This seminar introduces the dominant theories used by health services researchers to study phenomena relating to organizational behaviour in health services organizations and systems. Theories reviewed in this course are applicable to micro-, meso-, or macro-levels of analysis. Seminar topics typically include organization theory; system-level performance; inter-organizational relationships and networks; social capital; organizational learning; knowledge transfer, knowledge translation and knowledge utilization; innovation diffusion; change theory including complexity theory and whole systems change; group decision-making and team effectiveness; leadership and followership; and an array of micro-OB topics including organizational commitment, organizational justice, job satisfaction, motivation theory/expectancy theory and organizational citizenship behaviours. The last two sessions are allocated to student presentations, where students present a research idea and related research question(s) that are motivated using theory reviewed in the course.

Objectives: Conversance with dominant theories of organizational behaviour and their relevance to the study of issues in health services organizations; Ability to critically analyze a research article that uses as its theoretical framework one of the theories discussed in seminar; Ability to develop a viable research question(s) that is motivated and explored using one or more of the theories discussed in seminar.

Current changes in the Canadian health system, including most prominently changes in the accountability requirements on health system organizations have renewed interest in strategic planning techniques more common to private sector organizations. A number of strategic planning tools such as balanced scorecards and scenario planning are used in Canada, but there is varied understanding of how they can be adapted to a Canadian context that has different characteristics from the competitive marketplace that stimulated their uptake elsewhere and how these concepts affect institutions within the Canadian health system.

This course endeavours to show how these tools can be used to understand and respond to critical issues in Canadian health system management. Students taking this course explore a number of issues around the application of strategy and performance measurement frameworks to cases from the for-profit, government, and broader public sectors in health care. This is a survey course that touches on a number of issues and examples in the management of health system organizations.

Objectives: 1) To increase students' ability to synthesize different pieces of information on competitive forces in the environment to support the development and evaluation of strategy. 2) Enable students to apply industry and corporate strategic analysis and performance measurement techniques to address common health policy topics through organizing disparate sources of information on an organization's competitive environment.

Learner competencies: achievement orientation; analytical thinking; communication skills; financial skills; initiative; innovative thinking; organizational awareness; performance measurement; self-confidence; strategic orientation.

In this course, learners are presented with a leadership framework that focuses on building the capacity within themselves, their teams and their organizations to respond adaptively to the depth, pace and scope of change that is creating unprecedented conditions in health care systems today (S. Dalzo-Parks, 2005).

Based on the work of Ronald Heifetz, the framework requires a paradigm shift from viewing leadership as a role or person to seeing it as an activity — the activity of making progress on adaptive challenges; and from viewing the organization as a static entity to seeing it as an organism capable of adapting to its environment. It requires those exercising leadership to understand the dynamics of social systems, and to trust in their own and others creativity and intuition (S. Dalzo-Parks, 2005). Finally, it addresses the ethical challenges associated with leadership as critical choices must take into account the diversity of perspectives surrounding the issue, and the moral courage and resilience required to challenge assumed values, i.e., the notion of a good death.

The second, in a two-part series on Leading and Managing Change, the overall goal of this course is to facilitate the building of adaptive capacity within health care systems by deepening the practice of developing both ourselves and others intentionally, mindfully and creatively. Through in-class discussion and small group consultation labs, participants will learn to mobilize constructive change through the development of a new and enhanced capacity to see, effectively analyze, and strategically intervene.

Objectives: 1) Distinguish between adaptive and technical work and explain what each requires to make progress (C4–Analysis). 2) Indicate the difference between the role of authority and the exercise of leadership (C6–Evaluation). 3) Perceive that there is a productive range of tension to make progress on leadership challenges (C5– Synthesis). 4) Identify the sources of resistance and develop strategies to manage them (C4–Analysis). 5) Identify the polarities within adaptive work and generate a process for managing them (C5–Synthesis). 6) Display an ability to continually reflect in action (A5–Characterization by a Value or Value Complex). 7) Relate the practices to current health care challenges (C6–Evaluate). 8) Value the need to thrive while leading adaptive change (A3–Valuing).

