EXTRA: partner program
Interviews with EXTRA fellows
The acronym – Executive Training for Research Application – says it all. The EXTRA program’s primary goal is to equip health system managers to use research in their day-to-day work and increase evidence-based decision-making in Canada’s health system.
A strategic activity of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation, EXTRA is supported by partner organizations including the Canadian College of Health Service Executives, Canadian Medical Association, Canadian Nurses Association and a consortium of Quebec partners represented by the Agence d'évaluation des technologies et des modes d'intervention en santé.
The program is available to health service professionals in senior management positions in nursing, medicine and health administration. Over three to five years, an averaged equal number of participants are selected from these three professional streams.
Meet current and past EXTRA fellows
2009 fellows
Agostino Bellissimo is chief of emergency medicine at St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton and an assistant clinical professor at McMaster University Medical School. He has numerous administrative responsibilities, such as monitoring quality of care, dealing with concerns of patients and staff, and serving as lead physician for the hospital's pilot program for physician assistants.
"When my work with EXTRA comes to an end I expect to be much more skilled in terms of using appropriate evidence to guide how I carry out my administrative responsibilities. I also think I will be able to use the knowledge gained through our intervention project to work on other projects for the hospital down the road," he says.
Janet McElhaney is professor of medicine and Allan M. McGavin Chair in Geriatrics Research at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She is also head of geriatric medicine at UBC, Providence Health Care (PHC) and the Vancouver General Hospital. At PHC she is principal investigator for a research team that is studying the aging immune system, with a focus on influenza and influenza vaccination in older adults.
Dr. McElhaney says PHC had identified seniors as one of six "populations of emphasis" within the organization, and EXTRA allows her and other key leaders responsible for their care to work together on a key project in this field.
Malcolm Moore is head of the Division of Medical Oncology and Hematology at the University Health Network, which was created via the merger of the Toronto General and Toronto Western hospitals and PMH. He is also chief of medical services at PMH.
"This is still a work in progress," says Dr. Moore. "We have been looking mainly at existing research concerning efficiency and patient satisfaction in the ambulatory care arena and at studies that evaluate different approaches to ongoing care of cancer patients."
David Schramm is an associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Ottawa. He serves as the surgical director of the Ottawa cochlear implant program, and established the program's research group.
"The EXTRA program clearly will be a lot of work but it is also an excellent learning opportunity. I believe I will learn a lot from the teachers during the residency sessions, but also from my EXTRA colleagues. I think this will give me a chance to work across disciplines by meeting nurses and administrators. That's excellent - we're all dealing with the same issues."
