Hosted by: The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)’s Data, Surveillance and Foresight Branch (DSFB) and National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases (NCCID).
Date and time: October 29, 2024 | 1:00 to 2:00 Eastern Time / 12:00 to 1:00 Central Time
Language: English
Introduction
Please join us on Tuesday, October 29, 2024, from 1-2pm ET, for the second seminar of the 2024-2025 Surveillance Advances season, “From Data to Action: Cancer Surveillance and Occupational Diseases.” This seminar will begin with a presentation by Dr. Donna Turner on innovations in cancer surveillance. Then, Dr. Jeavana Sritharan and Dr. Paul Demers will present on Ontario’s Occupational Disease Surveillance System (ODSS).
Synopses
Presentation 1
Presentation 1 will provide an overview of:
- how we get cancer data in Manitoba;
- cancer statistics; and
- some of the risk factors for cancer.
Presentation 2
The Occupational Disease Surveillance System (ODSS), Canada’s first of its kind, is central to the surveillance program at the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC). The ODSS began with cancer surveillance (e.g., prostate, breast, lung) and now includes a broad range of diseases including those that are occupational by nature (e.g., asbestosis and silicosis), chronic diseases (e.g., chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), and ischemic heart disease), and other conditions (e.g., asthma, carpal tunnel syndrome, and Raynaud’s syndrome). This expansion was achieved by linking workers’ compensation data with cancer records, hospitalizations, emergency department visits, and physician billing records.
The ODSS was recently expanded to monitor occupational patterns of opioid-related harms, including poisonings and mental and behavioural disorders identified through hospitalizations and emergency department visits. It was also expanded to examine occupational patterns of COVID-19 infections and effects, through the linkage of lab test results, as well as hospitalizations and emergency room visits to identify more severe cases.
The surveillance system has produced 16 publications, 4 reports, and numerous presentations, with additional publications and presentations in progress. It has garnered significant interest from stakeholders and system partners, leading to many collaborations. With the growth of the surveillance system, an occupational disease surveillance advisory committee was established that meets yearly to discuss progress, new projects, and dissemination of findings.
This presentation will cover the establishment of the ODSS, its expanding scope, examples of key findings, and discuss its impact on occupational disease surveillance in Ontario.
Learning Objectives
Presentation 1
- Learn about how cancer data are collected
- See how cancer presents in Manitoba (incidence, mortality and survival) by demographic and by cancer type
- Hear about cancer risk factors
Presentation 2
- Understand how to establish a surveillance program through the linkage of administrative data in Ontario
- Explore how the surveillance of occupational diseases, including cancer and non-malignant diseases, contributes to the expansion of scientific capacity and evidence-based research
- Recognize the significant impact of occupational disease surveillance on workers’ compensation systems and key stakeholder groups
Speakers
1. Dr. Donna Turner, Chief of Population Oncology at CancerCare Manitoba and Associate Professor in Community Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba
Dr. Donna Turner received a BSc from the University of Victoria in Health Information Science, followed by graduate work in epidemiology and oncology at the Universities of Calgary and Alberta and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy. Her portfolio at CancerCare Manitoba includes: the Manitoba Cancer Registry, Epidemiology, System Performance, Prevention and Screening programs, Cancer Standards and Quality and Patient Safety. She is also the Scientific Director of The Manitoba Tomorrow Project.
2. Dr. Paul Demers, Director of the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC), Senior Scientist with Ontario Health, and Professor with the Occupational and Environmental Health (OEH) Division of the University of Toronto’s (U of T’s) Dalla Lana School of Public Health (DLSPH).
Dr. Paul Demers is the Director of the OCRC, as well as a Senior Scientist with Ontario Health and a Professor with the Occupational and Environmental Health Division of the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. He has a PhD in Epidemiology and an MSc in Industrial Hygiene, both from the University of Washington in Seattle. Paul is internationally recognized for his expertise on the health effects of workplace exposures and has sat on many expert panels, including the International Agency for Research on Cancer working groups that evaluated carcinogens such as dusts and fibres, firefighting and formaldehyde.
3. Dr. Jeavana Sritharan, Scientist at the OCRC based at Ontario Health and Assistant Professor with the OEH Division of U of T’s DLSPH.
Dr. Jeavana Sritharan is a Scientist at the Occupational Cancer Research Centre (OCRC) based at Ontario Health. She is also an Assistant Professor with the Occupational and Environmental Health Division of the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. She completed her PhD at the University of Toronto in the field of occupational epidemiology. She currently leads the Occupational Disease Surveillance Program at the OCRC to examine various cancers and non-malignant diseases in the Ontario worker population. More recently, the program was expanded to include COVID-19 and opioid-related harms.
Moderators
- Signy Baragar, NCCID
- Chia-Yu Lin, DSFB
Format
This seminar will be held on Zoom. The presentation will be 30 minutes followed by approximately 15 minutes for a discussion and question period from attendees. Presentation materials in English and French will be distributed through NCCID media channels.
Access Instructions
All instructions for the seminar series will be posted on the Zoom registration page and will be emailed to all registrants prior to the event.
Past Webinars
Surveillance Advances launched in September 2023 with a discussion about the foundational concepts of public health surveillance and the future opportunities that lie ahead. Subsequent seminars featured topics related to health inequalities (seminar 2), data science (seminar 3), maternal and newborn health (seminar 4), and injury surveillance (seminar 5). For a complete list of seminars and to view their recordings, please visit the Surveillance Advances webcasts page
Accreditation Statement
Surveillance Advances is a self-approved group learning activity (Section 1) as defined by the Maintenance of Certification Program of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada. Surveillance Advances is also approved by the Council of Professional Experience for professional development hours for members of the Canadian Institute of Public Health Inspectors.