Each country's health system and policies are largely shaped by historical, political, social, and economic contexts; but in general, they have similar challenges such as rising expenditures, limited accessibility, poor patient responsiveness, limited coordination across the health continuum and public health and health system threats from both communicable and non-communicable diseases. This comparative health systems and policy course is intended to capture the rapidly expanding field of comparative studies in health systems and policy. It will provide a comprehensive theoretical and methodological foundation to understand why we compare health systems in different countries or provinces within a country and what we can learn from those comparisons. In the second part, the course will provide specific examples of health system and policy development in high income countries as well as low-and-middle-income countries (LMICs). Although this a taught course, the main requirement is to complete a major paper applying theoretical and methodological tools to a comparative health systems or comparative health policy case study including two or more jurisdictions (a province/state and/or country).

Objectives and competencies: 1) A comprehensive understanding of a range of conceptual and theoretical issues relevant to comparative health systems and policies. 2) An understanding of health system structures and typologies and the ability to use typologies when comparing health systems. 3) An understanding of some of the key health system and policy differences and similarities among high income and LMIC countries. 4) A developed ability to apply relevant concepts and theories to differing health systems or to comparative issues in health policy in general and to compare and contrast health policies across jurisdictions at each stage of the policy cycle. 5) An ability to apply the ideas and methods learned in this course in a major research paper on a topic of interest to the student and that will hopefully be relevant to the student’s dissertation for those in the doctoral track.

This course will help students understand the role of evidence synthesis in health services, systems and policy research, and provide them with knowledge and skills to conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses. Students will learn how to formulate a research question for a systematic review, develop a review protocol, conduct a comprehensive search of relevant literature, evaluate the level of evidence and the quality of studies, extract information, synthesize the evidence (using appropriate statistical methods for meta-analysis), and report the findings. Students will also learn principles related to other approaches of evidence synthesis (e.g., critical interpretive synthesis, realist review, meta-narrative review, scoping reviews, rapid reviews, overview of reviews). As part of the course, students will develop and register a systematic review protocol and conduct the systematic review potentially followed by a meta-analysis. This course will provide an overview of the current status of program planning and evaluation. Its purpose is to give participants an understanding of the planning and evaluation process, to familiarize them with current program.

Objectives: 1) Understand the role of evidence synthesis and the different approaches to systematic review for health services, systems and policy research. 2) Become familiar with the basic concepts of traditional systematic reviews and meta-analyses for different research designs. 3) Appreciate the limitations and challenges of applying evidence synthesis methods in practice by conducting a systematic review/meta-analysis. 4) Acquire theoretical and practical skills to conduct systematic review and meta-analysis.

Case study research (CSR) can be an effective but often misunderstood and underutilized approach for health services, systems, and policy research. This course will review the history and evolution of CSR, unpack key terminology and definitions, assess its key strengths/weaknesses, review guidance on how to design, conduct, analyze, and report on CSR and culminate in the development of a CSR protocol. An overarching focus of the course will be on the critical appraisal of published CSR, including assessment of available critical appraisal guidance for CSR and its sensitivity to research focus and publication type.

Objectives: 1) Understand the history/evolution of CSR. 2) Understand and appropriately use CSR terminology. 3) Understand the strengths/weaknesses of CSR and emerging approaches for critically appraising CSR. 4) Understand key elements in the design, conduct, analysis, and reporting of CSR. 5) Develop a CSR protocol.

The overall objective of this course is to provide you with the conceptual tools and the practical skills to enable you to reflect, self-assess, and critically evaluate your continuous development as a health care leader. Learning Portfolios (LPs) are used in a variety of professional education programs as a mechanism for demonstrating growth and mastery across a representative breadth of competencies for professional success. The process involves reflection on personal progress towards attaining competency mastery; feedback to stimulate a diversity of ideas and perspectives on current and future learning goals; and self-assessment of strengths and gaps in leadership development. Leadership competency portfolios are an assessment tool that go beyond the graded assignments that have accompanied your competency development to date. Designed as a capstone project, the development of a Best Work Leadership Competency Portfolio will provide insights into how you learn, and how your accomplishments fit into a framework of continuous leadership development, so that completion of the program is seen as the beginning or waypoint on your leadership development journey not the end. Finally, a portfolio will provide you with tangible evidence of the attainment of the 26 NCHL Leadership competencies that can be shared with both current and future employers.

