Morris L. Barer is Professor and Director, Division of Population Health and Health Services Research, in the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology at UBC, and was the founding Director of the Centre for Health Services and Policy Research. His recent research has focused on the determinants of health care cost increases (with an emphasis on pharmaceutical sector); pharmaceutical policy in Canada; separating fact from fiction in arguments about access to care, wait lists, the effects of an aging population, and health care financing; use of health care services, particularly by seniors; continuity of care; and the roles of research evidence and interests in the evolution of health care policy. Dr. Barer is the first Scientific Director of the CIHR Institute of Health Services and Policy Research and has overseen its development.