CIHR - Institute of Population and Public Health Annual Report (January 1st 2001 - March 31st, 2002)

Message from Scientific Director and Institute Advisory Board Chair

Much has transpired since the Governing Council of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) created the Institute of Population and Public Health (IPPH), an innovative national health organization with a very broad mandate, one that is inherently integrative. While there are many national Institutes of Public Health in the world, there appears to be only one "Institute of Population and Public Health." Why this dual mandate?

Public health involves the planning and delivery of services aimed at the protection of the public from hazards, the prevention of disease and injury and the promotion of good health. These services, perhaps more important than ever in an era of environmental threat, and global social and economic change, represent the program, policy and action arm of the Institute's dual mandate. "Population health," on the other hand refers to a transdisciplinary approach to understanding how human health is determined, especially through the interaction of physical and social environments with genetic predispositions over the life course, at both individual and community levels, in whole societies.
Under the guidance of its Advisory Board, the Institute is uniquely positioned to:

• Provide a virtual "meeting ground" to facilitate the integration of the necessary disciplines, sectors and other stakeholder perspectives to tackle complex population and public health problems (PPH) of the 21st century;
• Strengthen interdisciplinary research capacity, through innovative institutional collaborations and other strategies to improve career prospects for new PPH researchers; and,
• Facilitate the uptake of new and existing scientific knowledge to inform policy and programs, which impact on the health of populations locally and globally.

Our own experiences and backgrounds have led us to the belief that interdisciplinary research, partnered with research users in program, policy and practice, is the way of the future in this field. We look forward to working together with our sister Institutes, partners and the PPH research, policy and practice communities to realize this vision.

Sincerely,

John Frank MD, CCFP, MSc, FRCP(C)
Scientific Director, CIHR - Institute of Population and Public Health; Professor, Public Health Sciences, University of Toronto; Senior Scientist, Institute for Work and Health, Toronto

Jean-Yves Savoie, PhD
Chair, CIHR-Institute of Population and Public Health Advisory Board
Directeur Général, Institut de recherche en santé et en sécurité du travail

Report on IPPH Activities in 2001-02

Following is a synopsis of key activities in relation to the areas in the CIHR planning, reporting and accountability structure. These include:

• Outstanding Research
• Excellent Researchers and a Robust Research Environment
• Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement
• Translation and Use of Knowledge
• Organizational Excellence
  

 

Outstanding Research, Excellent Researchers and a Robust Research Environment

Mapping a Coherent Population and Public Health Research Agenda
 
Strategic Directions Outlook (2001-02) ¹

With the help of the Institute's Advisory Board, the Institute initially developed a Strategic Directions Outlook (SDO), an articulation of PPH objectives and research priorities, which was used to guide our activities in
2001-02. These priorities formed the basis for the Institute's pan-Canadian consultation sessions in the fall of 2001.

Institute "SDO" Objectives

• To develop Canada's capacity for high-quality research in population and public health (PPH), which by its very nature tends to be inter-disciplinary, and to catalyze the development in Canada of internationally respected research projects and findings in this field, by capitalizing on our national research strengths.
• To build bridges between researchers and users of PPH research, namely policy-makers and program administrators in the public, private and voluntary sectors that affect health, so as to increase research uptake/transfer, fostering evidence-based public health policy and practice.
• To demonstrate clear value added from funding strategic (as opposed to purely investigator-initiated) research in this field, in accordance with the ongoing transformation of CIHR itself.
• To act as an effective partner in CIHR cross-Institute activities, which span the four "pillars" of health research (biomedical, clinical, health services and policy, and public/population health).