Objectives: upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: 1) Reflect on your leadership development across the program and have confidence in your ability to make sense of the experience as a coherent unified process (A5–Characterization by Value). 2) Identify and describe artifacts that demonstrate mastery of the 26 NCHL leadership competency levels at the targeted program levels in a Best Work Leadership Portfolio (C6–Evaluate). 3) Connect the depth, breadth and growth of your learning throughout the program to your future leadership development as you describe what, why, and how you learn and the impact of that learning on your continuous leadership development (C6–Evaluate). 4) Assess current leadership competency strengths and gaps, identify future learning goals and methods to achieve them through the development of a Personal Learning Action Plan (C6–Evaluate). 5) Support colleagues in the development of their Best Work Portfolio and Learning Action Plans and generate diverse thinking through peer coaching, advising, and feedback (C5–Synthesis).

The overall objective of the practicum is to broaden the student's appreciation for and skills in managing health services organizations by allowing students to evaluate, test, and further develop their managerial/policy competencies in a practical setting. Practicum placements are specifically tailored to individual student needs given their past work experience and their specific learning and career objectives. While the student is expected to synthesize and apply the academic knowledge gained in the first two blocks of the program, the focus of the practicum is on what the student identifies as his/her learning needs. The fieldwork is seen as incremental and developmental, being adaptable to the individual student's needs, and building on their work experience.

Objectives: upon successful completion of this course, students will be able to: 1) Identify their own learning needs and design a learning contract that will address those needs. 2) Complete the activities outlined in the learning contract, as negotiated with their preceptor and faculty advisor. 3) Optimize their learning opportunities by regular reflection, both through their learning journal and their discussions with their preceptor and faculty advisor. 4) Evaluate their professional strengths and development needs for successful career progression through self-reflection. 5) Organize and develop a business plan for a health care organization. 6) Understand the key components of successful career planning in a health care environment. 7) Further enhance their organization and delivery of oral presentations.

The Research Internship requires a proposal from the student, put together with a faculty member, and must be submitted to the Program Assistant for the Program Director's approval. The proposal is usually for a research project which the student will complete under the supervision of the faculty member. The work completed for a research internship should be roughly equivalent to that required for a course. Therefore, development of a research proposal, part of a research project, contribution to a systematic review would all be appropriate (i.e., make sure you are not doing a mini MSc thesis). The outline must clearly state what the student will do and how the student will be evaluated. Proposals must be signed by the student and faculty member. Proposals must be approved prior to starting your research practicum.

Your supervisor should be a faculty member of the CEHCR Program. Once the student has completed the work, the supervisor is required to submit a Research Internship Completion Form to the Program Assistant. After this is done, the credit is entered into ROSI. (The research internship is marked on a Credit/No Credit basis.) Proposals should be no longer than one page.

Students must include the following components in their proposal: name and student number; submission date; internship start and finish date; supervisor; study title; objectives; description of activities; specific method of evaluation (in percentage form); signatures of the supervisor; student review of manuscripts; grants for research internship credit.

Some students have submitted research internship proposals describing projects consisting of editorial review of manuscripts for journals. This can be a very worthwhile endeavour, particularly if students receive feedback from both their supervisors and from journal editors. Similarly, reviewing grant submissions can be a valuable educational activity. The following guidelines should help guide students preparing a research internship in which the main activity is review of manuscripts or grants. Timelines and evaluation procedures for research internships apply.

Students and supervisors may wish to consult with other faculty to ensure an adequate number of manuscripts/grants for review within the period of the research internship. Faculty are also encouraged to ensure that the manuscripts under review are of sufficiently high quality that the review process is a valuable learning experience.

The Research Internship requires a proposal from the student, put together with a faculty member, and must be submitted to the Program Assistant for the Program Director’s approval. The proposal is usually for a research project which the student will complete under the supervision of the faculty member. The work completed for a research internship should be roughly equivalent to that required for a course. Therefore, development of a research proposal, part of a research project, contribution to a systematic review would all be appropriate (i.e. make sure you are not doing a mini MSc thesis). The outline must clearly state what the student will do and how the student will be evaluated. Proposals must be signed by the student and faculty member. Proposals must be approved prior to starting your research practicum.

This course will focus on academic professional development, contextualized for HPER PhDs. The course will be organized around 3 integrated themes so that students can develop contextualized knowledge and practice skills in relation to: Theme 1) balancing academic citizenship and building programs of research; Theme 2) engaging with academic discourse and knowledge mobilization including academic writing, grantsmanship and peer review; and Theme 3) career planning. The course will encourage critical reading of the health professions education literature and exploration of the HPE community.

