Trillium Health Partners’ (THP) Institute for Better Health (IBH) has formed a new Strategic Alliance, with University of Toronto’s (U of T) Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH).
The IBH-DLPSH Alliance is a unique partnership in Canada that strategically links a world-leading public health school and one of Canada’s largest community hospital systems, which serves a diverse and dynamic population of more than 1 million people in the Peel region. This health care ecosystem has been largely untapped for academic pursuits, and provides novel opportunities for faculty, staff and students from both organizations to collaborate and shape a healthier tomorrow. The Alliance builds on the existing academic affiliation between THP and U of T and focuses on the development of collaborative research programs, undergraduate and graduate training, knowledge translation, and the consolidation of a joint research chair program.
This groundbreaking Alliance between IBH and DLPSH creates a framework to provide unparalleled opportunities to amplify the joint competitiveness of both institutions in building a pipeline for scientific talent, leveraging research and innovation expertise, and collaborating on activities to improve community health. Core to the success of the Alliance is the recruitment and development of joint or cross-appointed faculty appointments at IBH and DLSPH. The recent onboarding of four cross-appointed IBH Research Chairs in the areas of implementation science, patient and caregiver engagement, learning health systems and population health, has demonstrated that a more formalized and sustained IBH-DLSPH partnership will allow for more opportunities to create a new kind of health care through research and innovation.
The Alliance will also foster the co-development of research programs to jointly benefit the mutual goals of IBH and DLSPH and offer a rich environment for structured learning and supervised placements for learners in undergraduate, graduate, professional, post-graduate, and continuing education programs. The Alliance will strengthen and foster community relationships in the Peel region, including those representing racialized and marginalized groups.
As a joint endeavour between IBH and DLSPH, this new Alliance marks an important milestone, for both institutions, as they continue to facilitate, foster and align their growing intersections in the areas of health systems and community-based health systems and population health research.