Institute Research Priorities for 2001-02

• Training for Innovative Research: Building Canadian Capacity
•  Population-Based Health Database Design and Development
• Gene-Environment Interactions
• Context (Home/Family; Daycare/School; Work/Recreation; Institutional versus Domiciliary Living for the Elderly and Disabled; Neighbourhood/Community) as Determinants of Health over the Life-Course
• Population-Level Interventions to Improve Health

Taking Stock of our Research Priorities in Population and Public Health

• In the fall of 2001, the CIHR-Institute of Population and Public Health and the Canadian Institute for Health Information - Canadian Population Health Initiative (CPHI) held in nine provinces, ten meetings of over 400 representatives from the population and public health research, policy and practice communities, with two objectives mind: to bring together the full spectrum of stakeholders from the PPH community to review IPPH and CPHI's research priorities; and, to determine through multi-stakeholder engagement previously unidentified opportunities and gaps in Canadian PPH research activity and capacity. The results are published in English and in French in "Charting the Course - a pan-Canadian consultation on population and public health priorities" [ PDF | Help ]  and have significantly informed the development of the Institute's final, multi-year Strategic Plan (see below).
  
• The collaboration between CPHI and IPPH was extremely well received by stakeholders, thereby laying the foundation for future joint activities of common and complementary interest to both organizations.

Strategic Plan (2002-2007)

Under the direction of its Advisory Board, the Institute successfully developed a comprehensive five-year Strategic Plan, which builds on the Strategic Directions Outlook and is largely based on the insights gained during the cross-country consultation and a review of strategic plans of international research organizations with similar mandates. The Strategic Plan, entitled "Mapping and Tapping the Wellsprings of Health" outlines five strategic priorities (slightly revised from those in the SDO). These priorities have been used as the basis for reporting on activities undertaken by the Institute in the past year.

• Capacity Building
• Understanding and Addressing the Impacts of Physical and Social Environments on Health
• Characterizing and Reducing Health Disparities
• Environmental and Genetic Determinants of Disease in Human Populations
• Global Health

Capacity Building

A range of capacity building research and knowledge exchange initiatives are required to respond to the varying needs of population and public health researchers, policy makers and practitioners, and to help "level the playing field" across Canadian regions with very different PPH research capacities and strengths. These include innovative training opportunities, as well as efforts to facilitate the development and sustainability of data systems, research and public health infrastructure across Canada.

Key Institute Accomplishments - Funded Research

CIHR Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research
Current estimates indicate that Canada will need approximately 100,000 new researchers and scientists by 2010. Coinciding with this need is strong international competition to train and retain talented and experienced researchers. CIHR launched its Strategic Training Initiative in Health Research to: 

• build a culture of creativity, innovation, and trans-disciplinary research within the next generation of health researchers;
• increase capacity of the Canadian health research community through training and support of research talent; and,
• encourage and enable highly motivated individuals from Canada and abroad to undertake training in health research in this country.

As part of this initiative, IPPH provided funding support 12 innovative multi-year trans-disciplinary training initiatives across the country, in partnership with other Institutes and external funding partners. Training topics included: population health (strengthening the link between policy, research and community), two programs related to infectious disease control; analysis and evaluation of health policy interventions; work disability prevention; primary health care; community partnership research; tobacco; allergy and asthma; rural ecosystem and health; bone and joint health; and, bridging public health, engineering and policy research. 
 
A few training initiatives are highlighted below:

Strengthening the Interface between Research, Policy and Community
Dr. Ron Labonte of the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU) is leading this cooperative endeavour of researchers from the University of Regina and the University of Saskatchewan. The training initiative will train researchers in theoretically specific and transdisciplinary approaches to health research.  This program seeks to overcome an acknowledged provincial disadvantage: the comparative lack of a critical mass of skilled and expertly qualified population health researchers in Saskatchewan.

Training New Investigators in Work Disability Prevention
This unique training program, headed by Dr. Patrick Loisel at the Université de Sherbrooke, is using a transdisciplinary approach to address the current need for training in the field of work disability prevention. The program involves researchers from six universities in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. Rehabilitation ergonomics, clinical rehabilitation and tools, program development and evaluation, and disability management are examples of specific components in addition to the provision of core training that will ensure a transdisciplinary approach is adopted. 

