scholarly journals Keeping Public Health Surveillance Practice up to Speed: a Training Strategy to Build Capacity

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathleen Laberge ◽  
Lisa Jensen ◽  
Dr. Philip Abdelmalik ◽  
Katie Rutledge-Taylor ◽  
Lena Shah
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Training Strategy ◽  
Learner Outcomes ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Public Health Challenges ◽  
Fluid Environment ◽  
Surveillance Practice ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

Surveillance practice is evolving rapidly: globalization of health threats, emergence of infectious diseases, and explosion of easily accessible new technologies. This fluid environment challenges the public health community, but provides it with a fertile environment to innovate and improve its practice. As surveillance is a core function of public health practice, public health practitioners need to be well equipped to achieve this function and address present and future public health challenges. We developed a training course that focused on the practical use of surveillance concepts and principles. We are sharing findings on the development of the course and learner outcomes.

scholarly journals What makes a ‘successful’ collaborative research project between public health practitioners and academics? A mixed-methods review of funding applications submitted to a local intervention evaluation scheme

2021 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter van der Graaf ◽  
Lindsay Blank ◽  
Eleanor Holding ◽  
Elizabeth Goyder
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Research ◽  
Collaborative Research ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Rapid Review ◽  
Success Rates ◽  
Evaluation Scheme ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

Abstract Background The national Public Health Practice Evaluation Scheme (PHPES) is a response-mode funded evaluation programme operated by the National Institute for Health Research School for Public Health Research (NIHR SPHR). The scheme enables public health professionals to work in partnership with SPHR researchers to conduct rigorous evaluations of their interventions. Our evaluation reviewed the learning from the first five years of PHPES (2013–2017) and how this was used to implement a revised scheme within the School. Methods We conducted a rapid review of applications and reports from 81 PHPES projects and sampled eight projects (including unfunded) to interview one researcher and one practitioner involved in each sampled project (n = 16) in order to identify factors that influence success of applications and effective delivery and dissemination of evaluations. Findings from the review and interviews were tested in an online survey with practitioners (applicants), researchers (principal investigators [PIs]) and PHPES panel members (n = 19) to explore the relative importance of these factors. Findings from the survey were synthesised and discussed for implications at a national workshop with wider stakeholders, including public members (n = 20). Results Strengths: PHPES provides much needed resources for evaluation which often are not available locally, and produces useful evidence to understand where a programme is not delivering, which can be used to formatively develop interventions. Weaknesses: Objectives of PHPES were too narrowly focused on (cost-)effectiveness of interventions, while practitioners also valued implementation studies and process evaluations. Opportunities: PHPES provided opportunities for novel/promising but less developed ideas. More funded time to develop a protocol and ensure feasibility of the intervention prior to application could increase intervention delivery success rates. Threats: There can be tensions between researchers and practitioners, for example, on the need to show the 'success’ of the intervention, on the use of existing research evidence, and the importance of generalisability of findings and of generating peer-reviewed publications. Conclusions The success of collaborative research projects between public health practitioners (PHP) and researchers can be improved by funders being mindful of tensions related to (1) the scope of collaborations, (2) local versus national impact, and (3) increasing inequalities in access to funding. Our study and comparisons with related funding schemes demonstrate how these tensions can be successfully resolved.

scholarly journals Novel Tools Supporting Knowledge Translation for Public Health Practice in British Columbia, Canada

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joanne Stares ◽  
Jenny Sutherland
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Secondary Data ◽  
Data Sets ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Notifiable Diseases ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

ABSTRACT ObjectivesUnderlying the delivery of services by the universal Canadian health care system are a number of rich secondary administrative health data sets which contain information on persons who are registered for care and details on their contacts with the system. These datasets are powerful sources of information for investigation of non-notifiable diseases and as an adjunct to traditional communicable disease surveillance. However, there are gaps between public health practitioners, access to these data, and access to experts in the use of these secondary data. The data linkage requires in-depth knowledge of these data including usages, limitations and data quality issues and also the skills to extract data to support secondary usage. OLAP reports have been developed to support operation needs but not on advanced analytics reports for surveillance and cohort study. To fill these gaps, we developed a set of web-based modular, parameterized, extraction and reporting tools for the purpose of: 1) decreasing the time and resources necessary to fill general secondary data requests for public health audiences; 2) quickly providing information from descriptive analysis of secondary data to public health practitioners; 3) informing the development of data feeds for continued enhanced surveillance or further data access requests; 4) assisting in preliminary stages of epidemiological investigations of non-notifiable diseases; and, 5) facilitating access to information from secondary data for evidence-based decision making in public health. ApproachWe intend to present these tools by case study of their application to small area analysis of secondary data in the context of air quality concerns. Data sources include individuals registered for health care coverage in BC, hospital separations, physician consultations, chronic disease registries, and drugs dispensation. Data sets contain complete information from 1992. Data were extracted and analyzed to describe the occurrence of health service utilization for cardiovascular and respiratory morbidity. Analysis was undertaken for BC residents in areas identified by local public health as priorities for monitoring. Health outcomes were directly standardized by age and compared to provincial trends by use of the comparative morbidity figure. ResultsResults will include descriptive epidemiological analysis of secondary data relating to respiratory and cardiovascular morbidity in the context of air quality concerns, summary of next steps, as well as an assessment of tool performance. ConclusionsWhere adopted tools such as these can make information from secondary data more accessible to support public health practice, particularly in regions with low analytical or epidemiological capacity.

