The Atlantic Regional Training Centre is viewed by Dalhousie, Memorial, UNB and UPEI as a medium to further coordinate faculty dispersed across the region who are engaged in applied health services research, both within and across traditional health science and nontraditional social science and humanities disciplines. This diversity among existing academic departments, research centers, and research units located at the four partner universities enables the ARTC to coordinate our distinct resources to train students from near and far in the conduct of relevant applied health services research.

The ARTC promotes an interdisciplinary approach to issues in health services research, weaving together a number of distinct theoretical and practical perspectives to provide a broad, multidisciplinary understanding of key issues in health service policy, administration, and delivery. Students learn to address health service issues from several vantage points, including economic, political, social, cultural, and administrative perspectives, providing a basis for effectively grasping the real complexity of these problems. In a similar vein, the ARTC welcomes students from a broad range of disciplinary backgrounds, to help broaden the interdisciplinary range of the program.

The ARTC offers a Master’s Degree in Applied Health Services Research which prepares graduates from diverse disciplines and backgrounds with the necessary skills to tackle the complex health policy issues facing us today and in the future. This program is intended for students with little or no background in the healthcare field, and little or no experience in conducting research. By the end of the program, the student will have a demonstrated grounding in scholarly research techniques, experience in the healthcare field through their residency placement, and eight courses in healthcare research. Through these students, the ARTC will foster Atlantic Canadian research capacity for the conduct of applied health services research. The duration of the Master's degree program is two years.

The Centre also provides opportunities for Ph.D. studies, designed to provide professional research training to a limited number of exceptional students. The doctoral program offers a flexible structure tailored to the specialized needs of professional researchers within the health services research and policy context.

Both programs use web-based courses; rotating theme-based workshops as forums for interchanges among decision makers, students, and faculty; a residency placement where students apply theory and concepts within a decision-making organization; the involvement of health decision makers in thesis work; and dissemination of research results to decision makers parallel to traditional academic requirements.

Since this program is offered through multiple institutional partners, synchronous and asynchronous web-based courses are used to provide a similar learning environment with standardized course content. Generally, a student's study time will take place in front of a computer using WebCT to access course information, submit assignments and interact with the instructor and other students. Some courses also use teleconferencing. In some cases, regular meetings take place at each site. There are also face-to-face course sessions at the end of each semester.

More information on the ARTC program is contained in the "ARTC Student Handbook".

Click below to view Adobe .pdf versions of some of our docmentation.

"Student Handbook"

"Instructor Handbook"

"ARTC Brochure"