Transdisciplinary Training in Community Partnership Research: Bridging Research to Practice
Dr. Charles Frankish of the University of British Columbia builds on the new university-based graduate courses developed with the CIHR Regional Training Centre grant, to add innovative training formats focused on shared capacity building by university and community learners.  The program aims to develop the capacity of practitioners and researchers to engage in community partnership research by creating flexible learning opportunities that result in sustained partnerships.

Public Health and the Agricultural Rural Ecosystem
Dr. James Dosman of the Centre for Agricultural Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan, with researchers from Laval University, Queen's University, the University of British Columbia and the University of Alberta, is addressing the need for a coordinated program looking at the occupational and environmental health and safety risks resulting from the trend towards industrial farming. Using a transdisciplinary approach, the training program will emphasize basic scientific research, health promotion programs, engineering and occupational hygiene controls, risk assessment, and policy development, to encourage safe and sustainable growth of rural and agricultural health and ecosystems. 

New Emerging Team (NET) Grant Program
In August 2001, CIHR launched the New Emerging Team Grant Program. This initiative provides funding over five years, to support new teams of independent investigators assuming collaborative, multi-disciplinary research in Canadian research institutions.

Under this initiative, multi-year funding support has been provided to three teams of investigators. Two of these, related to the impacts of violence, are in collaboration with the Institute of Gender and Health, while the other, addressing the consequences of prenatal exposure to maternal smoking on the brain, is funded in conjunction with the Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction.

Workshop Support Funding Program
The Workshop Support Funding Program was established to financially support meetings of a limited number of persons (10-30) who are individually invited to address specific questions or problems important to the development of the strategic funding agendas of the CIHR Institutes of Population and Public Health and Health Services and Policy Research. These initiatives should be organized with the purpose of reaching a consensus on recommendations or conclusions that provide guidance regarding research gaps, opportunities or priorities.

Workshops funded included the integration of  behavioural and social science research; defining a literacy and health research agenda, and a research agenda on the economic analysis of the burden of food and water-borne disease. 

Integrating Behavioural and Social Science Health Research in Canada: Building a Coalition
Dr. Allan Best, of the University of British Columbia, is leading the organization of a national workshop that includes researchers, policy makers, funders, government and non-governmental employees. The goal of the workshop is for researchers from diverse disciplines to come together and articulate exactly how behavioural and social science health research (BSSR) relates to their discipline and to CIHR strategic priorities.

Toward an Agenda for Literacy and Health Research in Canada
This workshop, being led by Dr. Irving Rootman, of the University of Toronto, in partnership with the Canadian Public Health Association includes researchers, practitioners and policy makers from across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. The purpose of the workshop is to develop a consensus on priority research questions and policy issues related to literacy and health, develop proposals for CIHR funding of literacy and health research projects as well as inform the potential development of a future  strategic initiative on literacy and health.

Other Key Capacity Building Initiatives

• Successful completion of a study, in collaboration with Ontario's Public Health Research, Education and Development Program (PHRED), to assess the feasibility of implementing the PHRED model in other parts of Canada, as a basis for building applied PPH research infrastructure in the community, that is anchored in both universities and public health practice settings;
• Planning workshop of key funders and stakeholders interested in developing a coordinated approach to funding and supporting population-based database development in Canada, and the completion of a Request for Proposal (RFP) issued jointly with the Institute of Health Services and Policy Research (IHSPR), with the support of 10 other Institutes, Health Canada's Centre for Surveillance Coordination, Statistics Canada and the Canadian Institute for Health Information-Canadian Population Health Initiative. The RFP is intended to contract the services of research consultants to describe the current status of population-based health and health services databases in Canada that have the potential for use in innovative and important health research; and, 
• Planning of a Summer Institute for population and public health trainees at the PhD and Post Doctoral level, to strengthen interdisciplinary health research capacity in Canada, and facilitate connections between researchers at different points in their research career. This Institute will involve, as tutors lead investigators affiliated with the Interdisciplinary Health Research Teams (IHRT) and Community Alliances for Health Research (CAHR) or funded by the Canadian Population Health Initiative.

