for purchase on the ground floor in IAHS in May! Contact the Charity Ball Committee (via the RSA's online member roster) for more information. Thank you for your lasting support and participation in all RSA events! We hope to see YOU out at our next event! Stay tuned for more information!

Some of our SRS Retiree Activities

Muriel Westmorland:

Muriel was appointed Chair of the new Veterans Affairs Advisory Council for Canada last year and discussions are underway to set up this grouping of academics, clinicians and veterans associations. Muriel continues to serve on the North Hamilton Community Centre Board and will become the Board Secretary this year - the new building and location will be officially opened in February and Muriel is excited about the new digs! This Centre really does focus on population health and has McMaster Graduates as its Occupational Therapists!

Muriel continues her work with Zonta Club of Hamilton II and chairs the Organization Committee for the Board as well as duties on fund raising committees and special projects such as last year's Birthing Kit Assembly project that produced nearly 1,000 birthing kits for Ghanian women who need a safer more healthy way to give birth. Other than that Muriel continues to travel and stay with friends around the world as well as having visitors from these countries- Amsterdam, UK, Australia, Spain.

SRS Faculty Activities

Sandra Moll:

On September 3 rd Sandra Moll successfully defended her PhD thesis entitled, “Mental Health Issues and Work: Institutional Practices of Silence in a Mental Healthcare Organization.” The aim of Sandra's work is to explain the social and institutional forces shaping the experiences of mental health care workers who have experienced mental health or addiction issues. Sandra studied under Dr Joan Eakin and Dr Carol Strike at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto as well as Dr Renee Louise Franche from Simon Fraser University.

Bonny Jung:

On September 20 th Bonny Jung successfully defended her dissertation at the University of Western Ontario, School of Graduate and Postgraduate Education.  The title of her dissertation is the “The Professional Master's Occupational Therapist:  Developing an Emerging Professional Identity”.  The aim of Bonny's work is to address the questions, 1) What does it mean to be a professional as an occupational therapist? and 2) How do professional identities emerge for the professional master's entry-level occupational therapist? The findings indicate that professional identity is a complex construct that involves the integration and negotiation of multiple identities and that reflection is the threaded skill that helps novice occupational therapists make sense of their experiences within their multiple identities—from a Feng Shui perspective and from a praxis perspective. Themes that emerged related to professional master's entry-level occupational therapists are: dissonance in identities; client-centred focus; access to higher education; power in practice and; potential career and educational paths of applicants.

Rebecca Gewurtz:

On November 29 th 2011 Rebecca Gewurtz successfully defended her doctoral thesis entitled: “Instituting Market-based Principles within Social Services for People Living with Mental Illness: The Case of the Revised ODSP Employment Supports Policy” The purpose of Rebecca's work was to consider how public policies are constructed and implemented for marginalized group and to increase understanding of the consequences of policy reform on service delivery. It drew on a case study of the employment supports branch of the Ontario Disability Support Program and its implementation in the mental health sector. The findings highlight the impact of outcome-based funding on employment services and practices, and the introduction of market principles within social services. Although ODSP-ES has been somewhat successful at connecting people with disabilities to competitive employment, it has led to secondary consequences that compromise its overall utility. The findings highlight the complexity of constructing and implementing public policy for marginalized groups and that evaluating public policy is an interpretative exercise that should be explored from multiple perspectives beyond the stated objectives.

Sue Baptiste:

Best wishes to Sue Baptiste in her role as the President of the Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists for 2010-2012. Sue is continuing her involvement in the MScOT program during Term 1 as well as for some additional sessions throughout the year. Also, she is maintaining her research program as much as possible. Despite a great deal of travel ahead, Sue has stated that she is very grateful for the knowledge that she has two safe havens to which she can retreat when needed - home with family and Room #415 in the SRS with good colleagues!

Anita Gross:

Anita Gross, MSC, SRS was an invited speaker at the “WHIPLASH 2011: How do we lessen the transition to chronicity?” forum and symposia in Brisbaine, Australia, in February 2011 where an international 3-day discussions on the areas of divergence and convergence of opinion in this field will occur followed by a two day symposia.  In this way a map forward for research, theoretical development and refinement of clinical approaches will be developed.

Michael Pierrynowski:

The link below will take you to a newspaper article in The Hamilton Spectator in which Michael Pierrynowski was featured entitled Feeling the ground, an article about foot care for runners   http://www.thespec.com/living/healthfitness/article/252901--feeling-the-ground

Carol DeMatteo:

NeuroMatters and in Parents magazine have featured Carol DeMatteo's work on concussion .

