Our understanding of the determinants and experience of health and wellbeing is changing. In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated some existing trends and put a spotlight on others. We are now faced with the challenge of responding to the broad effects of the pandemic. 

“The experience of the pandemic has been overwhelming in many ways,” says Kim McGrail, Director of Research at UBC Health. “At the same time, it provides us with an opportunity to think differently about how we define and value health, how we understand the complex systems that produce health, and how we rise to the challenge of supporting equity in health across individuals, communities, and societies.” 

In response to this opportunity, UBC Health is launching Health After 2020, an initiative designed to support new interdisciplinary collaborations which may lead to new research programs and engagement with policymakers and communities. The initiative will convene and inform people at this inflection point in our society through academic outputs, cross-campus conversations, and public lectures resulting from the new collaborations.

[The pandemic] provides us with an opportunity to think differently about how we define and value health, how we understand the complex systems that produce health, and how we rise to the challenge of supporting equity in health across individuals, communities, and societies.

UBC Health is launching Health After 2020 on July 14, which will include an overview of the initiative and an inaugural public lecture. In-mid July, the call for proposals for Health After 2020 will open to faculty members interested in starting or continuing their own cross-institutions and interdisciplinary research collaborations. 

Inaugural Public Lecture

Looking back and moving forward: Supporting health after 2020
Wednesday, July 14
12:00-1:00 pm

Space is limited, so we encourage you to register soon. 

Register

Online registration closes Monday, July 12 at 12pm. After this time, please email ubchealth.admin@ubc.ca to register.

Lecture Summary

Great moments in history often spur equally great changes in society. We will likely look back on 2020 as one of these great moments. The COVID-19 pandemic put a spotlight on a number of existing societal issues, accelerated the pace of change in others, and created some new ones too. For example, concerns about the quality and safety of long-term care services are not new, but they certainly became more apparent to a far larger number of people during 2020. The speed and starkness of changes such as this—but far beyond this as well—create an opportunity and motivation to reassess our understanding of health. Perhaps more importantly, it is an opportunity to reduce inequities in who has access to and who uses and benefits from the resources that promote health and wellbeing. The Health After 2020 series is UBC Health’s contribution to making sure we seize this opportunity. 

Speakers

• Kim McGrail, Director of Research, UBC Health; Professor, School of Population and Public Health and the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
• Jeffrey Morgan, PhD student, Population and Public Health, Faculty of Medicine, UBC
• Arjumand Siddiqi, Professor and Division Head of Epidemiology, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
• Michael Stepner, Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, University of Toronto

Read more about the speakers.

Funding Opportunity

Health After 2020 will offer funding of up to $10,000 for a UBC faculty member who is interested in starting or extending a collaborative relationship with a scholar or collaborator from outside UBC. 

Each accepted proposal will represent a cross-institutional and cross-disciplinary collaboration that will: 

• produce some form of academic output, e.g. a white paper, journal article, popularized version of current knowledge on a topic, grant application; 
• facilitate a more in-depth inward-facing interaction with faculty and learners at both campuses of UBC; and 
• deliver a public lecture (planned with and supported by UBC Health). 

The call for proposals for Health After 2020 will open to faculty members at UBC Vancouver and UBC Okanagan in-mid July. More information will be available on the Health After 2020 page.

Posted June 14, 2021