TRN192H: Public Health in Canada
TRN192H: Public Health in Canada: Health for the 21st Century
Course Description
This course deals with preventive care and population health. It will also move into new areas like healthcare and the environment (climate change) and the greening of healthcare. It will look at health as an extension of democracy – of how health extends individual rights beyond the political realm to the social realm, of how it can build social capital and knit populations together. It will look at areas inimical to health, ‘detriments to health’ and how economic inequality can lead to health inequality. Along with this it will look at ways of empowering the individual, the public as agent and a role of public engagement by major institutions. It will also push beyond the popular determinants of health to engage students in a paradigm on next steps, the future challenges in population health.
Evaluation includes an assessment of research and writing skills in three analyses of issues in Canadian health. Also included, seminar engagement in a dialogue for solutions based on information presented in slides and readings.
2023-2024 Course Instructor
|
Leslie Boehm Les Boehm has graduate degrees from the U of T in history as well as health administration. He spent a career at the executive level in the administration of teaching hospitals and large research institutes. He was also seconded to the Ministry of Health. During his entire career he taught at the graduate level in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at U of T. While at Toronto General Hospital he founded two companies with an international footprint in continuing health education. At Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre he founded a venture capital company in health. He has served on the boards of a number of start-up companies, venture capital funds, and volunteer organizations. While at Sunnybrook, he proposed an idea to marry basic and applied research to the Canadian subsidiary of the French multinational, Sanofi, which saw them locate the world headquarters of the cancer vaccine project at Sunnybrook. He has been published in the Harvard Business Review, Wall Street Journal, and others. He co-founded a monthly magazine, Health Research and Innovation. He is the author of Toward the Health of a Nation. His research interests are in the areas of health policy, the history of Canadian healthcare, public enterprise, and the development and application of health research. |
 |