About the Assessment
The health charity sector in Canada plays a crucial role in funding health research and innovation, aiming to enhance the well-being of society. To meet the increasing demand for accountability, many organizations are adopting impact frameworks to focus their efforts and assess their effectiveness.
The Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Impact Framework stands out for its ability to not only demonstrate impact but also optimize it, and has been applied internationally and within Canada by a variety of organizations and funders at the federal and provincial level.
Supported by MS Canada, the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (CAHS) will conduct an assessment on the application of the CAHS Impact Framework in the health charity sector. The assessment aims to highlight best practices and inform strategies for maximizing the sector’s impact on health research and innovation.
Canadian Academy of Health Sciences assessments are formal reports prepared under the direction of an independent panel. Assessment panel members are impartial experts who hold a balance of different views.
How an assessment works:
- The panel reviews findings from evidence, case studies, and consultations and prepares a report.
- External experts then review this report, independently and anonymously.
- Finally, the report is publicly available in English and French.
This assessment will build on previous and ongoing work that considers returns on investment in the Canadian health research landscape. By analyzing scientific evidence and consulting with key organizations and individuals, the CAHS assessment report will demonstrate and communicate the value of the CAHS Impact Framework in the health charities sector.
The assessment will examine the following questions:
- What impacts are health charities demonstrating through the use of the CAHS Impact Framework?
- Is the CAHS Framework suitable, feasible and applicable to the health charities sector in demonstrating this sector’s impact on health outcomes through research?
- Are refinements to the Framework required to capture the experiences of the health charities sector in their impact journeys (including measurement)?
- What are the lessons learned and practice points demonstrated through the case study examples?
- What are the key success factors in demonstrating impact across the case studies?