Concussion is a big and controversial topic in the public forum these days with all the sports injuries in the news. What Carol and team are saying is that a concussion is a brain injury and needs to be respected as such. Prevention of further injury is of major concern. If a child goes back to a sport too soon after the brain injury (concussion), then he or she is twice as likely to get another similar injury and then they can really be in trouble.

Sandra Moll:

Sandra Moll and Rev. Kristine O'Brien were honoured by the Canadian Church Press for their knowledge translation article entitled "Breaking the Silence: the mental health of our clergy". Their 2009 article in the Presbyterian Record took first place in both Features and Service Journalism categories and the prestigious A.C. Forrest Memorial Award for excellence in socially conscious religious journalism.  There have been requests for reprints and translations from many churches around the world.  If you haven't read this article about clergy and mental health, visit ww.presbyterianrecord.ca/2009/02/01/breaking-the-silence

CanChild

CanChild investigators Robert Palisano and Dianne Russell were invited “down under” as key note speakers for the Spot on Developmental Disability Conference in Sydney, Australia in September 2010. In addition to running a pre-conference workshop on knowledge translation, Dianne spoke about the success of CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability in a talk entitled Clinical Research in Childhood Disability: Lessons Learned from a 20 year Partnership with Families, Service Providers and Government. Dr. Palisano's key note talk was on Collaborative models of service delivery: Integrating research and practice knowledge.

John Cairney, PhD is invited to share important CanChild research results for the Public Health Agency of Canada.  Children with significant coordination difficulties are more likely to be physically inactive and are at increased risk of obesity.

Peter Rosenbaum, MD, FRCP(C), Professor of Paediatrics, McMaster University, Canada Research Chair in Childhood Disability, Mentoring and Dissemination, Co-Founder, CanChild Centre for Childhood Disability Research, Director, McMaster Child Health Research Institute was invited to speak about pediatric neurological conditions and make recommendations for the federal role in this area to the House of Commons subcommittee on neurological diseases in Ottawa.

Recent Student Awards and Announcements

First PhD to graduate

Mary Forhan has the honour of being the first PhD to graduate from the Rehabilitation Science program. Supervisor was Mary Law along with the team of Brenda Vrkljan and Valerie Taylor, a Professor from the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences.

The title of her thesis is “The impact of class III obesity on participation in the occupations of everyday living for adults seeking treatment for obesity”. The overall aim of the project was to describe what it is like to live with obesity in the context of everyday living and to identify factors associated with satisfaction with participation in the occupations of everyday living. The results of her study have been published in the Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy and the Occupational Therapy Journal of Research, Occupation, Participation and Health. She has also presented the results at conferences including the Obesity Society, Canadian Association of Occupational Therapists and the American Occupational Therapy Association. Mary plans to participate in post-doctoral training programs and start a program of research in the area of obesity and rehabilitation.

Manraj Kaur, PT, MSc Student 

Congratulations to Manraj Kaur on receiving CIHR Musculoskeletal Pain Graduate Scholarship for Masters Student at School of Rehabilitation Science. Manraj is a Physiotherapist and the focus of her research is on developing a pre-operative outcome protocol to predict chronic pain following unilateral total knee replacement. She is supervised by Dr. Linda Woodhouse and her committee members are Dr. Joy MacDermid and Prof. Paul Stratford.

Lubna Daraz, PhD Candidate, SRS: The Dean's Award for Graduate Student Knowledge Translation and Innovation

This award was recognized for Lubna Daraz's work on developing an innovative Knowledge Translation tool (Information Brochure) for use by the lay public to help them determine higher quality information from the web. This tool was developed using KT principles to confirm its optimal impact on society, culture and for the economy. Currently, the information brochure is being used by organizations such as the Injured Workers Online, Institute for Work and Health, the IWC library, healthcare unit at Hamilton health sciences and attendees from the Cochrane Symposium in Montreal, summer 2010. The information is also being used in workshops for clinicians both locally and at the Philadelphia Hand Meeting to help them to be prepared to work with their clients to effectively using web information. The publication of the paper and brochure at the IEEE Xplore will also enhance the impact on various audiences.

A certificate and $250 presented to Lubna at the 14 th Annual Graduate Recognition Day on October 4 th , 2010.

Susan Strong

Susan Strong received COTF research grant for $5,000.00 for a project entitled “Enabling the health literacy of clients during specialized mental health services:  Clinicians' experiences and perspectives.” She leads the team of Seanne Wilkins and Lori Letts .

