Watch a 5 minute interview with Anne Snowdon, Chair of Ivey’s International Centre for Health Innovation, discussing her new white paper, “Strengthening Health Systems Through Innovation: Lessons Learned”.
Although every developed country in the world has health care challenges, Canada lags behind some of its OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) counterparts when it comes to quality and outcomes of health services.
Anne Snowdon, Chair of the Centre, presented three recommendations geared to ease pressure on Canada’s health-care systems from her new white paper,
“Strengthening Health Systems Through Innovation: Lessons Learned,” on November 28 at the
Ivey Global Health Conference 2011.
The recommendations include shifting power from health-care providers to consumers so consumers can manage their health using health-care providers as mentors; moving from acute-care to community-based systems to manage and prevent chronic illness; and creating a national strategy to support health system innovation.
“We must move from a highly ‘prescriptive’ approach to one more centred on consumers so that they’re in control of their health and wellness goals,” she said. “Innovation adoption will also be critical for sustaining our health-care system through the 21st century.”
Snowdon’s research compares Canada’s health care progress with seven OECD countries – U.K., Australia, Germany, Netherlands, France, Switzerland and the U.S. – and reveals lessons learned from them.
While no system is perfect, she cites that other countries have improved health care by integrating health services and engaging consumers in health management.
The Centre’s Global Health Conference, held Nov. 28-29 in Toronto, brought together health-care providers and administrators, policymakers and business leaders to address pressures on health-care systems.
