Evaluation of funding gastroenterology research in Canada illustrates the beneficial role of partnerships.

Background: Funders of health research in Canada seek to determine how their funding programs impact research capacity and knowledge creation.

Objective: To evaluate the impact of a focused grants and award program that was cofunded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes, and the Canadian Association of Gastroenterology; and to measure the impact of the Program on the career paths of funded researchers and assess the outcomes of research supported through the Program.

Methods: A survey of the recipients of grants and awards from 2000 to 2008 was conducted in 2012.

The endoscopy Global Rating Scale-Canada: development and implementation of a quality improvement tool.

Background: Increasing use of gastrointestinal endoscopy, particularly for colorectal cancer screening, and increasing emphasis on health care quality highlight the need for endoscopy facilities to review the quality of the service they offer.

Objective: To adapt the United Kingdom Global Rating Scale (UK-GRS) to develop a web-based and patient-centred tool to assess and improve the quality of endoscopy services provided.

Methods: Based on feedback from 22 sites across Canada that completed the UK endoscopy GRS, and integrating results of the Canadian consensus on safety and quality indicators in endoscopy and other Canadian consensus reports, a working group of endoscopists experienced with the GRS developed the GRS-Canada (GRS-C).

Point-of-care, peer-comparator colonoscopy practice audit: The Canadian Association of Gastroenterology Quality Program--Endoscopy.

Background: Point-of-care practice audits allow documentation of procedural outcomes to support quality improvement in endoscopic practice.

Objective: To evaluate a colonoscopists' practice audit tool that provides point-of-care data collection and peer-comparator feedback.

Methods: A prospective, observational colonoscopy practice audit was conducted in academic and community endoscopy units for unselected patients undergoing colonoscopy.

2009 Canadian Association of Gastroenterology educational needs assessment report.

The annual survey of Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) members’ educational needs was conducted via an online survey during April 2009. A total of 261 individuals completed the survey. Similar to previous years, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) topics – particularly Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis (UC) therapeutics, and difficult IBD cases – were most in demand for future educational events.

Pay for performance in Australia: Queensland's new Clinical Practice Improvement Payment.

Following a high profile scandal relating to quality and safety of care, the health authority in the Australian state of Queensland introduced a pay for performance (P4P) component into its new hospital prospective payment system. The Clinical Practice Improvement Payment system pays hospitals for achievement of clinical process indicators. Initially the focus is on the quality of clinical processes and outcomes.

Connecting funds with quality outcomes in health care: a blueprint for a Clinical Practice Improvement Payment.

There are significant geographic variations in the quality of health care, often with substantial gaps between what is known to be achievable and what is actually achieved in practice. This is a global problem that has persisted for many years despite a variety of conventional quality improvement initiatives. Attention has therefore recently turned to realignment of funding with specified levels of desired quality of care as an alternative.

Canadian consensus on medically acceptable wait times for digestive health care.

Background: Delays in access to health care in Canada have been reported, but standardized systems to manage and monitor wait lists and wait times, and benchmarks for appropriate wait times, are lacking. The objective of the present consensus was to develop evidence- and expertise-based recommendations for medically appropriate maximal wait times for consultation and procedures by a digestive disease specialist.

Methods: A steering committee drafted statements defining maximal wait times for specialist consultation and procedures based on the most common reasons for referral of adult patients to a digestive disease specialist.

Canadian Association of Gastroenterology - Canadian Institutes of Health Research - pharmaceutical partner postdoctoral operating fellowship programme: an outstanding success that continues to excel!

The Canadian Association of Gastroenterology (CAG) postdoctoral fellowship programme was initiated in 1992 with the goal of promoting excellence in Canadian gastroenterological research. With backing from multiple pharmaceutical partners and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, 87 fellows were funded over the next ten years for a total investment of $8,730,101. Between 1992 and 2000, fellows authored 247 articles; 176 being original research articles, 31 (17.