Understanding and addressing the impacts of physical and social environments on health

The Institute is committed to strengthening research capacity to study these important social and physical determinants of health and their interactions over the life course, and to support policy and program intervention research to improve these environments in order to achieve population-level health benefits. In addition, the Institute supports consensus-building workshops and national networks, linking researchers and stakeholders to address these priorities together.

Key Institute Accomplishments

• A successful Needs, Gaps, Opportunities & Assessment Grants (NGOA) RFA was launched. Four applications were funded to conduct, through participatory consultation processes, one-year environmental scans of current and planned research activity and capacity in Canada, and to develop a list of priority research needs/gaps/opportunities in the following areas: social assistance and health, income and health, housing and health, infectious disease control; and,
• The Institute supported a series of consensus-building meetings, conferences and workshops to address context-related priorities such as the Canadian Association of Researchers in Work and Health Consensus Conference (November 2001) attended by 170 researchers who gave 78 scientific presentations, and the Inner City Health Conference organized by St. Michael's Inner City Health Research Unit, which will be held in October 2002 [IPPH is represented on the Scientific Conference Committee, with financial contributions from nine other participating CIHR Institutes].

Needs, Gaps, Opportunities & Assessment Grants

Applications of Science in the Control of Infectious Diseases: Defining Needs, Opportunities and Gaps for the 21st Century
As the principal investigator, Dr. Robert Brunham, Director of the Centre for Disease Control at the University of British Columbia, is determining the research needs, gaps and opportunities of key stakeholders and public health practitioners with regards to infectious disease control, social determinants of health, development of enhanced surveillance activities and the use of genetic epidemiology in public health.

Housing as a Socioeconomic Determinant of Population Health
Dr. James Dunn, of the University of Calgary, in collaboration with investigators from British Columbia and Ontario, is identifying the research needs, gaps and future opportunities, in studying housing, socioeconomic status (SES) and health. The objectives of the project include establishing a database of existing literature and studies on this topic, as well as an inventory of Canadian research capacity in housing, SES and health.

Social Assistance and Health
Dr. Lori Curtis, of Dalhousie University, leads a team of investigators from Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. This team, through key informant interviews with practitioners in provincial Community Service Departments, national governmental bodies, academic institutions and non-governmental policy organizations, aims to develop an inventory of research infrastructure across the country which can be used to support research on social assistance and health.

Income, Health and Disease in Canada: Current State of Knowledge, Information Gaps and Areas of Needed Inquiry
Dr. Dennis Raphael, of York University, leads a collaborative investigation that includes investigators in Ontario, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces. The investigators will conduct an environmental scan of the current state of substantive research and theoretical activity related to the role of income and health status.

Characterizing and Reducing Health Disparities

Following the pan-Canadian consultation tour and input from the IAB, this strategic priority was identified in the third quarter of the Institute's past year of operations. It recognizes that the health status of virtually all populations varies widely across subgroups, as defined by socio-economic status, gender, race/ethnicity and geography across societies. 
 

Key Institute Accomplishments

• Initiated the collaborative development of a winning Training and Research Centre proposal to the Robert Woods Johnson Foundation in US that will include student and scientist exchanges and colloquia;
• Funding support (30K per year for three years) toward one of the successful applications from the Improved Access to Marginalized Groups RFA focused on the development of tools to assess health and social service program impacts on community wellness and capacity for use by First Nations health organizations, in partnership with the Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health; 
• Supported the establishment of this research area as a CIHR cross-cutting research priority led by the Institute of Gender and Health; and, 
• Initiated the development of a Request for Applications with the Institute of Gender and Health to enable interdisciplinary groups of researchers in health and other sectors to develop programs of research that describe, investigate and ultimately reduce health disparities.
  

