CHRSP Champions

 The Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research is committed to its partnership with the provincial health system through our Contextualized Health Research Synthesis Program (CHRSP). As health and community services began a process of transformation following from the findings of Health Accord NL in 2023-2025, CHRSP began working closely with partners throughout the health and social services system to weave evidence and decision support seamlessly into the transformation process. Given the need for timely evidence as new decisions were being made, CHRSP has been at work on producing more rapid and responsive reports, mainly through our Rapid Decision Support projects which provide timely responses to urgent inquiries. 

In 2025-2026, we hope to continue to strengthen communication linkages with CHRSP and to return to an annualized topic selection process in support of emerging mid-term and longer-term decision-support priorities. 

CHRSP has established connections with Health System Leaders and our valued CHRSP Champions who work together in the production of locally-relevant decision support to inform health system transformation, quality improvement, and evidence-informed decision making.  We will seek to expand these partnerships in 2025 and beyond. 

How do our CHRSP Champions work with us?

For CHRSP to initiate new decision support projects on behalf of our health and community services partners, CHRSP Champions:

  1. Connect with people within your organization to identify topics for study on an annualized basis
  2. Work with CHRSP, your fellow CHRSP Champions, and senior leadership on the process of filtering down a long-list of topics from across your organization to develop a short-list of annual projects, ranked in order of priority, for CHRSP to complete on your behalf in the coming year.
  3. Discuss and confirm with CHRSP the type of project/product you wish to have us produce for you, including:
    1. Evidence in Context Reports (in-depth contextualized evidence syntheses developed by a large project team for long-term decision making- 12-18 months to complete)
    2. Rapid Evidence Reports (synthesis and appraisal of research evidence with some contextual considerations, roughly 8-12 months to complete)
    3. Snapshot Reports (jurisdictional scans of best practices implemented elsewhere that might be adapted for local use, taking roughly 4-6 months to complete)
    4. NLCAHR Experts' Exchanges in which we will organize a meeting between your team and leading national experts in a structured discussion to answer your targeted questions.
    5. Rapid Decision Support (quick evidence overviews, curated reading lists, links to pertinent publications or websites produced in 4-6 weeks).  Please note that these requests can be submitted on an ad hoc basis, not as part of the annualized topic submission exercise.
    6. LINK TO COMPLETED PROJECTS HERE
  4. Frame your decision support needs as a researchable question that clearly identifies the focus and scope of the project in plain language (without jargon or ambiguity) and that, where appropriate, identifies the study's PICOS parameters (Population, Intervention, Control/Comparator, Outcome, and Setting).
  5. Assign a designated partnership lead within your organization for each project.  CHRSP will communicate with this person about the project with an expectation of regular and timely consultation/response.
  6. Provide, wherever possible, an example or examples of research that will support your decision, or work with CHRSP to locate such an example (e.g., a published research study, a systematic review article, a grey-lit report, a policy, etc.).  Having this groundwork in place will help define the research question and will shorten project timelines. 

How does CHRSP work with its Champions?

Once the CHRSP team has consulted with you to gather the information outlined above, we will start the project on your behalf.

  1. The preliminary step for any CHRSP project will be to schedule a meeting (1 hour) with the designated partnership lead (see #3 above) for the purposes of learning about the background of the topic as it applies to Newfoundland and Labrador (i.e., the service landscape, the state of policy development or implementation, and what other individuals, consultants, agencies or organizations we may need to connect with to inform our work in this area.)
  2. We envisage each project consisting of the following three phases, all of which require engagement with Champions and other health system and community partners:
    1. Phase 1 |Define the topic: our researchers will work with you to ensure that the project is focused on the areas where decision support is required- this typically involves a narrowing of the project scope to identify the optimal approach/ researchable parameters for CHRSP's work.
    2. Phase 2 | Work on the project: our researchers will then carry out the methodological steps required to produce a decision support product for you that will be tailored to meet your needs (See list of research products above)
    3. Phase 3 | Review and publish:  We will send you a draft of our decision support for review prior to publication on the NLCAHR website.

CHRSP Health System Leaders & Champions- 2024-25

Health System Leaders

  • Mr. John McGrath, Deputy Minister, Department of Health & Community Services
  • Mr. Alan Doody, Deputy Minister, Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development
  • Dr. Patrick Parfrey, President and CEO, Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services
  • Chief Operating Officers for NLHS Geographic Zones:
    • Ron R. Johnson, VP COO, Eastern Urban Zone
    • Debbie Walsh, VP COO, Eastern Rural Zone
    • Joanne Pelley, VP COO Central Zone
    • Teara Freake VP COO Western Zone
    • Antionette Cabot, VP COO Labrador-Grenfell Zone

CHRSP Champions

The Department of Health and Community Services:

  • CHRSP CHAMPION | Tara Power, Director of Policy, Planning and Evaluation

Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services:

  • CHRSP CHAMPION | Keith Parsons, Provincial Director of Planning and Policy

The Department of Children, Seniors and Social Development:

  • CHRSP CHAMPION |Henry Kielley, Director, Seniors & Aging and Disability Policy 

Patient Partners and Context Advisers