Lomas, Jonathan

Jonathan Lomas was a faculty member in the department of clinical epidemiology and biostatistics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, from 1982 to 1997; Professor of Health Policy Analysis from 1992 to 1997; and inaugural Chief Executive Officer of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (CHSRF) from 1997 to 2007. Although Lomas's undergraduate training was in experimental psychology at Oxford University, his landmark contributions have been as a scholar in the field of health policy analysis and as an innovator in improving the relevance and use of health services research in health system decision making.

Lomas's scholarly contributions touched on all three “levels of health policy” (as he called them)- clinical policy, administrative/organizational policy, and public policy, but it was his research in the domain of clinical policy that first brought him widespread attention. His most widely cited scholarly article, “Do Practice Guidelines Guide Practice? The Effect of a Consensus Statement on the Practice of Physicians,” was published in the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine in 1989. His research on administrative and public policy addressed highly topical policy issues such as the regionalization of health services delivery in Canada. His writing about innovative models for priority setting in health services research (“On Being a Good Listener …” Milbank Quarterly, 2003) and about conducting research in close partnership with health systems decision makers (“Using ‘Linkage and Exchange’ to Move Research Into Policy at a Canadian Foundation,” Health Affairs, 2000) has been highly influential among research-funding organizations.

Under Lomas's leadership, the CHSRF designed its research programs (i.e., the Capacity for Applied and Developmental Research and Evaluation [CADRE] program) to build a critical mass of applied health services and nursing researchers in Canada and to create a supportive environment for these researchers to engage with decision makers. It also designed training and support programs for decision makers, such as the Executive Training for Research Application (EXTRA) program, and a widely emulated 1:3:25 rule for organizing research reports. Its program designs and “linkage and exchange” philosophy have served as a point of reference for many large and small organizations seeking to improve the use of research in decision making in Canada and internationally.

Lomas is also known for cofounding McMaster University's Centre for Health Economics and Policy Analysis, his scholarly work with the Population Health Programme of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (1988–2004), and his service contributions in Canada (Federal, Provincial, Territorial Advisory Committee to Deputy Ministers on Health Services, 1994–1996; Ontario Premier's Council on Health, Well-Being and Social Justice, 1991–1994; Interim Governing Council and Institute Advisory Board of the Canadian Institute of Health Research, 1999–2004) and the United States (member of the board of directors of the Association for Health Services Research and its successor AcademyHealth, 1999–2005).

He also made an impact through consultancies for the World Health Organization (WHO) and other international agencies in Australia, Indonesia, Myanmar, the Philippines, South Korea, Sri Lanka, [Page 689]and Thailand. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Gadjah Mada in Indonesia (1990), the University of Sydney and the Department of Health of the New South Wales Government in Australia (1996–1997), the Dutch national research and development agency ZonMw (2004), and the Ministry of Health in New Zealand (2007). In recognition of his scholarly and professional impact, the University of Montreal awarded him an honorary doctorate degree in 2005, and he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences in 2006.

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