Breaking Down the Barriers

Interdisciplinary education just got a boost at York University in Toronto. York has created a new Faculty of Health compiled of faculty members and students from many different academic units, including psychology, health policy and management, kinesiology and health science, and nursing. "This new environment will offer opportunities for research based on an integrated model of health," said Sheila Embleton, Vice-President Academic at York. "We expect it to generate new multidisciplinary approaches to health and health care."

Effective July 2006 the new faculty will use a variety of methods for studying health and social phenomena, from experimental and epidemiological methods to oral histories, clinical case studies, and ethnographic observation. "York's Faculty of Health will address subjects ranging from the social dimensions of health, to public policy on health care delivery, to improved clinical interventions," said Embleton. Their research focus will include hospitals and clinics, global economic environment, schools, homes, factories, and communities.

Universities across Canada could contribute to developing more effective health care providers by answering the increasing demand to break down barriers among health disciplines.