Partner Notification for STBBI: Why, for whom and how? Deciding on Useful Products and Tools for Public Health Practitioners (Proceedings from a Knowledge Exchange Forum)

Publication Summary

Partner notification (PN) is one of the most commonly practiced interventions for the prevention and control of sexually-transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI) in public health. Despite ongoing efforts and resources dedicated to partner notification (PN), its effectiveness in reducing the incidence STBBI remains unclear. Over the years NCCID has been working on projects to review the evidence available on the effectiveness and efficiency of partner notification in preventing and controlling the spread of STBBIs in Canada.

On March 4 and 5, 2013, the NCCID brought together fifty-two people from federal, provincial/territorial and regional public health jurisdictions as well as various professional organizations and universities, for a two-day knowledge exchange forum to begin to prioritize issues, and to assess the knowledge gaps and other knowledge translation needs related to PN. The goal of this consultation, entitled “Partner Notification for STBBI: Why, for Whom and How? Deciding on Useful Products and Tools for Public Health Practitioners”, was to gather input on the type of knowledge products that would be useful to public health practitioners.

Working from a list of issues that were identified in pre-forum materials, the participants in the knowledge exchange forum deliberated and worked together to specify what the underlying challenges were. By the end of the two days the group had also developed ideas of what needs to be done to take action on these challenges.

The discussions and suggestions on potential solutions and knowledge products for these priority issues will inform the future work in the area of partner notification that can be undertaken by NCCID and our colleagues.