The heart of this conference lies in creating new knowledge that informs health and social policy, therefore this conference will explore the connection between research, policy and practice, clinical care and public health. To do so we built the conference around four plenary sessions which revolve around topics in Research, Knowledge Translation, and Data Linkage.  Concurrent breakout sessions following three of the plenary sessions will allow participants to explore these topics in a more intimate setting. The full program is outlined below.

The full conference program can be downloaded here.

For more information please contact the Conference Coordinator, Carole Ouelette.

Carole Ouelette
Conference Coordinator
Manitoba Centre for Health Policy
Department of Community Health Sciences
Faculty of Medicine
University of Manitoba
Phone: 204-975-7734
E-mail: Carole_Ouelette@cpe.umanitoba.ca

Monday, March 8

Tuesday, March 9

Plenary Topics and Speaker Bios

Dr. Clyde Hertzman MD, MSc, FRCPC, FRSC, FAHS, Director, Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), University of British Columbia
“The Role of Administrative Record Linkage in Creating Trajectories of Early Human Development”
In Canada administrative record linkage began as a method to study cancer incidence and mortality in occupational cohorts. Thanks to the pioneering work of the Roos' its use expanded into health services and policy research. In recent years initiatives in BC and Manitoba have shown how child developmental trajectories can be created by administrative record linkage, and linkage of administrative records to de novo data sources such as the Early Development Indicator (EDI). In an era of investment in early childhood these approaches can and should be used to create the world's best system of child development reporting for Canada.

Bio: Dr. Hertzman is Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP), the College for Interdisciplinary Studies at UBC; Canada Research Chair in Population Health and Human Development; and Professor in the School of Population and Public Health at UBC. Dr. Hertzman has played a central role in creating a framework that links population health to human development, emphasizing the special role of early childhood development as a determinant of health. His research has contributed to international, national, provincial, and community initiatives for healthy child development. His current work focuses on early child development as a lifelong determinant of health and the policy translations needed to fulfill Canada’s National Children's Agenda. To this end, he is carrying out province-wide research mapping children's development at kindergarten age.

Mr. Steven Lewis, President, Access Consulting Ltd, Saskatoon Saskatchewan
“How Health Services Research has Made a Difference”
This presentation will focus on how health services research has made a difference. It will briefly review the history of HSR in Canada and identify sentinel studies that have influenced policy and practice, and how. It will conclude with an overview of opportunities on the horizon that if realized will usher in a bright new era for HSR, and enhance both its capacity and impact.

Bio: Steven Lewis is a health policy and research consultant based in Saskatoon, and Adjunct Professor of Health Policy at the University of Calgary and Simon Fraser University (where he was Visiting Scholar from January to April 2007). Prior to resuming a full-time consulting practice he headed a health research granting agency and spent 7 years as CEO of the Health Services Utilization and Research Commission in Saskatchewan. He has served on various boards and committees, including the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Saskatchewan Health Quality Council, the Health Council of Canada, and the editorial boards of several journals, including the newly launched Open Medicine. His published work covers topics such as reforming and strengthening medicare, improving health care quality, primary health care, regionalization, and the management of wait times.

Dr. Patricia Martens BSc, BEd, MSc, PhD, Director, Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, University of Manitoba
“Going for Knowledge Translation Gold: Research with its Feet on the Ground...Walking and Talking”
What lessons have we learned at MCHP about knowledge translation over the past 20 years, and what is our vision for the future? How did we weave straw into gold, how have we panned for gold, how do we ‘translate’ and market those golden nuggets, and how do we look for the pot of gold in the future? There’s gold in them thar hills. 

Bio: Dr. Martens is a senior researcher and Director of MCHP; she’s also an Associate Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. Dr. Martens is a CIHR New Investigator, and on the Institute Advisory Board of CIHR’s Institute of Population and Public Health. Her interests in health services research include projects on the health status and healthcare use patterns of residents of Manitoba’s Regional Health Authorities, Manitoba’s children, and Manitoba’s Registered First Nations people, as well as rural hospital performance indicators. She also does research in the area of program evaluation of maternal/child community-based and hospital-based interventions, with interests in the areas of breastfeeding programs and maternity hospital policies and practices. Dr. Martens directs the five-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research project called The Need To Know Team, working with a collaborative group of decision-makers and planners from Manitoba’s rural and northern RHAs, academics associated with MCHP, and planners from Manitoba Health and Healthy Living. Collaborative research, two-way capacity building and knowledge translation are aspects of this project.

Dr. Fiona Stanley MD, PhD, Director, Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, Western Australia
“The Development Pathways Project: Can Joined-Up Data Lead to Joined-Up Thinking?”
Our Institute has pioneered the linking up of data across a range of child health and wellbeing agencies. This has been done in collaboration with the policy makers within the agencies developing novel ways to ensure the data are used for developing and guiding their work. The second aim of this project has been to demonstrate the cross jurisdictional nature of developmental pathways and hence the need for services to join up. This is a model for a national statistical service.

Bio: Named Australian of the Year in 2003, Fiona Stanley is a vocal advocate for the needs of children and their families. Dr. Stanley is the founding Director of the Telethon Institute for Child Health Research, established in Perth in 1990. The Institute is multi-disciplinary and researches prevention of major childhood illnesses. It currently has more than 400 staff and students. She is a Professor in the School of Paediatrics and Child Health at the University of Western Australia. Dr. Stanley is also the Chair of the Australian Research Alliance for Children and Youth, a national collaboration of researchers, policy makers and practitioners from a broad range of disciplines who are committed to building a better future for Australia's children and young people. In 2004, Dr. Stanley was honoured as a “National Living Treasure” by the National Trust and is the UNICEF Australia Ambassador for Early Childhood Development. She is also a member of the Prime Minister’s Science, Engineering and Innovation Council and the Australian Statistics Advisory Council. 

