Generating evidence to inform policy and practice
In alignment with the legislated mandate of the Health Quality Council Act, the Health Quality Council conducts research to generate evidence that impacts decisions, policies, and practices about the quality of health and health care in Saskatchewan. Where appropriate, we work with our partners to build skills to turn the evidence into action for improvement.
The Health Quality Council conducts research to shine a light on where quality of care can be improved as well as identify and evaluate improvements that should be shared in the system. A focus on the quality of the health care system is necessary, but also not sufficient, as optimal health is determined by more than the quality of the health care system. As such, the Health Quality Council is expanding its research to focus on the non-health factors that influence health outcomes; examining the impact of income, education, food insecurity, housing, job security, and discrimination.
In this section
How the Health Quality Council conducts health research
The Health Quality Council works with academic and clinician-researchers, patient partners, administrative decision-makers, policy-makers as well as communities to explore key questions that matter about health and health care quality of Saskatchewan residents. For more than a decade, our researchers and analysts have been designing measures, using large health databases and contributing advanced analytical skills to support health system research, monitoring, and evaluation. We are a dedicated resource in this province to conduct research, monitoring, and evaluation with an experienced team ready to support our partners and catalyze change.
We work with our partners in the scope of research work to co-create research questions, design projects, identify the data sources needed, contribute to the analysis and interpretation, as well as work with our partners to tell the story of what we have learned. To support this activity, we access large provincial health databases used for health system research. In addition, we identify other important sources of data to answer the questions, including data in the form of numbers or words that tell the experiences and stories. And if the data doesn’t exist, we co-design measures and processes with our partners to collect the data that is needed.
Although the Health Quality Council has been granted permission to access Saskatchewan’s large administrative health databases to support the work outlined in our mandate and our strategy, we are not a health data access centre and we only access these data for the purposes of our research collaborations.
How the Health Quality Council uses data for improvement
A key part of our collaborations is to share with and learn from our partners about the research process. We aim to build skills where relevant for partners who are interested to improve their ability to measure and analyze data and/or improve their uptake of knowledge produced by research.
More directly, the evidence we generate is to inform the clinicians, patients, administrative decision-makers, and policy-makers about areas to improve the health and health care in the province as well as areas where improvement is happening (and how we can learn from and spread these improvements to other areas of the province).
Current research partnerships
To view some of our current research partnerships, please visit our Other health research partnerships and collaborations page.
Examples of research collaborations
View some examples of research collaborations and projects that the Health Quality Council is currently working on or has recently worked on.
Past research publications
To view a list of recent research publications that the Health Quality Council has led or contributed towards, please visit our Reports, Tools and Publications page.
Research alignment opportunities
While the Health Quality Council conducts our own research activity, we are looking to partner on research activity in the province that aligns with our current strategy or activity that aligns with health system priorities.
If you or your organization has experience, expertise and interest in sectors such as Justice, Education, Social Services that encompass the areas of First Nations and Métis health and wellness and child and youth mental health and wellness, please contact us to further discuss research partnership opportunities.
Health research contact
To inquire about opportunities to collaborate on health research, please visit the contact us page for the most up-to-date contact information.
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