Environmental and genetic determinants of disease in human populations

Previously referred to as "gene-environment interactions", this strategic priority was reframed within a much broader context in response to stakeholder consultations. This strategic priority acknowledges that the new knowledge emanating from genomic research must be balanced with equally comprehensive assessments of relevant environmental exposures in order to fully understand the causal pathways leading from health to disease and premature mortality. IPPH is pleased to be collaborating with the Institute of Genetics (IG) in addressing this complex area of research.

Key Institute Accomplishments

• Facilitated a series of joint workshops with IG, involving population geneticists and genetic epidemiologists, who have previously never come together to explore areas for which there are competitive advantages for research contributions to be made by Canada. Joint activities included: Population Genetics and Genetic Epidemiology Research and Training Meeting, and Genome Canada/IG/IPPH workshop;
• Successfully co-led with the Institute of Genetics the development of the rationale and case for establishing this area as a CIHR cross-cutting research priority; and, 
• Engaged, together with the IG, in extensive discussions with individual international experts in the causation of common multi-factorial diseases, to begin to determine the most promising research designs and necessary infrastructure to advance this field.

Global Health

The Institute is pleased to provide leadership to the strategic area of global health, which seeks to understand the upstream ecological, technological, economic, political and socio-cultural forces and their health impacts on low and middle-income countries. This cross-cutting initiative involves a number of other Institutes (e.g. Aboriginal Peoples' Health, Gender and Health, Infection and Immunity) and several external partners under the Global Health Research Initiative, including Health Canada, the International Development Research Centre (IRDC), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), as well as non-governmental organizations such as the Canadian Society for International Health (CSIH).

Key Institute Accomplishments 

Supported a consensus building workshop in September 2001 involving researchers, government, non-governmental organizations, and foundations to discuss research priorities that address both disease-specific and inherently global health issues, and to scope out global health research topics and mechanisms for future funding priority for Canadian health researchers and partnering agencies;

Supported the "10/90 Gap" Symposium on Global Health Research organized by the Liu Centre for the Study of Global Issues in September 2001;

Commissioned background papers to help set global health research priorities in the following areas:

Setting Global Health Priorities for Funding Canadian Researchers: A Discussion Paper focused on inherently global issues (by Drs. Ron Labonte of SPHERU of the University of Saskatchewan and Jerry Spiegel of the Liu Centre for the Study of Global issues and the University of British Columbia)

Promoting Canadian Involvement and Capacity Building in Global Health Policy and Systems Research: Perspectives, Recommendations (by Drs. Slim Haddad of the University of Montréal and David Zakus of the University of Toronto)

Commissioned a briefing note on Health, Globalization and Global Health Research Priorities (by Drs. Ron Labonte and Jerry Spiegel) intended as a backgrounder for discussion among health officials and international health research funders involved in preparations for the G8 meetings in Kananaskis; and,

Initiated the development of a Request for Applications with partners in the Global Health Research Initiative to provide research program development and planning grants that build research capacity in Canada to investigate and intervene on ecological, technological, economic, political and socio-cultural forces that influence health, and/or major health and health systems problems that affect low, middle income and rich countries. The initiative is also intended to build research capacity in low and middle-income countries, as well as strengthen North-South collaboration in global health research.

Partnerships and Stakeholder Engagement

Partnerships

Internal

Cross-Cutting Initiatives

The Institute was actively engaged in leading or supporting the development of a number of cross-cutting initiatives such as Global Health Research (lead), Population Platforms for Integrated Gene-Environment Health Research (co-lead with IG), Rural and Remote Health (support), Environmental Health (support), Tobacco and, Reducing Health Disparities and Promoting the Health of Vulnerable Populations (support).