Heather Colquhoun, PhD candidate, SRS:

Heather has received a KT Canada Post-doctoral Fellowship research award. This one time award of $36,750 is part of a Strategic Training in Health Research (STIHR) grant that is designed to be a internationally-recognized national training initiative to enhance capacity in KT and KT research. The award will support Heather as a KT Canada trainee, allowing her access to multiple courses on systematic reviews and developing pragmatic trials as well as be eligible for KT Canada research grants and attendance at the KT Canada Summer Institute in KT.

Heather received funding for a CIHR Meetings, Planning, and Dissemination (MPD) grant ( Cornelissen, E., Urquhart, R., Richmond, S., Colquhoun, H ., Deforge, R., Emberly, D., & Witteman, H.) The $24,997 grant will support Heather's work as a founding member of a Knowledge Translation Trainee Collaborative (KTTC). Inaugurated in March 2010, the KTTC is a self-initiated, national collaborative of KT trainees. Its mandate is to facilitate collaborative learning and work, networking, and professional development among the next generation of KT researchers and practitioners. The grant will boost the momentum of this group by enabling a second face-to-face meeting focused on planning and sustainability

Additionally, Heather received a Faculty of Health Sciences Teaching Assistant Excellence Award (awarded to an individual who exhibits excellence in teaching assistant roles); a KT Canada travel award, $600.00, enabling attendance at the 2010 KT Canada Summer Institute; an Institute of Health Services and Policy Research travel award, $936.00, enabling attendance at Knowledge Translation 2010: Improving health care and health systems through knowledge translation (KT10).

Oren Cheifetz, PhD student, SRS

Oren Cheifetz has been awarded the Cancer Care Ontario and Canadian Cancer Society Innovation Award for development and implementation of CanWell, a community based exercise and education program for people with cancer.  Team members include Dr. Linda Woodhouse, Jan Park Dorsay (Nurse Practitioner, Hamilton Health Sciences), and Genevieve Hladysh (Community Programs manager, YMCA).

Nora Fayed, PhD candidate

Nora Fayed has received a $15,000 award for the Ontario Graduate Scholarship for the year Sept 2010-Aug 2011. She hopes to be finishing her thesis: Content of Health and QOL Instruments for Children and Youth, with Peter Rosenbaum as supervisor, in the summer of 2011.

Amanda Lorbergs

Amanda Lorbergs received the Douglas C. Russell Memorial Scholarship upon entrance to the RS doctoral program in FHS in Sept 2010 and was recently accepted into JUMP - A CIHR training program in musculoskeletal health research and leadership.

Carri Hand

Carri Hand received a $5000 grant from COTF in July 2010 for a critical literature review. It will be a meta-synthesis of qualitative literature regarding adults with chronic conditions.

Danielle Levac

Danielle Levac received the Anne Hall Memorial Prize from the School of Graduate Studies and a CIHR Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health Travel Award for Students and Post Doctoral Fellows to support travel to conferences to present her graduate work in 2010.

Lisa Rivard

Congratulations to Lisa Rivard on receiving an Ontario Graduate Scholarship and a McMaster Child Health Research Institute Fellow Award for her doctoral studies in the School of Rehabilitation Sciences. Lisa is a physiotherapist and the focus of her research is on investigating motor learning processes in children with developmental coordination disorder. She is supervised by Dr. Cheryl Missiuna and her committee members are Dr. Laurie Wishart and Dr. Tim Lee.

Kathryn Sinden

Kathryn Sinden has been awarded a CN Graduate Scholarship in Rehabilitation Science (awarded to graduate students conducting research in prevention of work-related injuries)   and has also been accepted as a CIHR PhD Graduate Fellow in Musculoskeletal Health Research Program through the Joint Motion Program.

Susan Guenther

Congratulations to Susan Guenther on being awarded the CIHR Frederick Banting and Charles Best CGS Doctoral Award. Susan is interested in researching perspectives and attitudes on disability and rehabilitation, which includes how rehabilitation professionals can partner with participants and disability experts in research and teaching. She worked as an occupational therapist in the pediatric setting, her main clinical interests in how youths and young adults with disabilities transition into adulthood. She began her PhD studies in the Rehabilitation Science program in September 2008. Susan is supervised by Dr. Peter Rosenbaum with Dr. Seanne Wilkins and Prof Deb Stewart as supervisory committee members. 

Sarah Wojkowski

Sarah Wojkowski has recently been accepted in to start at Ontario Training Centre in Health Services and Policy Research (OTC). This is a consortium of six Ontario universities that offers graduate training leading to a Diploma in Health Services and Policy Research at Lakehead, Laurentian, McMaster, Ottawa, and York universities -the OTC is Funded primarily by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). See article at the end of this newsletter about the centre.