Demystifying Public Health Policy Through Service-Learning Pedagogy

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 128-136
Author(s):  
Maxim Gakh
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Policy ◽  
Service Learning ◽  
Public Health Policy ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Great Promise ◽  
Public Health Programs ◽  
Training Stress ◽  
Pedagogy Literature ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

Policy shapes the health of communities by enabling and limiting public health practice. Major organizations that focus on public health systems, education, and training stress the importance of policy to population health. They also recognize that practitioners should learn, practice, and be able to deploy policy skills. However, despite the recognized role of policy in public health, some public health practitioners remain uncomfortable with policy. And although teaching policy in public health programs appears on the rise, public health policy pedagogy literature is limited and tends to define policy narrowly. Service learning, which is used to teach other skills critical for public health, exhibits great promise as a tool to teach public health policy. This article describes an interdisciplinary, graduate-level public health policy course that relies on a service-learning approach. The course aims to teach public health policy principles, theories, and concepts and to make students more comfortable with public health policy through applied learning.

Biotechnology Venture Investing and Neurodegenerative Medicine: Promise of New Approaches to Cure an Ailing Model

2014 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Dushon DeVere Riley ◽  
Mark Cochran
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Venture Capital ◽  
Neurodegenerative Diseases ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Genetic Knowledge ◽  
Venture Capitalists ◽  
Financial Model ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Market ◽  
Public Health Challenges

Neurodegenerative diseases are one of the leading public health challenges of the next 50 years. Pharmaceutical therapies have traditionally targeted the later stages of neurodegenerative diseases; however, this strategy - as the recent failures of clinical trials for Alzheimer’s drugs have highlighted - has been unsuccessful. Venture capital has underperformed as well during this time, as many new companies have been unable to maintain growth once they reach the public market and have produced less than desirable returns. As a result, venture capitalists have opted for later-stage financing. Nevertheless, new technologies are being developed to answer the question of how to best address neurodegeneration. New tools of detection will allow for much earlier diagnosis and a much greater chance of discovering and applying effective treatments. Realizing that genetic knowledge is insufficient to produce innovative treatments for neurodegenerative diseases, scientists have begun to apply the genetic knowledge attained towards a future of individualized treatments. As these new tools of detection converge with an increased ability to create very precise individual solutions, the risk of successful future investments should come down and provide the potential for outsized returns that have traditionally governed the venture capital financial model.

scholarly journals Surveillance System Evaluations Provide Evidence to Improve Public Health Practice

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beverley J. Paterson ◽  
David N. Durrheim
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Disease Outbreaks ◽  
Surveillance Systems ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Outbreak Response ◽  
Local Public Health ◽  
Infectious Disease Outbreaks ◽  
The Pacific ◽  
Surveillance Practice

Surveillance evaluations of surveillance systems should provide evidence to improve public health practice. In response to surveillance evaluation findings amongst Pacific Island Countries and Territories that identified a critical need to better equip local public health officials with skills to rapidly appropriately respond to suspected infectious disease outbreaks across the Pacific, the RAPID (Response and Analysis for Pacific Infectious Diseases) project was implemented to strengthen capacity in surveillance, epidemiology and outbreak response. The RAPID project is a notable example of how evidence gathered through a surveillance evaluation can be used to improve public health surveillance practice.

scholarly journals Knowledge brokering on infectious diseases for public health

2021 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 161-165
Author(s):  
Margaret Haworth-Brockman ◽  
Yoav Keynan
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome ◽  
Infectious Diseases ◽  
Knowledge Translation ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Knowledge Brokering ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Set Up ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

