COVER

Key Facts

B.C. Centre

Prairie Centre

National Network

Montreal Centre

Maritime Centre

CWHN (Canadian Women's Health Network)

français

Spring 1999 Update

1997 Update

CWHN Main Page

Did you find what you are looking for? Feedback

Request a print copy of this report.

Centres of Excellence for Women's Health Program (CEWHP) Update Fall 1999

 Centres of Excellence for Women's Health Program * Update * Fall 1999

Opportunity Knocks

These days health most often tops the list of issues Canadians want the Government of Canada to focus on. And women are twice as likely as men to cite health as their top issue.

When the Minister of Health, Allan Rock, released Health Canada's Women's Health Strategy on International Women's Day, 1999, he observed:

In recent years, the need to enhance the sensitivity of the health system to women's health issues has gained increasing recognition. Also evident has been the need for more research, particularly on the links between women's health and their social and economic circumstances.

His statements are especially significant in light of the announcement in the February 1999 budget of the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR), a bold new vision for the way health research in Canada is conceptualized and funded. The CIHR, targeted to be officially up and running in spring of the Year 2000, consolidates and significantly expands funding for research formerly carried out with federal sponsorship, such as the Medical Research Council, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the National Research Council and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council.

The announcement of the CIHR has prompted an unprecedented level of discussion and debate in Canada on such issues as the place of social sciences and humanities in health research, the relationship between research and health policy, and how to build bridges between basic and biomedical sciences, social sciences and other disciplines. The Centres of Excellence for Women's Health and the Canadian Women's Health Network, along with other organizations and institutes concerned with women's health and research, have introduced to these discussions the importance of ensuring that the CIHR is attentive to issues of sex and gender. Some of their specific questions focus on:

• how a gender-based analysis can be applied throughout all offices and institutes comprising the CIHR;
• how to best pursue women's health research as a specialty;
• how the CIHR can enhance capacity and opportunities for women across communities and disciplines in health research; and
• how the CIHR can capitalize on and help to sustain existing networks of women's health researchers, such as the Centres of Excellence.

You can find out more about what the Centres and others are saying about these questions by checking the research pages of the CWHN web site www.cwhn.ca. Clearly these are exciting times for health research generally, and very opportune ones for securing the future of women's health research in Canada.

The Centres of Excellence for Women's Health produce policy-relevant research, and generally help to direct more attention to the vital health concerns of Canadian Women.

NEXT>>> Key Facts About the Centres of Excellence