Sarah was also awarded a student stipend as part of this acceptance Her work within the OTC will include a policy and research practicum as well as participation at a summer institute. Her supervisor for the program is Dr Kevin Brazil and Julie Richardson is her committee supervisor and Dr Michael Boyle is on her committee.

Here is the link to learn more about the OTC if you need anything else http://www.otc-hsr.ca/

Briano DiRezze

Has won two recent awards: Autism Research Training (ART) Program Fellowship, A CIHR Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research (STIHR), $20,000 (one year), and Autism Ontario Stimulus Grant 2010 for graduate work in ASD research, $4,000.

Both scholarships were to support my work in the early stages of the development of a functional classification system in autism spectrum disorder.

Leila Amin, MScOT, Rehab Science Graduate Student

Congratulations to Leila Amin on being award the Invacare Master's Scholarship valued at $ 2000 from the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation 2010-2011 awards competition. Leila graduated from the MScOT program in 2009 and is currently pursuing research in the area of pediatric oncology with a focus on survivorship. As part of her thesis project she is working to develop a “Transition Readiness” questionnaire for use with childhood cancer survivors. She is an advocate for the role of OT on mainstream pediatric oncology teams and hopes to use the evidence she generates from her thesis to further develop the role of OT in survivorship care. She is supervised by Dr. Anne Klassen with Dr. Ronnie Barr, Dr. Peter Rosenbaum and Prof. Carol DeMatteo on her committee.

Recent Faculty Awards

Norma MacIntyre was awarded the CIHR Randomized Controlled Trials: Mentoring

Program for the next two years.  This will allow her to concentrate on her project entitled, “The Design and Planning of a Randomized Controlled Trial to Compare Two Methods of Administering Low Intensity Therapeutic Ultrasound on Pain, Physical Function, and Cartilage Repair in Patients with Mild and Moderate Knee Osteoarthritis.”

SRS Announcements

Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety

SRS has been the administrative home for the Diploma in Occupational Health and Safety for the past few years. Funding for this program, provided by WSIB, was not renewed for 2010 so the program did not run in fall 2010. Sandra Moll, who taught in the program, conducted a review to determine the feasibility of continuing the program with a renewed curriculum. Part of this review process includes exploration of whether an online format would be a feasible method of instruction for this program.

 Masters in Health Management Program

The Masters in Health Management Program has enrolled its first cohort of students and applications for the second cohort are in full swing. The program is overseen by an Executive Committee which includes Mary Law (SRS) and Patricia Wakefield (DeGroote School of Business) as the co-directors of the program.  Executive Committee members are Lynne Geddes (SRS) and Glen Randal (DGB). Nancy Plews, Salina Jaffer and Laura Jakubczyk provide management and support to the program.   Mary Forhan has been hired into a part-time position as the Program Coordinator. The Master of Health Management program is an on-line graduate program designed for regulated health professionals who want to earn a graduate degree while advancing their career. For more details please visit the program website www.machealthmanagement.com

Recent Research Grants

Congratulations to Sue Baptiste, Co-PI with Claudia von Zweck (CAOT) and the OTepp team who have been awarded $2.1 million from 2010 – 2012 by the Foreign Credential Recognition Program (FCRP) of HRSDC to offer OTepp across the country and to offshore participants. The curriculum will also be translated into French.  Elizabeth Steggles will manage the national initiative and Leah Dix will manage the Ontario initiative.  Congratulations to the entire OTepp team!

Congratulations to Patty Solomon, Ahmed Bayoumi, Geoff Norman and Kelly O-Brien who recently received a CIHR Operating Grant titled Assessing the Measurement Properties of an Instrument to Describe Disability Experienced by Adults Living with HIV. Well done. : The purpose of this study is to assess the reliability and validity of a newly developed self-administered instrument, called the HIV Disability Questionnaire (HDQ). The team is working with Community Collaborators in Hamilton and Toronto and is currently undergoing data collection. Results will yield the first HIV-specific instrument to describe the presence, severity and episodic nature of disability experienced by adults living with HIV. $190,287 total (2 years)

Joy MacDermid and Mary Law, along with co-investigators David Buckley and Robert Haynes, have received funding for their operating grant application entitled, “Musculoskeletal Health, Arthritis, Skin and Oral Health.  This funding is for one year.

