Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Sustainable health technology regulation: Mobilizing regulation to improve the environmental performance of health technologies

This project aims to generate and translate knowledge and identify policy options to improve the environmental performance of health technologies. Drawing on a regulatory studies perspective, and informed by iterative and structured engagement with an Expert Advisory Committee, our team will tackle one overarching research question: How does regulatory action affect the environmental performance of health technologies?

Further questioning: (1) How do regulatory agencies enact the explicit intent to address the environmental performance of health technologies, through the selection and use of frameworks and methods?; (2) How does the system of regulatory agencies influence the environmental performance of health technologies, including through actions that do not explicitly target this goal?; and (3) How do regulatory intermediaries condition the capacity of regulatory agencies to address the environmental performance of health technologies, explicitly and implicitly?

Through empirically rigorous and theoretically-grounded policy research, and an iterative and structured process to engage Expert Advisors in critical review of the research process, findings and policy implications, we will build knowledge and inform policy about options to improve the environmental performance of healthcare through technology regulation.