Atlantic Institute for Market Studies
News Release
Tuesday, December 2, 2004
For immediate release
AIMS Welcomes Two New Members to its Award-Winning Health Care Policy Team
(Halifax, NS) – Building on its international reputation as a source of thoughtful research and commentary on health care reform, the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies (AIMS), is pleased to announce two new appointments to its award-winning health care policy team. Jamie MacNeil is the Institute’s new Manager of Health Policy, while Professor Brian Ferguson has joined the institute as Fellow in Health Care Economics.
“Jamie MacNeil is a tremendous addition to the Institute. We have plans for a major expansion of our work on health care policy reform, and Jamie will be taking the lead on this work on the staff side. His appointment is a major step forward in our ability to contribute to the debate regionally, nationally and internationally,” said Brian Lee Crowley, President of AIMS.
Mr. MacNeil comes to AIMS after many years working in both federal and provincial government on such projects as The State of Health Care in Canada, the Federal Role with Senator Michael Kirby and the Social Affairs Committee of the Senate. Most recently Mr. MacNeil has worked provincially on topics ranging from reform of provincial auto insurance, rural economic development and health care wait times as Communications Director for the Nova Scotia Liberal Caucus.
“We are equally delighted to be able to welcome such a prestigious, respected and productive thinker on health care policy as Brian Ferguson, who is becoming our new Fellow in Health Care Economics. His contribution will be extremely beneficial to AIMS as we examine a number of issues in health care, just as he contributed greatly to some of our earlier projects, such as The Definitely NOT the Romanow Report, of which he was a co-author,” said Crowley.
Professor Ferguson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at University of Guelph. A New Brunswick native, he earned a BA at Mount Allison University, an MA at the University of Guelph, and a PhD from Australian National University.
Most recently, in his new role as an AIMS Fellow, Professor Ferguson has commented in the National Post and the Globe and Mail on the recent crisis in the United States and Canada surrounding the shortage of flu vaccines as well as the drug policy of Democratic Presidential Candidate John Kerry.
Currently, Professor Ferguson is preparing a paper on the economics of drug policy for AIMS. He joins two other Fellows working in health care policy at AIMS: Dr. David Zitner and Julia Witt.
AIMS carries out practical research on important economic and social policy issues. Over the past decade, the Institute has initiated and supported research in such areas as healthcare, performance and accountability in public schools and other education issues, equalization, unemployment insurance, urban affairs and local government, fisheries and aquaculture, public finances, social welfare, electricity and oil & gas sectors, and the impact of Canada-US relations and free trade on the region.
AIMS has twice won the prestigious Sir Antony Fisher Memorial Prize for its work on health care policy. The first was awarded to the Institute for Operating in the Dark: The Gathering Crisis in Canada’s Public Health Care System. The Institute’s second Fisher Prize was awarded for The Definitely NOT the Romanow Report. Both projects, as well as a host of other commentary on health care issues, are available on the AIMS website, www.aims.ca.
– 30 –
For more information:
Dr. Brian Lee Crowley
President
902-499-1998
[email protected]