Innovating Collaborative Processes within the Ministry of Health

Drs. Amy Zidulka and Ingrid Kajzer Mitchell received funding from the BC Ministry of Health to research and promote more collaborative planning and decision making in innovation initiatives.

This research project’s broad goal was to assist Ministry of Health (MOH) leadership as they innovate the way they work, in order to promote more collaborative planning and decision making. It focused on two initiatives, the Health Innovation Hub (HIH) and the Primary and Community Care Research Advisory Committee (PCCRAC). Research activities included interviews with internal and external stakeholders, meeting observation, document analysis, and survey research, as well as expert consultation, as needed.

Methodologically, this was an action research project, which suggests that we, as researchers, collaborated with MOH leadership to guide an “iterative cycle of problem identification, diagnosis, planning, intervention and evaluation in order to learn from experience and as a prelude to further diagnostic activity and the planning of subsequent interventions” (Gill & Johnson, 2010, p. 99).

The results of this project were a presentation of key learnings for MOH leadership to consider as they work to engage multi-stakeholder groups in innovation initiatives.