Readiness for scale-up: lessons learned from the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Innovation Strategy

2021 ◽  
Vol 112 (S2) ◽  
pp. 204-219 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Bradley Dexter ◽  
Leslie Payne ◽  
Kelly Kavanagh Salmond ◽  
Sarah Mahato ◽  
Marie C. Chia ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Scale Up ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Innovation Strategy ◽  
The Public

scholarly journals The art and science of a strategic grantmaker: the experience of the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Innovation Strategy

2021 ◽  
Vol 112 (S2) ◽  
pp. 186-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shannon Bradley Dexter ◽  
Kelly Kavanagh Salmond ◽  
Leslie Payne ◽  
Marie C. Chia ◽  
Erica Di Ruggiero ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Population Health ◽  
Social Innovation ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Systems Change ◽  
Iterative Learning ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Innovation Strategy ◽  
The Public ◽  
Partnership Networks

Abstract Setting The Public Health Agency of Canada’s Innovation Strategy (PHAC-IS) was established amid calls for diverse structural funding mechanisms that could support research agendas to inform policy making across multiple levels and jurisdictions. Influenced by a shifting emphasis towards a population health approach and growing interest in social innovation and systems change, the PHAC-IS was created as a national grantmaking program that funded the testing and delivery of promising population health interventions between 2009 and 2020. Intervention During its decade-long tenure, the PHAC-IS supported the development of innovative, locally driven programs that emphasized health equity, encouraged iterative learning to respond reflexively to complex public health problems (the art), while at the same time promoting and integrating population health intervention research (the science) for improved health at the individual, community, and systems levels through four program components. Outcomes PHAC-IS projects reached priority audiences in over 1700 communities. Over 1400 partnerships were established by community-led organizations across multiple sectors with more than $30 million of leveraged funds. By the final phase of funding, 90% of the projects and partnership networks had a sustained impact on policy and public health practice. By the end of the program, 82% of the projects were able to continue their intervention beyond PHAC-IS funding. Through a phased approach, projects were able to adapt, reflect, and build partnership networks to impact policy and practice while increasing reach and scale towards sustainability. Implications Analysis and reflection throughout the course of this initiative showed that strong partnerships that contribute sufficient time to collaboration are critical to achieving meaningful outcomes. Building on evaluation cycles that strengthen project design can ensure both scale and sustainability of project achievements. Furthermore, a flexible, phased approach allows for iterative learning and adjustments across various phases to realize sustained population and systems change. The model and reflexive approach underlying the PHAC-IS has the potential to apply to a broad range of public programs.

scholarly journals A guideline on how to synthesize knowledge by reviews at the Public Health Agency of Sweden

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (suppl_1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A Månsdotter ◽  
K Godoy ◽  
K Guldbrandsson ◽  
R Henriksson ◽  
S Löfdahl ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
The Public

scholarly journals Large outbreak of tularaemia, central Sweden, July to September 2019

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (42) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rikard Dryselius ◽  
Marika Hjertqvist ◽  
Signar Mäkitalo ◽  
Anders Lindblom ◽  
Tobias Lilja ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
The Public ◽  
Large Outbreak

On 31 of July 2019, the Public Health Agency of Sweden was alerted about an increasing number of tularaemia cases in Gävleborg, a county in central Sweden. The number of cases increased thereafter peaking at about 150 reports of illnesses every week. As at 6 October, a total of 979 cases (734 laboratory-confirmed) have been reported, mainly from counties in central Sweden. The outbreak is now considered over (as at 14 October).

Patterns of Health Services Utilization in Rural Canada

2011 ◽  
Vol 31 (supplement 1) ◽  
pp. 1-36 ◽  
Author(s):  
RW Pong ◽  
M DesMeules ◽  
D Heng ◽  
C Lagacé ◽  
JR Guernsey ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Rural Communities ◽  
Health Services ◽  
Descriptive Analysis ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Health Determinants ◽  
Access To Health Services ◽  
Research Project ◽  
The Public

Canadians value ease of access to their health services. Although many studies have focused on accessibility to health services in Canada, few have examined rural-urban differences in this aspect, particularly from a national perspective. Yet disparities in access to health services exist between rural and urban populations, as do the challenges of delivering health care to more remote areas or to those with small populations. “Canada’s Rural Communities: Understanding Rural Health and Its Determinants” is a three-year research project co-funded by the Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI) of the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC). It involves investigators from the Public Health Agency of Canada, the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research (CRaNHR) at Laurentian University, and other researchers. The first publication of the research project was How Healthy Are Rural Canadians? An Assessment of Their Health Status and Health Determinants;Footnote 1a1a this, the second publication, is a descriptive analysis of the utilization patterns of a broad range of health services by rural residents compared to their urban counterparts.