The Partnering for Change research team just received an end-of-grant knowledge translation award from CIHR in order to: 1) develop resources to support policy and decision-makers in disseminating information to their sectors about this new service delivery model; and 2) develop online educational modules for rehabilitation professionals in OT and PT who want to learn to deliver this service in school-based settings. Congratulations to the successful investigative team of Missiuna, C., Pollock, N., Bennett, S., Gaines, R., Hecimovich, C., Rosenbaum, P., Cairney, J., Campbell, W., & Levac, D. Advancing an innovative model of service delivery: Partnering to promote knowledge exchange . Funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), $39,971, 2010-2011.

McMaster did very well in the OT and PT Foundation competitions this year. Congratulations to all who received awards and research funding in these competitions!

From the Canadian Occupational Therapy Foundation:

• Rebecca Gewurtz along with Sandra Moll, Terry Krupa and Mary law received a COTF research grant for a project titled: The Canadian Guide to Occupation, Health and Well-being: Consulting with Stakeholders
• Susan Strong, a PhD student supervised by Seanne Wilkins, received a research grant with Seanne Wilkins and Lori Letts for a project titled: Enabling the health literacy of clients during specialty mental health services: Clinicians' experiences and perspectives
• Carri Hand, PhD student, supervised by Mary Law, is leading a research grant with Seanne Wilkins, Lori Letts and Mary Law, focused on the influence of Senior Centres on participation in life activities

From the Physiotherapy Foundation of Canada:

• Lisa Carlesso , a PhD student supervised by Joy MacDermid, received funding for her project: Cervical Manual Therapy and Adverse Events: Assessing the risk amongst a cohort of orthopaedic manual physiotherapists.
• Monica Maly received funding for her project with Valerie Taylor entitled: Physiotherapy's role in Improving Bariatric Surgery Outcomes
• Pat Miller received funding for a research project entitled: The experiences of homecare physiotherapists working with elderly clients to prevent falls

Research Updates

Providing the people Hamilton Health Sciences serve with the best care in the right place, is the driving force behind the Access to Best Care (ABC). By furthering the development of Centres of Excellence , they will provide better care for the patients, leverage the knowledge and experience and create a sustainable system for the future. Hamilton is fortunate to have many great health care services and facilities. Access to the Best Care is enabling HHS to make some crucial changes that will strengthen the

local and regional health care systems so they are sustainable over time.

They are working to further refine the role of the hospital sites to ensure the best outcomes for patients, optimal use of resources and better access to care - The Right Place for the Best Care .

Through the family of six unique hospitals and cancer centre, they are able to offer a complete range of acute and specialized health care services. Whether caring for children at McMaster Children's Hospital, providing cancer care at the Juravinski Hospital and Cancer Centre, or cardiac or stroke care at Hamilton General Hospital, Hamilton Health Sciences prides itself on helping people of all ages access the care they need when they need it most.

Ontario Training Center in Health Services and Policy Research (OTC :

The Ontario Training Center in Health Services and Policy Research (OTC) is funded primarily by the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), and is a consortium of six Ontario universities that offers graduate training leading to a Diploma in Health Services and Policy Research at Lakehead, Laurentian, McMaster, Ottawa, and York universities.

The Diploma in Health Services and Policy Research is a competency-based program focusing on the following five areas: 1) Understanding the Canadian Health Care System, 2) Ability to carry out health services research, 3) Understanding theories regarding how the health of populations is produced, 4) Understanding theories of health and health services knowledge production, and 5) knowledge exchange and development of research partnerships. Students are also required to complete health policy and health services research practicum as part of the program.

Launched in July 2002, the OTC has been successfully operating for eight years.  In 2010 the backgrounds of the students who were accepted included master of nursing and social work and doctoral students in nursing, anthropology, health sciences. There were 3 students accepted from McMaster for 2010 to the OTC. Sarah Wojkowski was the only rehabilitation sciences student in the 2010 cohort from any university and received a student stipend of $15,000.

As part of the program the students are assigned a mentor who assists with the creation of their learning plan and selection of their practicum. Sarah's mentor for the program is Dr Kevin Brazil. She will also be attending the summer institute at Laurentian University in early June 2011 where she will have the opportunity to interact with experts in health policy during a one week intensive learning session on one health policy topic.

Applications are typically due in the spring, but students can contact Miguel Perez (the site director for McMaster) at mperez@mcmaster.ca for the details of this year's application deadlines. The applications are considered based on the following: enrolment in a designated graduate program, academic excellence, and aptitude for health services research and a career plan.

For more information you can review the OTC web site at: //fhs.mcmaster.ca/otc-hsr/aboutus/regional.htm