IPPH supported a number of priority initiatives led by other Institutes by providing funding and/or participating in the planning of the workshop or conference. Selected initiatives are highlighted below:

• New Frontiers Program Support for the Health Effects of Disrupted Sleep and Circadian Rhythms Proposal (lead-ICRH) (August 2001)
• Rural Health Research in Canada (cross-cutting initiative) (September 2001)
• Longitudinal Study on Aging Workshop on Protocol Development (lead-IA) (November 2001)
• National Dialogue on Healthy Body Weights (lead-INMD) (December 2001)
• Conference on Biological Security (lead-III) (January 2002)
• WHO Classification System for Disability Models to influence the content of Statistics Canada's General Social Survey and Canadian Community Health Survey organized by Dr. Jerome Bickenbach of Queen's University (November & January 2002)
• Canadian Tobacco Research Summit Program Committee member (lead-INMHA)

External

Canadian Institute for Health Information-Canadian Population Health Initiative (CIHI-CPHI)

• Over the past year, IPPH has fostered the development of a successful partnership with the CIHI-Canadian Population Health Initiative. Both organizations used the fall consultation tour together as an opportunity to clarify their respective roles, and communicate the complementarity of both initiatives to the PPH community. Representatives from both organizations co-presented the results of the consultation tour to numerous stakeholders (e.g. Health Canada, Statistics Canada, Health Promotion Research Conference participants), and actively took part in each other's events (e.g. IPPH staff representation at the CPHI Research Partnership Forum and Poverty Roundtable).
• A partnership was established with the Canadian Institute for Health Information, along with IHSPR, to jointly fund a research study to examine the extent of adverse health events in Canadian acute care hospitals and the availability of data that could be used to support continuous monitoring and reduce these events.

Global Health Research Coalition

• IPPH was designated as lead Institute for the Global Health Research Initiative, which involves a number of other Institutes (e.g. Aboriginal Peoples Health, Gender and Health, Infection and Immunity) and organizations. CIHR signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) and Health Canada, which provided a framework for working towards a coordinated global health research agenda. In addition to the MOU partners, partnerships were forged with the Canadian Public Health Association and the Canadian Society for International Health, and our partners in low and middle-income countries, leading to the development of a Global Health Research Coalition.
• IPPH co-sponsored a research day as part of the Canadian Society for International Health Conference in October 2001 to increase connections between non-government, government and research communities engaged in global health issues. 
• IPPH participated in the pan-Institute site visit to the National Institutes of Health in Mexico.  Further collaborations especially with the National Institute of Public Health in Cuernavaca are under discussion.

Federal Government Relations

• Representatives from both Health Canada and Statistics Canada took part in selected consultation sessions across the country. 
• A joint meeting involving senior representatives from Health Canada and Statistics Canada, as well as staff from IPPH, CPHI and CIHR's Director of Partnerships was held in early December 2001 to discuss our respective research and knowledge transfer plans to begin a dialogue about opportunities for working together. At this meeting, a commitment was made to establish a roundtable to facilitate discussion on issues of common concern, and to involve other Institutes.
• IPPH partnered with Statistics Canada by contributing funds to the Canada/U.S. Health Survey along with other Institutes, and with both Health Canada and Statistics Canada on the development of the Population Health and Health Services Database RFP (previously described).
• Several interactions with Health Canada and the provincial/territorial ministries have led to the formation of strong links with IPPH, including the Scientific Director's address to the F/P/T Advisory Committee on Population Health (April 2001), the Scientific Advisory Board (March 2002) and preparation for a presentation to the Council of Deputy Ministers, which took place in early April 2002.

Stakeholder Engagement

Increasing the Institute's profile

• IPPH along with the other three Toronto-based Institutes (IAPH, IG, IHDCYH) celebrated its Grand Opening on October 12th, 2001, with over 100 people in attendance. Dr. John Hastings, Professor Emeritus, University of Toronto and Past President of the Canadian Public Health Association provided an inspiring key note address on behalf of IPPH, as part of a panel moderated by Dr. Alan Bernstein, CIHR President and included other distinguished speakers representing the three other participating Institutes.
• IPPH hosted an extremely well-received "Meet & Greet" reception on January 15th, 2002 in Vancouver attended by over 100 people from the research, policy and practice communities. The reception was highlighted by a highly informative and motivating presentation by Dr. Clyde Hertzman, one of the Institute's Advisory Board members, entitled "Is the CIHR Paradigm Broad Enough? The Case of Early Child Development as a Determinant of Health". He outlined the issues and challenges associated with making progress on the early life contribution to health across the lifecourse, and the need for brand new skill sets, such as 'community neurobiology' and 'child-development-oriented real estate planning', which challenge even the broadened paradigm of the CIHR.
• IPPH developed a communication plan, outlining strategies for profiling and communicating with PPH researchers, policy makers and practitioners, and for increasing awareness of the Institute and its activities.

