Speakers
Dr. Arlene Bierman is a general internist, geriatrician, and the inaugural holder of Echo’s Ontario Women’s Health Council Chair in Women’s Health; Associate Professor in the Lawrence F. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing; and of Health Policy, Evaluation, and Management; and Medicine at the University of Toronto; and a Senior Scientist in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael’s Hospital. She is the principal investigator for the POWER study (Project for an Ontario Women’s Health Evidence-Based Report Card www.powerstudy.ca) which through the collaboration of an interdisciplinary group investigators at is developing a report card to serve as tool to help policymakers and health care providers to improve the health of and reduce health inequities in Ontario.
Dr. Bierman is a member of the Ontario Health Quality Council and Chair of its Performance Measurement Advisory Board. She is also on the Board of Directors for National Centre of Excellence program and the National Initiative to Improve Care for the Elderly (NICE). Her research is directed at examining the impact of models service delivery and finance on access, quality, and health outcomes among older adults, with a special focus on low literacy and low income populations, and the unique needs of older women. Her work addresses the interface between health policy, access to care, primary care practice and health outcomes.
Details
Performance measurement and reporting can drive both health systems improvement and health equity. The Project for an Ontario Women’s Health Evidence-Based Report (POWER Study) is developing a tool for use to improve the health and well-being of, and reduce health inequities among, the women and men in Ontario. Using a rigorous modified Delphi process we selected a comprehensive set of evidence-based indicators measuring the burden of illness among Ontarians, access to health care, risk factors for chronic illness and disability, and quality and outcomes of care for the leading causes of morbidity and mortality including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and depression. Stakeholders from community organizations, government, and health care settings were instrumental in defining priority reporting areas. Indicators were measured using multiple data sources including survey data, administrative data, disease registry data, and vital statistics data. Indicators were first stratified by sex and then by income, education, and ethnicity as data source allowed to assess inequities and reported at the provincial level and then at the level of the Local Health Integration Networks. In reporting these indicators we identify opportunities for improvement, present objective evidence to inform priority setting, and provide a baseline from which to measure progress.