McMaster Health Forum | Spark Action

We offer three programmatic approaches – stakeholder dialogues, citizen panels and communities of practice – to sparking action on the pressing health-system issues of our time, based on the best available research evidence and systematically elicited citizen values and stakeholder insights.

• If you are a health-system leader (a policymaker or stakeholder), you can:
  • read more about our stakeholder dialogues and citizen panels;
  • browse the topics we have addressed using stakeholder dialogues, citizen panels or both, read the products that were prepared to inform or that arose from these dialogues and panels, and use the products to make decisions or influence decision-making;
  • email us at forum@mcmaster.ca to begin discussions about convening:
    •  a stakeholder dialogue, informed by an evidence brief, about an issue you’re facing; or
    • one or more citizen panels, informed by a citizen brief, which we’re increasingly convening as inputs to a stakeholder dialogue.
• If you are a citizen, you can browse the topics we have addressed using citizen panels, read the products that were prepared to inform these panels (citizen briefs) or that arose from these panels (panel summaries), and use the products to influence decision-making about your health system.
• If you are a health-system leader, researcher or student, you will soon be able to participate in one or more of our communities of practice, which will complement our dialogues and panels and provide the opportunity for more people to spark action

The Forum has developed these approaches given evidence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for strengthening health systems and getting the right programs, services and drugs to those who need them. They have been designed to address the fact that the insights of those who will be involved in or affected by decisions are also needed for decision-making – the insights arising from their tacit knowledge, from their real-world views and experiences, and from engaging in collective problem-solving with others who may see things differently.

While we have focused our attention to date on sparking action in health systems, through Forum+ and drawing on Social Systems Evidence, we are now expanding our use of stakeholder dialogues and citizen panels to social systems.

The Forum recognizes and acknowledges that we convene our stakeholder dialogues and citizen panels and engage our communities of practice on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the ‘Dish With One Spoon’ wampum agreement.

Learn more about the impact of our programs and how they have supported both health-system leaders and citizens in address pressing health-system issues.