Translation and Use of Knowledge

From our stakeholders across the country, we heard that "traditional, unidirectional research transfer model must be replaced with interactive, knowledge exchange approaches, that engage the ultimate users of research evidence (policy/decision-makers, practitioners) early and often in the research process". In its first year of operations, the Institute has taken modest strides towards achieving this part of its mandate, in collaboration with the Canadian Population Health Initiative.

Facilitating Integration

• IPPH ensured the integration of knowledge translation, as part of all Requests for Applications and other funding mechanisms issued by the Institute, by explicitly requiring interactions and partnerships with research users in the development of research agendas and programs.
• IPPH ensured that all workshop recipients prepare a summary of workshop results for the purposes of dissemination to the broader PPH community. 

The "research receptor capacity" in public health is currently hampered by declining public health infrastructure and uneven capacity across Canada's regions, which in turn affects the application of new and existing population health knowledge into policy and practice. As a result, Institute activities were directed to raising awareness of the need for a coordinated multi-jurisdictional commitment to ensure cost-effective organization and adequate funding of local and provincial/territorial public health services in Canada.

Speaking out about Public Health Infrastructure

• In January 2002, the IPPH Scientific Director presented "Five Reasons for Stronger Public Health Services in the 21st Century" to the Toronto Board of Health in the face of cuts to public health services.
• Addressed the Commission on the Future of Health Care to underscore the essential role of public health services as part of a sustainable health care system.

Making the Case for a "PPH Evidence-based Secretariat"

• The research evidence-base for public health practice, while constantly growing internationally, is largely inaccessible to public health practitioners at the local level, due to constraints of training, person-power and resources.  As the result, the Institute commissioned a series of key informant interviews to identify alternate models, to inform the development of a proposal. The proposal, still to be finalized, would outline the purpose and core functions of a national "PPH evidence secretariat" responsible for the ongoing management of structured reviews of public and population health interventions, for consideration by the federal government and/or consortia of various levels of government, as well as the voluntary sector, and other potential funding partners of CIHR.

Supporting the uptake and dissemination of innovative approaches to conducting applied public health research

• The Institute successfully completed the feasibility study to assess the potential interest and uptake of the PHRED model in other parts of country (as previously described above).

PPH Network Development

• IPPH initiated the development of a contact management database to improve the Institute's ability to effectively communicate and track contacts and facilitated interactions and linkages with and between key stakeholders in the PPH community, building on participant lists of over 600 individuals from the pan-Canadian consultation tour and the CIHR funded researchers who have self-identified with IPPH. This tool is assisting the Institute in mapping and developing its distributed and diverse PPH network across the country.

Health Services Policy/Population Health Journal

• The Institute initiated a process in partnership with IHSPR to explore the feasibility, potential market and implementation options for potentially launching a Canadian Health Services and Policy/Population Health Journal.

Presentations

• Institute staff and IAB members made a number of presentations too numerous to cite here, to increase awareness of the Institute and its activities, and to impart existing knowledge about key PPH concepts and research findings to a variety of researchers and research users (e.g. policy makers, political representatives). Selected examples are highlighted below:

