First Nations Data Governance and Public Health Surveillance in Canada: Insights, Lessons, and Future Direction

The seminar introduces participants to First Nations’ experiences, challenges, priorities and lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to data management and public health surveillance.

Speakers discuss First Nations’ vision for data sovereignty and how the future network of Regional Information Governance Centres (RIGCs) could enhance public health surveillance mechanisms and processes for First Nations.

Genomics for Public Health Surveillance

Genomics is at the forefront of public health surveillance and has been widely applied to tracking infectious diseases. From identifying novel, emerging, and circulating pathogens and variants; tracking the spread and behaviour of pathogens; to monitoring vaccine effectiveness; genomics plays a crucial role in infectious disease surveillance for informing public health priorities and interventions.

Injury Data and Surveillance: What Are We Looking for? 

This presentation will provide information on the importance of striving for a more collaborative approach between data analysts and primary knowledge users who work in the injury prevention field. This will include a description of the reasons for a greater focus on obtaining actionable data to help maximize the use of limited available resources.

Insights in Public Health Surveillance for Maternal and Newborn Health

The journey from pregnancy to childbirth and beyond is a complex process that requires careful attention, informed decision-making, and collaborative efforts from healthcare and public health practitioners, policymakers, researchers, women and their families, and society as a whole.

This period of transformation covers not only the physical aspects of pregnancy and childbirth, but also the mental and social dimensions that strongly influence the well-being of women and their families. Recognizing and addressing these multi-dimensional elements is essential to fostering comprehensive support systems and supporting the overall health of women and newborns.

Data for Action: the Role of Data Science in Public Health Surveillance

The integration of data science into public health surveillance marks a new era of opportunities to advance the ability to monitor, analyze, and respond to population health trends and issues. This seminar will discuss the potentially transformative role of data science in shaping the future landscape of public health surveillance.

Bridging the Gaps: A Vision for Public Health Surveillance in Canada

This first in a new series, this seminar provides participants with an overview of public health surveillance, including foundational concepts, current gaps, and key opportunities to strengthen public health surveillance systems and the workforce behind them. It introduces a project to establish a vision for the future of public health surveillance in Canada, including how public health stakeholders from coast to coast to coast can contribute to developing this vision.