Breakout Sessions

“Panning for Population Gold: 20 Years of Research at MCHP”
This session will highlight key contributions to population health and health services research made by MCHP, including the adoption and operationalization of the population health approach, and findings from a variety of topic areas. Research impact and implications for health and social policy will also be discussed.

“The Whole is Greater than the Sum of the Parts: Using Data Linkage, and Cohort Designs to Create Data Synergy at MCHP”
The data held at MCHP permit linkage across many data sources, and these data may be studied across time. In this session participants will gain specific knowledge about how data at MCHP can be examined over time, and hear about a new linkage capability that allows investigation across siblings. Examples of how linkages have been created between various databases and the impact of these linkages will be discussed. People will leave this session ready to think creatively about addressing important research questions using the longitudinal and linkable data at MCHP, and about research designs that are uniquely possible using these data.

“Taking it to the Streets: Figuring Out and Communicating What's Really Important in Children's Health & Wellbeing Research”
This session will briefly review key insights which result when data is brought together from education, family services and health. Panelists will be asked to identify ways in which the research has been useful and to identify what additional research it would make sense to undertake.

“Clinical Research at MCHP Over the Next 20 Years: Past Successes and Future Challenges”
The Repository data has been used over the years for clinical studies by both MCHP scientists and clinician scientists. In this session two clinicians will share some of the lessons they learned while working with the data as well as some of the challenges they faced. Potential solutions to those challenges will also be shared. In addition, a third speaker will add context to the discussion in terms of policy issues that impact clinical research using the repository. Finally the three speakers will reflect on a vision for clinician involvement with research and knowledge translation at MCHP.

“Using Administrative Data to Study Child Health”
This session will describe ways in which both health and social services data in the MCHP Repository have been used to study child health and development. Future research directions will be discussed as well as the role MCHP can play in contributing to the development of child health policy.

“International Health Data Linkage Network”
One of the purposes of the International Health Data Linkage Network (IHDLN) is to foster collaborative projects that show the value of international comparative data applications, data quality and methods assessments and concept dictionaries. In its first year of operation, the IHDLN has embarked on three collaborative initiatives to show the significance of international comparable data linkage studies. Like the MCHP, the IHDLN aims to demonstrate the benefits of international collaboration, with ambitions to creatively work together to pool international aggregated deidentified health data to increase the power of knowledge for population based research. This session will focus on three current collaborative projects facilitated by the IHDLN members.

“Dancing with the Media – Be Careful Not to Step on Your Partner’s Toes: The Challenge of Working with the Media to Share Research Findings with the Public”
While it’s vital for health services research to be shared with decision makers, in some instances it is equally important for this research to be shared with the population at large. This session will discuss the challenges researchers face when presenting their findings to journalists using past examples from MCHP researchers. Information will be presented from both the researcher and journalist perspectives. 

“Seeking the Balance Between Harm and Benefit: The Role of Pharmacosurveillance in Choosing What Drugs We Should Take”
Pharmacosurveillance is the regular monitoring of medications in real clinical practice for benefits and harms. MCHP has taken this to be the advancement of our knowledge about the benefits, harms and costs of medication in its work with pharmacy dispensation data since 1996. Paraphrasing the Olympic Creed, the most important thing MCHP has done is to take part in federal (safety) and provincial (benefits & harms) pharmacosurveillance activities; we have not yet conquered but we have “fought well” in understanding how best to understand pharmaceutical policy. This fish-bowl break-out session will outline our advancements to date and at present and then dream what we could do in the future.

“Expanding the Data Repository: New Technology and Resources for the 21st Century”
The Data Repository at MCHP is being re-organized and new levels of documentation are being developed to facilitate external users. At the same time, these changes are occurring as MCHP pursues the addition of new clinical and social data, bringing the total number of regularly updated data sets to more than 90. The presentation will discuss new technology being piloted at MCHP, evolution of documentation standards and conclude with a discussion of how social data are being integrated to address questions of health policy.

“Beyond Administrative Data: A Vision for Health Information Systems for Canada”
The Canadian Institute for Health Information, Canada Health Infoway and federal, provincial and territorial ministries of health are collaborating on an initiative to inform the planning and development of health information systems across Canada to ensure they are enabling of a full spectrum of uses of data, including health research. Louis Barre will speak to the vision and the collaborative strategies to achieve this vision. Tom Fogg will present the provincial perspective and Steven Lewis will lead a discussion on the research implications.

“The Inside Story: Knowledge Translations Lessons from The Need to Know Team”
The Need to Know Team it a unique collaboration between MCHP, all 11 of Manitoba’s Regional Health Authorities, and Manitoba Health and Healthy Living. It has transformed how health services research is conducted, communicated, and used in Manitoba, and won the CIHR Knowledge Translation Award for Regional Impact. Come hear about the guiding principles which foster the ongoing work of this team as we discuss the key lessons learned since 2001.

“Healthcare Services for an Aging Population: Using Administrative Data to Help Prepare for the Future”
Through both presentations and panel discussions, this session will celebrate the past and present achievements of long term care research in Manitoba, including our successes in guiding policy, partnership development and knowledge translation. Participants will also engage in a discussion about future research directions and further partnership opportunities. Please come to this session with ideas in hand!