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Knowledge Translation at the Canadian Institutes of Health Research

About the Presenters

Ms. Liz Stirling works for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research in the Knowledge Translation Branch. In her current position, Ms. Stirling is working on the implementation of the CIHR’s five-year strategic plan in knowledge translation. She was a member of NIDRR's Knowledge Translation Planning Panel in June 2005. Trained as an occupational therapist, Ms. Stirling earned both a BSc and a Masters in Health Science (Health Administration) from the University of Toronto. She worked in spinal cord, stroke, and pediatric rehabilitation programs before completing her graduate degree and serving as the Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive Officer of a community hospital in downtown Toronto. Ms. Stirling has served as Legislative Assistant and Policy Advisor to the Ontario Minister of Health, and as Policy Advisor to the Ontario Chairman of Management Board. She worked for one of Canada’s largest teaching and research hospitals in Ottawa before joining CIHR. In 2004 Ms. Stirling worked on a secondment basis for the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.

Ms. Jacqueline Tetroe joined the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Knowledge Translation Branch, as a senior policy analyst in September, 2006. Prior to that, she was the Research Program Manager in the Clinical Epidemiology Program of the Ottawa Health Research Institute, working closely with Jeremy Grimshaw and Ian Graham, on their shared research agenda. This had a strong KT focus: on the process of research use and on strategies to increase implementation of evidence-based practice as well as to increase the understanding of the barriers and facilitators that impact on successful implementation. Specific projects relate to the development, implementation, quality appraisal, and uptake of clinical practice guidelines; a study of the KT policies and practices of 33 international applied health funding agencies; a study of the KT practices of applied health researchers in Canada; an environmental scan of KT centers, experts, research and practice in Canada; a synthesis of planned action change theories and the development of a users’ guide to these theories; a study examining the relative contribution of psychological theories to the understanding of practitioner behavior change and a process evaluation of a trial examining the effects of sending printed educational materials to general practitioners in Ontario. Her educational background is in cognitive psychology and education.