The course instructors believe that PhDs in HPER should be knowledgeable and effective educators. Thus the instructors will model evidence- and theory-informed principles and practices of education throughout the course. And one graded aspect of the course will focus on coordination as an essential skill in HPE practice. Thus, the course also becomes an introduction to evidence-informed pedagogy and skilled educational coordination.

Objectives: upon completion of this course, you should be able to: 1) Understand the concept of academic citizenship. 2) Engage with academic discourse and knowledge mobilization. 3) Consider your career trajectory in HPE.

This course addresses educational research approaches specifically in the health professions. It involves a critical examination of appropriate literature with respect to survey, qualitative, and quantitative research methods with the objective of enabling students to propose implementable research projects.

Objectives: Describe common research areas and approaches in HPER. Situate their own research interests in a domain (including philosophical, underpinnings, relevant literatures, and commonly used methodologies). Understand the process of planning and designing common research methodologies in HPER.

The course will provide an overview of key theories and theorists in the Critical and Interpretive Social Sciences, as well as how they have been applied in the interdisciplinary field of Health Professions Education Research (HPER).

Objectives: 1) Learners will be able to describe relevant theories within the field of Critical and Interpretive Social Sciences. 2) Learners will be able to relate these theories to the field of Health Professions Education. 3) Learners will demonstrate the ability to apply Critical and Interpretive Social Science theories to their specific research interests.

The course will provide an overview of key theories and theorists in the Cognitive, Behavioural, and Epidemiological Sciences, as well as how they have been applied in the interdisciplinary field of Health Professions Education Research (HPER).

Objectives: 1) Describe key theories from the Cognitive, Behavioural, and Epidemiological Sciences that inform health professions education research (HPER). 2) Explain how key theories in the Cognitive, Behavioural, and Epidemiological Sciences are applied and justified in HPER. 3) Compare and contrast theories either between or within the Cognitive, Behavioural, and Epidemiological Sciences, including their impact on study design and interpretation of results. 4) Apply Cognitive, Behavioural, and Epidemiological Sciences theories to a specific research question and preliminary study design.

This course will immerse students into the variety of research methodologies and methods social scientists use in HPE research. The course will start with a brief review of the theories underlying critical and interpretive social science research. Students will be asked to synthesize this learning and present and justify a research proposal in written and verbal format.

Objectives: 1) Describe common critical and interpretive social science research methodologies. 2) Identify appropriate methodologies in relation to HPE research questions. 3) Identify appropriate data collection and analysis approaches in relation to HPE research questions. 4) Draft, present, and justify a research proposal consistent with expectations in the critical and interpretive social sciences.

This course will expose students to the variety of research methodologies and methods used in HPE research that are influenced by the theories underlying Cognitive, Behavioural & Epidemiological sciences.

Objectives: 1) Describe common Cognitive, Behavioural & Epidemiological Sciences research methodologies. 2) Identify appropriate methodologies to guide strong HPE research questions. 3) Identify appropriate data collection and analysis approaches for HPE research questions. 4) Draft, present, and justify a research proposal consistent with expectations in the Cognitive, Behavioural & Epidemiological sciences.

The course will provide an overview of key theories and concepts in Assessment Sciences, as well as how they have been and are being applied in the interdisciplinary field of Health Professions Education. The sessions will also explore theoretical and practical considerations of performance-based assessment, and its various uses across learner levels from undergraduate to post-graduate and continuing professional development. Using foundational knowledge of assessment science gained throughout the course, students will identify research questions intended to advance assessment science and will create an assessment program relevant to their graduate research or context.

Objectives: 1) Discuss key theoretical frameworks that inform assessment in health professions education research and practice. 2) Compare and contrast assessment frameworks including their theoretical roots and justifications. 3) Explain how key theoretical assessment frameworks are applied and justified in health professions education. 4) Identify research questions and approaches to study that advance assessment science in health professions education.

The course will provide an overview of key theories and theorists related to issues of identity, embodiment, subjectivity, and lived experience (individual and collective) as well as their application in the interdisciplinary field of Health Professions Education Research (HPER). The intersection of social and professional identity construction and lived experience will be explored through different disciplinary perspectives and paradigms. By considering how different identity related constructs are operationalized in empirical and non-empirical academic activities, learners will develop foundational knowledge they will apply to their own scholarship.

Objectives: 1) Gain an understanding of selective but central concepts in defining different forms of identity (e.g., professional, organizational, self). 2) Develop a focus in a specific domain of interest related to issues of identity in the field of Health Professions Education. 3) Explore new theoretical and/or research ideas; applying critical and Interpretive Social Science theories to specific research interests related to identity.

