BC Women’s physician and WHRI Investigator, receives the prestigious Darroch Award for Excellence in Sexual and Reproductive Health Research.
Dr. Wendy Norman was awarded the prestigious Darroch Award on January 19 in New York City.
The Darroch Award, sponsored by the Guttmacher Institute, recognizes an emerging leader who is a researcher in the field of sexual and reproductive health, where scientific evidence is essential to guiding the policies and programs of the future.
Dr. Norman has leveraged her expertise, collaborations and trust established as a respected abortion provider and family physician, to effect change in the area of abortion and contraception health services in Canada.
Dr. Norman began her research career in October 2008, establishing partnerships with all relevant family planning health services, health decision leaders in the Ministry of Health and more than 11 disciplines of academic researchers in British Columbia (BC’s Contraception & Abortion Research Team (BC CART).
Within two years, the BC CART collaboration directed her to build and lead Canada’s national Contraception Access Research Team-Groupe de Recherche sur l’Accessibilité à la Contraception.
As a Women’s Health Research Institute (WHRI) Member, Dr. Norman’s first grant was bestowed by the institute, in February 2009. In just four years she personally led research awarded over $2 million, a more than 80 fold return on the seed grant investment.
Dr. Norman’s Family Planning Health Services Research program at BC Women’s comprises three themes:
Health policy research: Determination and effective translation of evidence to support health policy that will provide universal subsidy of contraception throughout Canada (where contraception is currently a consumer cost).
Health professional task-sharing to provide contraception and abortion access: Working with pharmacists, midwives, nurses and their regulatory organizations to collect and translate evidence supporting scope of practice changes.
Interdisciplinary health professional education: Improvement of physician, nursing, midwifery and pharmacist family planning education both pre-licensure and continuing professional education.
Congratulations Dr. Wendy Norman.