Dr Fiona Miller

Fiona A. Miller (PhD) is an Associate Professor in the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. She received a New Investigator Award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), supported by the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, to explore the commercialization of academic health research from the perspective of health improvement and health care sustainability.

In past work, Fiona has explored the roles and responsibilities of academic technology transfer professionals in adjudicating early stage health innovations and building health research networks. More recent work investigates the emergence of a new organizational form – the ‘entrepreneurial hospital’ – which adds the mission of technology transfer and commercialization to the mixed mission (education, research, clinical care) of the academic hospital. In addition, and stemming from a larger interest in stakeholder engagement, Fiona has done research to quantify and compare public and researcher preferences for the impacts of publicly funded, basic biomedical research.

While at HERG, Fiona plans to advance her interests in the organization and assessment of biomedical research systems. Two issues are of particular concern. First, given the recent emergence of the academic health science centre in the UK (a longstanding organizational form in Canada and elsewhere), Fiona hopes to begin to explore how these new organizational arrangements are influencing the translational research mandate and its measurement. She also hopes to explore the potential contribution of the academic health science networks that are being planned for the UK. Second, Fiona is interested to explore the role of research impact assessment in efforts to mobilize needed health innovations through ‘early’ health technology assessment (HTA).

In addition to her interests in health research systems, Fiona has longstanding interests in health technology policy, with a particular focus on diagnostic and screening technologies. Health technology assessment (especially with respect to stakeholder engagement, and the incorporation of patient and social values and ethical issues) and the governance of population screening initiatives (especially in the maternal and child health contexts) are of particular interest. Thus, while in the UK, Fiona is eager to learn more about the operation of NICE (e.g., appraisals of diagnostics, integration of stakeholders) and the National Screening Committee (e.g., decision making and oversight mechanisms).