Health professions education is concerned with creating health professionals for the future. However, this future is increasingly complex and uncertain. The models of professions and professionalism that have historically shaped the foundations of health professions education need to be continually examined and re-examined in light of enormous technological and societal shifts that shape professionals and their roles in society. This reading course will provide an overview of the literature in the sociology of the professions, providing a historical foundation while also pointing towards new questions in the sociologies of work and sociologies of expertise. The intention is to provide a firm grounding in these bodies of literature, creating intellectual space to connect these ideas with contemporary areas of focus in the field of health professions education.

Objectives: 1) Have an understanding of the broad topics and key thinkers within the sociology of the professions. 2) Identify ways in which sociology of the professions has influenced the domain of health professions education. 3) Be able to articulate their own research interests in relationship to the sociology of the professions.

Michel Foucault coined the term "the examined society." He argued that, although we give it very little thought, the examination is one of the most brilliant, if least studied, inventions of our time. When we think of technologies what usually comes to mind are concrete inventions: the light bulb, the radio, the computer, and the smart phone. But changes in societies are also driven by more diffuse technologies such as social media, advertising, and education. To that list I would add the examination. It is a technology as powerful in shaping who we are as humans as anything made of tungsten, copper, or silicone.

When I first read Foucault's writing about the examination it got me thinking: Who invented examinations? How did examinations become so ubiquitous that we can scarcely imagine life without them? What are the effects, good or bad, of so much examination? Do they improve us as individuals? Do they make our societies better? And what will happen as we increasingly ask intelligent machines to take on the task of examining humans? The purpose of this course is to address these questions.

Objectives: 1) Be conversant about the history and social effects of the technology of examination. 2) Analyze critical uses of examination that are learning and growth oriented versus those for production or surveillance. 3) Identify the elements of examination design associated with validity. 4) Develop familiarity with a range of social science theories as they apply to examination.

The course will provide an overview key methodological considerations for applying Foucauldian concepts in the interdisciplinary field of health professions education (HPE). Theoretical concepts will be explored through analysis of their application and methodological affordances for addressing core issues in health professional training. The course will place emphasis on how the concepts of archive, discourse, governmentality, biopower, heterotopia/utopia, and subjectivity have been applied in HPER and other related disciplines. Comparisons with other sociocultural theoretical concepts and discourse analytical methods will be used throughout the course to encourage methodological reasoning. In addition, approaches for combining Foucauldian inspired critical discourse analysis with ethnographic and lived experience methodologies will also be presented. By considering how Foucauldian constructs are operationalized in empirical and non-empirical academic activities in HPER, learners will develop foundational knowledge they will apply to their own scholarship.

Michel Foucault's work is important for the health professions in many ways. Foucauldian discourse analysis is a particularly useful method for scholars to study the ways in which discourses systematically construct the social world. A Foucauldian approach makes visible dominant 'regimes of truth' that arise from normalized and sanctioned ways of thinking, speaking, and being. Foucault's own genealogical histories explored clinical medicine, ethics, the body, sexuality, madness, identity, and many other topics that are pivotal to health professional education. In the course we will explore Foucault's concept of discourse, examine Foucault's own discourse analyses/genealogical studies, read critiques of his approach written by scholars with various perspectives, meet researchers currently working with a Foucauldian approach, and learn to use discourse analysis as a research method.

The course will address current controversies, established areas of research, and emerging ideas in Health Professions Education Research (HPER). The sessions will provide an overview of the wide range of disciplinary and substantive areas within HPER and will include analyses of the assumptions and presuppositions (about research, knowledge, education, and health professional practice) that underpin research in each of these areas (and the implications of those assumptions or presuppositions for limiting or strengthening that research).

Objectives: by the end of the course: 1) Learners will be able to describe a range of substantive and disciplinary areas of research within HPER. 2) Learners will be able to relate the controversies and advances in several of those areas to their own research program. 3) Learners will be able to identify and analyze the assumptions and presuppositions implicit in academic work (including their own).

This is a seminar course focusing the tools of microeconomic theory in modeling individual and provider behavior using examples drawn from the health literature. The course introduces students to problems of unconstrained and constrained optimization. Additional topics considered include non-negativity constraints, questions concerning planning over multiple periods, and the issues of uncertainty and unanticipated health shocks. Students are expected to develop their own theoretical model with testable predictions, which in most cases will serve as the basis for the theoretical chapter of their dissertation. Students must have completed Advanced Health Economics and Policy Analysis (HAD5760H) and be familiar with intermediate calculus.

