C2E2 will be the hub for national health economics research program in chronic respiratory diseases
C2E2 scientist Dr. Mohsen Sadatsafavi is chosen as the leader of the Health Economics Platform of the recently-established Canadian Respiratory Research Network (CRRN).
Chronic respiratory diseases exert a devastating, largely under-appreciated effect on Canadian public health and on the Canadian economy. In 2005, the prevalence of physician-diagnosed COPD exceeded 7% among men and women 65 years of age or older and the prevalence of physician-diagnosed asthma exceeded 8% among adult Canadians and was 16% in Canadian children younger than 12 years of age. Overall, chronic respiratory diseases account for about 6.4% of total direct annual health care costs in Canada.
CRRN, in close partnership with the Canadian Lung Association and other partners, will improve patient care and outcomes through the creation of an enduring national network of investigators and research platforms. The network will enable innovative, collaborative, respiratory health research that influences decision making and ensures high quality training and career development of a new generation of investigators.
Structurally, CRRN consists of ten core platforms covering all four pillars of research as described by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR: biomedical; clinical; health systems and services; and the social, cultural and environmental factors that affect the health of populations. The Health Economics Platform will interact with other platform to provide a health economics lens to their research program and facilitate translation of discoveries in other platforms to better and more affordable care for patients with chronic respiratory conditions. The platform's specific five-year objective is to develop and validate policy models for asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
The five-year budget of CRRN is $7.55M, with $4.35M research budget from CIHR and $3.2M for infrastructure and training support from the national and provincial Lung Associations as well as the industry.