The National Collaborating Centres (NCCs) for Public Health (NCCPH) were established in 2005 as part of the federal government’s commitment to renew and strengthen public health following the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic. They were set up to support knowledge translation for more timely use of scientific research and other knowledges in public health practice, programs and policies in Canada. Six centres comprise the NCCPH, including the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID). The NCCID works with public health practitioners to find, understand and use research and evidence on infectious diseases and related determinants of health. The NCCID has a mandate to forge connections between those who generate and those who use infectious diseases knowledge. As the first article in a series on the NCCPH, we describe our role in knowledge brokering and the numerous methods and products that we have developed. In addition, we illustrate how NCCID has been able to work with public health to generate and share knowledge during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.

scholarly journals Public Health Informatics in Global Health Surveillance: A Review

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 74-88
Author(s):  
Puteri Nureylia Amir ◽  
Mohd Fazeli Sazali ◽  
Loganathan Salvaraji ◽  
Nafsah Dulajis ◽  
Syed Sharizman Syed Abdul Rahim ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Health Informatics ◽  
Public Health Surveillance ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Health Surveillance ◽  
Public Health Informatics ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Disease Notification ◽  
Healthcare Facilities

   Background: Surveillance is the backbone for effective public health practice. Traditionally, surveillance system relies on the collection of information regarding health-related events through healthcare facilities, disease notification system from the physician, syndromic notification networks, selected sentinel healthcare facilities, or by event-based data. However, there are several limitations in using conventional surveillance.  Methods: With the advancement of technology and computer science, overcoming those limitations and complementing the traditional method has been recommended. Three leading emerging technologies are applied in public health surveillance: the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and blockchain.  Results: Application of informatics in public health surveillance could raise several issues including accessibility and affordability of innovations; public health informatics’ experts, law, and regulation to protect patients’ information; social and ethical considerations, norms, and standards of implementing new technologies; data ownership; privacy and sharing of information; biosecurity; biosafety; and cybersecurity.  Conclusion: This article aimed to review several applications of informatics system in public health surveillance practice and its several issues related to the use of technology. Several applications of informatics could be useful for incoming challenges in public health. However, application of informatics can pose significant issues and must be taken into consideration in public health practice. 

scholarly journals The Public Health Community Platform: Shared Resources For Enterprise Solutions

2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcus Rennick ◽  
Scott Gordon ◽  
Monica Huang ◽  
Anita Samuel ◽  
Paula Soper ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Community Involvement ◽  
Public Health Practice ◽  
Health Practice ◽  
Shared Resources ◽  
Public Health Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Health Community ◽  
Disparate Data ◽  
Increasing Demand

This presentation aims to update the public health practice community on the continuing development of the Public Health Community Platform (PHCP). Public health is at a precipice of increasing demand for the consumption and analysis of large amounts of disparate data, the centralization of local and state IT offices, and the compartmentalization of programmatic technology solutions. The PHCP is being developed as a platform to host technological solutions and accompanying community involvement for common public health problems.

scholarly journals A Practitioner-Driven Research Agenda for Syndromic Surveillance

2017 ◽  
Vol 132 (1_suppl) ◽  
pp. 116S-126S ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard S. Hopkins ◽  
Catherine C. Tong ◽  
Howard S. Burkom ◽  
Judy E. Akkina ◽  
John Berezowski ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Disease Surveillance ◽  
Research Agenda ◽  
Syndromic Surveillance ◽  
Surveillance Network ◽  
Systems Research ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Surveillance Practice ◽  
Public Health Practitioners

Syndromic surveillance has expanded since 2001 in both scope and geographic reach and has benefited from research studies adapted from numerous disciplines. The practice of syndromic surveillance continues to evolve rapidly. The International Society for Disease Surveillance solicited input from its global surveillance network on key research questions, with the goal of improving syndromic surveillance practice. A workgroup of syndromic surveillance subject matter experts was convened from February to June 2016 to review and categorize the proposed topics. The workgroup identified 12 topic areas in 4 syndromic surveillance categories: informatics, analytics, systems research, and communications. This article details the context of each topic and its implications for public health. This research agenda can help catalyze the research that public health practitioners identified as most important.

Roots and foundations

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-19
Author(s):  
John Ashton
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Health Conditions ◽  
Rapid Urbanization ◽  
Health Practitioners ◽  
John Snow ◽  
Public Health Challenges ◽  
Public Health Practitioners ◽  
The Impact

This chapter traces the roots of modern public health to its foundations in the early nineteenth century. By describing the impact of rapid urbanization on the health conditions of the labouring poor, it sets the scene for an account of the work of the early pioneers such as Edwin Chadwick nationally, John Snow in London, and William Henry Duncan in Liverpool. It identifies a series of themes to guide the work of public health practitioners into the twenty-first century. These themes recur throughout the book as public health challenges evolve and mutate, society changes, and science offers greater opportunities for effective intervention.

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