Dr Charlyn Black has agreed to extend her five-year term as director of the UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research to the end of August 2007, at which point she will step down and take on a more active research role with the Centre.

Dr Morris Barer, CHSPR's founding director, will assume the Centre's directorship in an acting capacity effective September 1, 2007.

"I am thrilled to be able to continue to work with my colleagues at the Centre and look forward to advancing CHSPR’s research and data development agendas," said Black. "I’m also pleased that a leader of Morris’ experience and vision has agreed to take on the directorship on an interim basis."

"It's an exciting time to be returning to 'active duty' with the Centre," said Barer. "CHSPR has benefited immensely from Dr Black’s expertise, commitment and energy over the past five years. Though we continue to face challenges, there are also many opportunities going forward for the Centre to support evidence-informed health policy development, and to support the health services research community in British Columbia and beyond."

Background, Charlyn Black

A nationally recognized health services researcher, Dr Black was appointed director of the Centre in 2002. Over the past five years, she has brought clarity and focus to CHSPR’s strategic direction, and provided strong leadership to the Centre through a period that saw serious funding challenges. As director, Dr Black oversaw the integration of the Centre’s five research units into a single coordinated unit, and the consolidation of CHSPR’s disparate physical locations into unified, updated office space.

Prior to her appointment at UBC, Dr Black was a founding member of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy at the University of Manitoba. Over a 12-year period—as a senior researcher and co-director—she played a key role at the interface between research and policy, in developing the centre’s data resources, and in ensuring the ongoing relevance of the centre's work. Dr Black obtained her medical degree from the University of Manitoba and her doctorate in health services and policy research from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland. Her research focuses on the creation of population-based information systems, the use of administrative data to monitor the quality and effectiveness of medical care, and the development of data-driven tools to improve health care delivery.

Background, Morris Barer

CHSPR's founding director, Dr Barer served as the inaugural scientific director of the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research from December 2000 to August 2006. His current research focuses on the shifting patterns of service provision by physicians, Canadian pharmaceutical policy, and separating fact from fiction concerning access to care, wait lists, the effects of an aging population, and health care financing. His work also delves into the interplay between research evidence and vested interests in the evolution of health care policy.

Dr Barer served on the Federal-Provincial-Territorial Advisory Committee on Health Services, and as a consultant to a number of health ministries across the country. He has authored or co-authored well over 100 articles, book chapters and reports, and is co-editor of Health, Health Care and Health Economics (1998), Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? (1994), Tales from the Other Drug Wars (2000) and Healthier Societies: From Analysis to Action (2006). He earned his MBA and a PhD in economics from UBC.