Dr. Diane Finegood

Professional Background:

Dr. Finegood is currently seconded to SFU’s Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue where she centers the practice of dialogue and frameworks for systems thinking in her teaching, research and service.  Diane teaches in the immersive cohort-based Semester in Dialogue and no longer supervises graduate students.

On faculty at SFU since 1996, Diane took a 5-year leave of absence to serve as the President and CEO of the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2012-2016).  Diane has also served in many other leadership roles including inaugural Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes (2000-2008) and Executive Director of the Canadian Health Services and Policy Research Alliance (2018-2023).

Diane’s scholarship has spanned the four pillars of health research ranging from basic biomedical science and clinical research on both type 1 and type 2 diabetes to health services research and population and public health relevant to obesity and chronic disease prevention.  Her current interests focus on systems thinking to address complex challenges.

Selected Publications:

Complex Systems / Systems Thinking

• Taylor E, Schwartz R, Trowbridge J, Di Ruggiero E, Sullivan T, Marchildon G, Dobrow M, Finegood D, Price A.  Strategy design for New Public Governance and horizontal initiatives. Canadian Public Administration 64 (4): 657-681, 2021.
  
• Finegood DT, Jebb S, Diez Roux A, Rutter H, Clarkson J, Frank J, Roos N, Bonell C, Michie S, Hawe P. Systems-based approaches in public health: where next?  Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, 2021.
• Pescud M, Rychetnik L, Allender S, Irving MJ, Finegood DT, Riley T, Ison R, Rutter H, Friel S. From Understanding to Impactful Action: Systems Thinking for Systems Change in Chronic Disease Prevention Research.  Systems 9(3): 61, 2021.
• Finegood DT. Can We Build an Evidence Base on the Impact of Systems Thinking for Wicked Problems? Comment on "What Can Policy-Makers Get Out of Systems Thinking? Policy Partners’ Experiences of a Systems-Focused Research Collaboration in Preventive Health".  Int J Health Policy Manag. Jun; 10(6): 351–353, 2021.
• Haynes A, Rychetnik L, Finegood D, Irving M, Freebairn L, Hawe P.  Applying systems thinking to knowledge mobilisation in public health. Health Res Policy Sys 18: 134, 2020.
• Johnston LM, Goldsmith LJ, Finegood DT. Developing co-funded multi-sectoral partnerships for chronic disease prevention: a qualitative inquiry into federal governmental public health staff experience. Health Res Policy Sys 18, 92, 2020.
• Rutter H, Savona N, Glonti K, Bibby J, Cummins S, Finegood DT, Greaves F, Harper L, Hawe P, Moore L, Petticrew M, Rehfuess E, Shiell A, Thomas J, White M.  The need for a complex systems model of evidence for public health. Lancet S0140-6736(17): 31267-9, 2017.
• Johnston LM, Matteson CL, Finegood DT  Systems Science and Obesity Policy: A Novel Framework for Analyzing and Rethinking Population-Level Planning. American Journal of Public Health 104(7): 1270-8, 2014.

Public-Private Partnerships

• White M, Aguirre E, Finegood DT, Holmes C, Sacks G, Smith R et al. What role should the commercial food system play in promoting health through better diet? BMJ 368 :m545, 2020.
  
• Johnston, L.M., Finegood, D.T.  Cross-sector partnerships and public health: challenges and opportunities with the private sector.  Annual Rev Public Health 36: 255-271, 2015.
• Johnston, L., Vander Wekken, S., Finegood, D.T.  Public-Private Partnerships to Prevent and Manage Obesity and Non-Communicable Diseases.  In: Oxford Bibliographies in Public Health, Ed. McQueen, D. New York: Oxford University Press, 2013.

Obesity and Chronic Disease

• Swinburn, B.A., Sacks, G., Hall, K.D., McPherson, K., Finegood, D.T., Moodie, M.L., Gortmaker, S.L.  The global obesity pandemic: shaped by global drivers and local environments.  Lancet 378: 804-14, 2011.
• Finegood, D.T.  The Complex Systems Science of Obesity.  In: The Oxford Handbook of the Social Science of Obesity, Ed. Cawley, J.H., Oxford University Press, 208-236, 2011.
• Daar, A.S., Singer, P.A., Persad, D.L., Pramming, S.K., Matthews, D.R., Beaglehole, R., Bernstein, A., Borysiewicz, L.K., Colagiuri, S., Ganguly, N., Glass, R.I., Finegood, D.T., Koplan, J., Nabel, N.G., Sarna, G., Sarrafzadegan, N., Smith, R., Yach, D., Bell, J.  Grand Challenges in Chronic Non-Communicable Diseases: The top 20 policy and research priorities for conditions such as diabetes, stroke and heart disease. Nature 450: 494-496, 2007.

Mathematical Modeling and Biomedical Research on Diabetes

• Finegood, D.T., McArthur, M.D., Kojwang, D., Thomas, M.J., Topp, B.G., Leonard, T., Buckingham, R.E. Beta-cell mass dynamics in Zucker Diabetic Fatty rats: Rosiglitazone jhprevents the rise in net cell death.  Diabetes 50: 1021-1029, 2001.
• Trudeau, J.D., Dutz, J.P., Arany, E., Hill, D.J., Fieldus, W.E., Finegood, D.T.  Perspectives in Diabetes. Neonatal beta-cell apoptosis: a trigger for autoimmune diabetes? Diabetes 49: 1-7, 2000.
• Finegood, D.T., Scaglia, L., Bonner-Weir, S.  Dynamics of beta-cell mass in the growing rat pancreas:  estimation with a simple mathematical model.  Diabetes 44:249-256, 1995.
• Bergman, R.N., Finegood, D.T., Ader, M.  Assessment of insulin sensitivity in vivo.  Endocrine Reviews 6: 45-86, 1985. 

Recent VIDEOS and presentations:

• Finegood DT. Multi-purpose teaching modules on systems thinking, 2021.
• ·         Module #1: What is systems thinking?
• ·         Module #2: What is the difference between simple, complicated, complex and chaotic?
• ·         Module #3: Why are framing and boundaries important?
• ·         Module #4: Where should we focus our attention when tackling a complex problem?
• ·         Module #5: How can we influence the future?
• ·         Module #6: What is the difference between resilience and antifragility?
• Finegood DT et al. Building a University/Community Network in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic,  Presented at the USR Summit, 2021.

• Webinar, The Australian Prevention Partnership. Practical strategies for mobilizing knowledge in complex systems, March 2017. 

• Global Civic Policy Society's Public Salon, Vancouver.  Complex is not the Same as Complicated https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gX6ML4ydY7o (October 2016)
• The Australian Prevention Partnership Centre.  Shifting the paradigm in chronic disease prevention from attribution to adaptation: What data do we need?; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sO7LL91CG6Y (October 2014)
• Australian Prevention Partnership Centre (APPC) Investigators' Forum, Sydney, Australia.  Keynote Speaker: The food industry: Friend or foe?; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLe-AGEtNEg (October 2014)
• Building Trust Initiative, Building Trust to Address Obesity, 2011.