scholarly journals Leveraging public health's participation in a Health Information Exchange to improve communicable disease reporting

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Painter ◽  
Debra Revere ◽  
P. Joseph Gibson ◽  
Janet Baseman
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Information Exchange ◽  
Health Information Exchange ◽  
Communicable Disease ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Public Health Agencies ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Mean

Background: Infectious diseases can appear and spread rapidly. Timely information about disease patterns and trends allows public health agencies to quickly investigate and efficiently contain those diseases. But disease case reporting to public health has traditionally been paper-based, resulting in somewhat slow, burdensome processes. Fortunately, the expanding use of electronic health records and health information exchanges has created opportunities for more rapid, complete, and easily managed case reporting and investigation. To assess how this new service might impact the efficiency and quality of a public health agency's case investigations, we compared the timeliness of usual case investigation to that of case investigations based on case report forms that were partially pre-populated with electronic data. Intervention: Between September 2013-March 2014, chlamydia disease report forms for certain clinics in Indianapolis were electronically pre-populated with clinical, lab and patient data available through the Indiana Health Information Exchange, then provided to the patient’s doctor. Doctors could then sign the form and deliver it to public health for investigation and population-level disease tracking. Methods: We utilized a novel matched case analysis of timeliness changes in receipt and processing of communicable disease report forms. Each Chlamydia cases reported with the pre-populated form were matched to cases reported in usual ways. We assessed the time from receipt of the case at the public health agency: 1) inclusion of the case into the public health surveillance system and 2) to close to case. A hierarchical random effects model was used to compare mean difference in each outcome between the target cases and the matched cases, with random intercepts for case. Results: Twenty-one Chlamydia cases were reported to the public health agency using the pre-populated form. Sixteen of these pre-populated form cases were matched to at least one other case, with a mean of 23 matches per case. The mean Reporting Lag for the pre-populated form cases was 2.5 days, which was 2.7 days shorter than the mean Reporting Lag for the matched controls (p = <0.001). The mean time to close a pre-populated form case was 4.7 days, which was 0.2 days shorter than time to close for the matched controls (p = 0.792). Conclusions: Use of pre-populated forms significantly decreased the time it took for the local public health agency to begin documenting and closing chlamydia case investigations. Thoughtful use of electronic health data for case reporting may decrease the per-case workload of public health agencies, and improve the timeliness of information about the pattern and spread of disease.

scholarly journals The use of anonymized and aggregated telecom mobility data by a public health agency during the COVID-19 pandemic: Learnings from both the operator and agency perspective

Data & Policy ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kristofer Ågren ◽  
Pär Bjelkmar ◽  
Elin Allison
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Personal Data ◽  
Health Agency ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Public Health Agency ◽  
Public Institution ◽  
Aggregated Data ◽  
Personal Data Protection ◽  
Mobility Data ◽  
Telecom Operator

Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic and associated measures implemented have rapidly changed how people move about and behave in society. Utilizing data on people’s mobility could provide unique and valuable insights to governments and institutions to better manage the crisis. These entities, however, have not traditionally had access to, nor the experience of applying, continuous anonymized and aggregated data on people mobility. This article aims to show how the Public Health Agency in Sweden successfully collaborated with a Nordic Telecoms operator to make use of such data during the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, it investigates how the collaboration started, approaches used to go from data to insight, outcomes and impact, and lessons learned on both sides. Telia, the largest telecom operator in the Nordics, had an existing product commercially available that provided anonymized and aggregated insights about people’s movement. Several challenges existed within Telia as it was the first time worldwide a collaboration with a Public Health Agency would take place and social benefits had to be weighed against commercial and reputational risks. The hypothesis at the beginning of the pandemic was that the solution could be adapted to fit the needs of policymakers and the internal challenges could be overcome, while providing a meaningful contribution to the fight against the virus. The results show that it is possible to both form a mutually beneficial collaboration between a telecom operator and a public institution, and to make use of mobility data in evidence-based policymaking without compromising applicable personal data protection laws.

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