Transforming care for Canadians with chronic health conditions : Comment transformer les soins offerts aux canadiens souffrant de maladie chronique

The Canadian Institute of Academic Medicine played a leadership role in developing the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, ensuring the inclusion of the broad range of other health science disciplines. [...] The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences is modeled on the Institute of Medicine in the United States and provides timely, informed, and unbiased assessments of urgent issues affecting the health of Canadians. [...] The process of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences’ work is designed to assure appropriate expertise, the integration of the best science, and the avoidance of bias and conflict of interest, the latter being a frequent dynamic that confounds solutions to difficult problems in the health sector. [...] There is a boundless amount of research on individual aspects of how to improve care for people with chronic conditions and at the same time some of the ideas that are most compelling—such as multimorbidity, how to improve interfaces between the different aspects of the care continuum, or the right mix of reimbursement and incentives for healthcare providers in a publicly funded system—are still e [...] We recognize the healthcare system is only one contributor to the health of the population and it is also necessary to address the powerful social determinants of health to fully reduce health disparities (as demonstrated by the confluence of reports pointing in the same direction—for example, from the World Health Organization and the Conference Board of Canada).