BC Health Systems Partnership

Note: These are draft Terms of Reference currently being reviewed.

UBC Health works under the Office of the Vice-President, Health at UBC to enhance and enable interprofessional and collaborative health education and research to train people, develop knowledge, and shape policy, seeking to address inequities and improve the systems that produce health. The Office of the Vice-President, Health advances these aims by promoting and facilitating equitable collaborations across disciplines and faculties at UBC’s Vancouver and Okanagan campuses that collectively contribute to UBC Health, as well as with communities, institutions, and government organizations around the province. UBC Health is governed by the UBC Health Executive and guided by the UBC Health Council and UBC Health-led advisory committees. 

Purpose

The BC Health Systems Partnership, chaired by UBC Health, leverages the convening power of UBC Health to facilitate dialogue and collaborations across partners in the learning community – academia, health administrators, policymakers, communities, health professionals, and linked sectors. Catalyzing meaningful collaboration through the Partnership will facilitate inclusive and coordinated engagement with practitioners, communities, and policymakers to influence better health in BC.

Role

• Guide strategic priorities related to the integrated health systems mandate of UBC Health.
• Identify emerging health issues, trends, challenges and opportunities in provincial, national and global context to consider collaboratively.
• Advise on ways to engage with sector and government partners to anticipate the needs of the provincial population and contemplate the possibilities and implications of the future of health.
• Identify strategies to help align university and sector activities to establish evidence for new approaches to health.
• Recommend the formation of and set the direction for working groups to advance strategic systems priorities.
• Identify where there might be benefit to shared university resources in areas such as communications, government relations, and evaluation to support unit-level efforts to engage with health sectors and systems. 

Accountability

The BC Health Systems Partnership is convened by the Special Advisor to UBC’s Vice-President, Health on Health Systems. It is an inter-organization partnership that is accountable to its members.

Meeting minutes and issues of common concern will be communicated across UBC Health’s core areas by the Special Advisor to the Vice-President, Health on Health Systems through the UBC Health Senior Leadership Team.   

Composition and Organization

1. The Special Advisor to the Vice-President, Health on Health Systems serves as Chair.
2. The BC Health Systems Partnership will be supported by staff from UBC Health.
3. Membership will consist of a core group of 10-12 individuals, 1-2 individuals able to provide a collective perspective for each partner in the Partnership Pentagram Plus*
    a. Academia (UBC Health providing a collective perspective built through the UBC Health Council)  
    b. Citizens/Community
    c. Health Administrators
    d. Healthcare Providers
    e. Linked Sectors (e.g. industry, non-profit organizations)
    f. Policymakers
4. As strategic foci evolve, form will follow function with fluid membership that will facilitate the involvement of specific individuals able to address different foci.
5. Meetings will be scheduled three to four times per year, or as needed under special circumstance.
6. Terms will be two years with the possibility of renewal.
7. Terms of Reference will be reviewed annually.

*The Pentagram Partnership Plus embraces all partners simultaneously with an appreciative inquiry approach to build on existing strengths and is an effective route to positive systems change. 

Expectations and Obligations of Members

• Foster and contribute to open, collaborative, and respectful discussions.
• Read and review all meeting materials which, combined with active participation time, is expected to require an average commitment of up to 20 hours per year of membership.
• Actively participate in all meetings, drawing on their own knowledge, expertise, and experience to provide constructive advice.
• At the beginning of each meeting, the Chair will ask members to disclose any potential conflicts of interest. Should a real or perceived conflict of interest arise, the member must disclose this conflict to the Chair whose responsibility it is to ensure conflicts are appropriately managed.

• Ray Markham, Special Advisor to the Vice-President, Heath on Health Systems, UBC (Chair)
• Dermot Kelleher, Vice-President, Health, UBC
• Christie Newton, Associate Vice-President, Health pro tem, UBC
• Kevin Brown, Executive Director, Workforce Planning and Management Branch, Ministry of Health
• Stephen Brown, Deputy Minister, Ministry of Health
• Stirling Bryan, Chief Scientific Officer, Michael Smith Health Research BC
• Wade Grant, Chair, First Nations Health Council
• Christina Krause, Chief Executive Officer, BC Patient Safety and Quality Council
• Darren Lauscher, Community Educator
• Cheryl Mitchell, Academic Director, MBA in Sustainable Innovation, University of Victoria
• Maureen O'Donnell, Executive Vice President, Provincial Clinical Policy, Planning and Partnerships, Provincial Health Services Authority
• Julia Wagner, Associated Director, Metis Nation
• Cindi Valensky, Special Advisor, Government Relations, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
• Peter Zed, Associate Dean, Practice Innovation, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences, UBC