Establishing Research Priorities for Public Health Emergency Preparedness in Canada: Results of a Scoping Review and Priority-Setting Meeting
Yasmin Khan, MD MPH FRCPC
Consultant Physician, Public Health Ontario
PublicHealthOntario.ca
Objectives• To briefly describe the methods applied in a scoping review of
the literature on PHEP
• To share the results of PHEP themes in the literature, based on the review and survey
• To describe the meeting held to set priorities for PHEP research in Canada
• To share the results of the priority-setting discussions
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Begin with list
of themes
Add missing themes
Prioritize themes
or topics
Think about
research ideas
Develop research
questions
Prioritize research
questions
Develop research proposals
Goals for the process
PublicHealthOntario.ca
Scoping review and pre-meeting survey• Used scoping review methodology
• Focus on public health sector and evidence-based literature in last 15 years
• Mapped key themes in the literature based on search results
• Sought consultation via survey on the emergent themes from the international panel of meeting participants
• Refined themes based on survey results
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Results
CROSS-CUTTING THEMES
Theme
Equity
Gender considerations
Resilience
Vulnerable/high-risk populations
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Results
STAND-ALONE THEMES
Theme
Attitudes and beliefs
Capacity assessment and capacity-building
Collaboration and system integration
Communicable disease control
Communication
Education, training and exercises
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Results
STAND-ALONE THEMESTheme
Ethical considerations
Planning
Psychosocial impacts of emergencies
Public health considerations for sheltering and evacuation
Quality improvement and performance standards
Surveillance, epidemiology and public health information
PublicHealthOntario.ca
Begin with list
of themes
Add missing themes
Prioritize themes
or topics
Think about
research ideas
Develop research
questions
Prioritize research
questions
Develop research proposals
Goals for the process
PublicHealthOntario.ca
Research priority-setting meeting• Held in April 2013
• Attended by an international panel of public health practitioners at multiple levels, health-care practitioners, researchers and policymakers
• Knowledge exchange through large and small group discussions
• Priority setting occurred after confirming criteria for the process
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Priority-setting criteria1. Relevance and impact
2. Originality
3. Feasibility
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Communication and Education• Internal/ external communication
• Social media
• Education/competencies
• Technical/ non-technical skills
• Attitudes
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Defining & Measuring Emergency Preparedness• Needs assessment
• Capacity – business continuity
• Resilience
• Vulnerability
• Disaster risk reduction
• Evaluation/metrics
• Modeling (standards)
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Integration and Collaboration• Systems
• Mechanism of decision-making and policy
• Decision science
• Evaluation/metrics
• Modeling (standards)
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Final prioritized themes• Communication
• Defining and measuring emergency preparedness
• Critical decision-making in complex public health emergencies
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PublicHealthOntario.ca
Begin with list
of themes
Add missing themes
Prioritize themes
or topics
Think about
research ideas
Develop research
questions
Prioritize research
questions
Develop research proposals
Goals for the process
PublicHealthOntario.ca
Progress on research priorities• Continued collaboration within the PHEP network and beyond
• Sharing knowledge from the research priority-setting exercise
• Building teams for collaboration on projects to address priority themes
• Submission of proposals for funding opportunities to pursue projects on priority themes
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Results
39%
6%31%
24%
0.003%
All hazards
Human caused (terrorism)
Natural hazard infectious
Natural hazard non-infectious
Technological
Types of hazards for studies identified in scoping review
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Results
62%12%
15%
11%
Descriptive Studies
Analytic Epidemiology Stud-ies
Descriptive Primary Research Studies
Grey Literature
Types of study designs captured in scoping review
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Results
Final yield for charting using descriptive numerical
summary approach: 300
Selection of studies for charting by thematic analysis: 82
(primary research descriptive 45 and analytical epidemiology 37)
Excluded modelling/ simulation studies: 24
Total studies examined by thematic analysis: 58