Professor Wendy Norman

Professor Wendy Norman has established, resourced, and led national interdisciplinary research and capacity-building collaborations effectively integrating and applying a range of scholarly advancements in women's reproductive health care to improve health outcomes across Canada. She has engaged with policymakers and government leaders in all aspects of her research to ensure research relevance and value to improve health. She meets quarterly with the BC Provincial Health Officer and engages with similar ministry officials in many Canadian provinces and territories. Professor Norman is an expert advisor to several Federal Ministers and agencies including Health Canada, The Public Health Agency of Canada, The Canadian Institute of Health Information, Statistics Canada, and serves as a technical advisor on Sexual Health Surveys for the WHO. CI Norman’s cost-effectiveness analysis of RCT data led to a BC Provincial Government policy change to provide all women at the time of abortion with free contraception in 2016, a strategy effective to prevent 38% of subsequent unintended pregnancies, and her Sexual Health Survey implementation and analysis is the foundation for the first Canadian jurisdiction to set a policy of free prescription contraception for all. The integrated knowledge translation (IKT) strategy for her CIHR-funded research project on MTOP resulted in timely removal of barriers to MTOP, including the removal of federal requirements for mandatory observed dosing; practitioner training; practitioner registration; and the restriction on physician-only prescribing and dispensing of mifepristone. Her studies have further demonstrated this federal policy had no adverse effect on safety or the abortion rate, while improving access to care more than three-fold, particularly in rural areas.