Objectives: To introduce participants to the theoretical tools used in economic analysis. To enable participants to apply these theoretical tools to the analysis of a range of health policy issues. To develop analytic skills so that participants can critically evaluate theoretical models encountered in the health economics literature.

The field of health services research draws upon theories, research designs and methods from a wide variety of disciplines including social and behavioural sciences, clinical sciences, management and administrative sciences, law, epidemiology, and biostatistics. The goal of this course is to provide a forum for doctoral students to explore theoretical/conceptual frameworks, study designs and research methods, and to apply them in the preparation of a health services research project.

Objectives: upon completion of the course, students should be able to: 1) Draw upon and integrate the research theories and methods used in a variety of disciplines to define a research question and plan a health services research project; 2) Develop a conceptual framework for a research study and use it as the basis for a study design; 3) Understand the application of quantitative and qualitative methods used in health services research; 4) Demonstrate the analytic skills required to critically read and evaluate the health services research literature; 5) Develop and defend a research question, conceptual framework and methodology that addresses an important health services research question.

This is a one-term course designed to assist students to prepare for the IHPME PhD Health Services Outcomes and Evaluation concentration comprehensive examination. Comprehensive exam preparation is cumulative through all required courses in the IHPME PhD program. This course is focused on synthesizing cumulative materials. In this course, students summarize and integrate readings in a number of focused topics with particular attention to important theoretical and analytical issues for health services evaluation and outcomes research. The course provides a particular emphasis on conceptual frameworks and research designs for health services research.

Objectives: To ensure familiarity and understanding of health care/health services research conceptual frameworks and methodologies. To be able to evaluate and critique a research conceptual framework and research methodology. To be able to select and apply an appropriate research conceptual framework and methodology to any health services research question.

This course is designed to fulfil the requirement for a comprehensive exam for graduate students in the health services organization and management stream of our doctoral program.

Objectives: 1) Undertake a comprehensive review of the key concepts and theories from the management and organizational sciences literature which have been applied, or have viable application potential, to management in the health services industry. 2) Identify and critically analyze the strengths and weakness of varying research traditions in health services management research. 3) Critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of varying methodologies used to study managerial and organizational issues in health services management and the general organizational literature. 4) Prepare the student to formulate and clearly articulate relevant, topical research questions and to develop viable research designs/plans by which to pursue them.

The health policy comprehensive course is the capstone course in the series of 3 health policy courses for PhD students in IHPME. The comprehensive course is primarily intended to capture the 'breadth' dimension of the field, and to complement the 'depth' expected in the thesis. This is not a 'taught' course. Students are expected to lead discussion of the readings with the course instructor serving as a resource for the class.

Objectives: the comprehensive examination provides the opportunity for students to demonstrate their competence in the field of health policy. Specifically, the student is expected to demonstrate: 1) A comprehensive understanding of a range of conceptual and theoretical issues relevant to health policy (including appropriate citations to the literature covered). 2) A comprehensive understanding of the structure and ongoing evolution of health systems in Canada. 3) A developed ability to apply relevant concepts and theories to topical issues in health policy. 4) An ability to present ideas clearly and cogently.

This course is designed to fulfil the requirement for a comprehensive exam for graduate students in the Health Informatics Research emphasis of the PhD Health Services Research program. The course will enable students to demonstrate and expand the cumulative knowledge and skills gained throughout their previous graduate courses.

Objectives: 1) To undertake an analysis of the topics and issues that promote and hinder the uptake of health informatics in our health care systems. 2) The objective is to gain an understanding of the complex personal, environmental, financial, political, and societal forces that influence the use of health informatics innovations and develop strategies for improving the uptake of evolving innovations. Specifically, this course will guide and evaluate the student's ability to: 3) Develop a research question relevant to health informatics. 4) Develop an appropriate research plan to explore/answer the research question. 5) Critically assess relevant theoretical frameworks. 6) Prepare an academic piece of work such as a manuscript of publishable quality (or equivalent piece of work). 7) Lead/facilitate an in-depth class discussion on a current health informatics issue/innovation. 8) Present their research proposal/findings to peers. 9) Provide constructive feedback on their peers' research.