About Melanie Barwick
My goal is to equip organizations with the strategies, tools, and capabilities needed to translate innovation into sustained practice and measurable impact.
I am a Senior Scientist in the SickKids Research Institute in Toronto, where I hold a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Implementation Science and Practice (2024–2031).
My work focuses on helping health systems successfully implement complex innovations—including evidence-based programs, new models of care, and digital health technologies—so that research leads to meaningful improvements in practice and outcomes.
I am also a Professor and Affiliated Scientist at the University of Toronto, with appointments in the Department of Psychiatry in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine and in the Social and Behavioural Health Sciences Program and the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.
For more than two decades, I have collaborated with health systems, government agencies, and community organizations to advance the science and practice of implementation—understanding how to move effective innovations into real-world settings and sustain them over time. My work bridges research, policy, and practice, supporting organizations seeking to implement complex changes in healthcare and related sectors.
In addition to my academic work, I advise health system leaders, government agencies, and organizations seeking to strengthen their implementation strategies, with a focus on translating innovation into sustained practice and measurable impact.
This work has led to the development of widely used training programs and implementation tools designed to strengthen knowledge translation and implementation capacity, including the Specialist Knowledge Translation Training (SKTT) program, the Knowledge Translation Professional Certificate (KTPC), and the Planning for Implementation Practice (PIP) workshop, as well as practical resources such as the Knowledge Translation Planning Template, The KT Game, the Knowledge Translation Plan Appraisal Tool, and The Implementation Roadmap.
More recently, I have been advancing The Implementation Playbook (TIP)—a digital SaaS platform designed to help teams systematically plan, execute, and sustain implementation efforts in real-world settings.
I believe passionately that Implementation Matters and that research should make a real difference in people’s lives.
Helping organizations utilize evidence effectively can enhance systems, minimize waste, and ultimately improve outcomes for communities. I also work closely with healthcare and child and youth mental health organizations to build implementation capacity. I recently served as Board Chair for Children’s Mental Health Ontario (2023-2025) and as a Board Member (2019 -2026). I serve on the Institute Advisory Board for CIHR’s Institute of Health Services and Policy Research, as well as the editorial board of Implementation Research and Practice.
Contact Information
Melanie Barwick, Ph.D., C.Psych [Retired].
Senior Scientist
Child Health Evaluative Sciences, Research Institute
The Hospital for Sick Children