• Meetings with Prime Minister's office to discuss environmental contaminants and children's health initiative (January & February 2001)
• Presentation to Canadian Institute for Advanced Research Population Health Program on IPPH (March 2001)
• Presentation on IPPH at Canadian Foundation for Innovation Workshop (March 2001)
• Pan American Health Organization/International Development Research Centre Conference on Health Care Reform in the Americas (session moderator and presenter on IPPH) (April 2001)
• Presentation to the F/P/T Advisory Committee on Population Health (April 2001)
• Presentation to Canadian Society for International Health Conference (global health focus) (November 2001)
• Presentation to Association of Workers' Compensation Boards of Canada Annual Meeting: "Research for Action in Work and Health: Lessons Learned" (November 2001)
• Joint presentation with IHSPR at the HEALNet Annual Conference: "The New Research Agenda of CIHR in Population and Public Health" (November 2001)
• Presentation at Canada/Japan International Collaboration Workshop (December 2001)
• Presentation at Canadian Society for Toxicology Symposium (December 2001)
• Presentation to Health Canada's Scientific Advisory Board: "A New Vision for Population and Public Health in Canada" (March 2002)
    

Organizational Excellence

Building the Virtual Institute

• In its first year of operation, considerable work was done with the University of Toronto, the Institute's home institution to facilitate renovations to our space in the Banting Building, and to hire the required staff to work with the Scientific Director to realize the Institute's mission. From the period of December 2000 to August 2001, the Scientific Director continued to be engaged in teaching and research activities at the University of California-Berkeley School of Public Health, but returned twice monthly to Ottawa and Toronto to facilitate the hiring of staff and to engage in CIHR activities. 
• Following the appointment of the Scientific Director, Dr. John Frank in December 2000, an Executive Assistant was then hired followed by the Assistant Director and finally an Events Coordinator/Financial Officer. These four individuals constitute the core staff of the Institute.
• In this first year of operation, Institute staff developed new templates working together with other University of Toronto staff, to deal with the complex nature of multiple funding sources for workshops and projects funded by one or more CIHR Institutes, where intellectual property rights needed to be clarified.

Institute Advisory Board Membership

In collaboration with the Scientific Director and staff, the Institute Advisory Board (IAB) helps fulfill CIHR's objective for all Canadians. The IAB is an essential focal point for gathering expertise, for discussion of, and deliberation on Institute priorities, for guidance on implementation of Institute plans and for dissemination to, and engagement of the broader community.

• IPPH is very fortunate to work with leaders in the fields of population and public health representing the research, policy and practice communities. Under the Institute Advisory Board's able direction, the Institute created the Strategic Directions Outlook, followed by the five-year Strategic Plan to guide Institute activities.
• During this time period, the Institute Advisory Board met a total of four times (three times in Toronto and one in Vancouver), including one retreat to review and finalize the Strategic Plan. The Institute has made a commitment to meet in a city other than Toronto at least once per year in order to allow our IAB and Institute staff to meet with researchers and other stakeholders in different parts of Canada. 
• IAB membership did not change significantly during this period, except in one instance (i.e. the Health Canada representative changed twice in this reporting period). We also had one resignation in March 2002.

Institute Advisory Board Members for the annual reporting period 2001-2002

Jean Yves Savoie, PhD (Chair)
Directeur Général, Institut de recherche en santé et en sécurité du travail

Nancy Edwards, BScN, MSc, PhD (Vice-Chair)
Professor, School Of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa

Lillian Bayne, MHSc (March 2001 - June 2001)
Regional Director General, Health Canada

Robert Brunham, MD, FRCPC
Director, Centre for Disease Control, University of British Columbia

David Butler-Jones, MD, MHSc, CCFP, FRCPC, FACPM
Associate Clinical Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Saskatchewan

Catherine Hankins, MD, MSc, CCFP, FRCPC
Medical Epidemiologist, Montreal Regional Public Health Department

Clyde Hertzman, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Professor, Department of Health Care and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, University of
British Columbia

Ms. Marilyn Knox
President, Nutrition, Nestlé Canada Inc.

Danielle Laberge, MSc, PhD
Professeure, Département de sociologie, Université du Québec à Montréal

John McLaughlin, MSc, PhD, FACE
Head, Henry S. Rosenberg, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Samuel Lunenfeld
Research Institute, Mount Sinai Hospital

John Millar, MD
Vice President, Research and Population Health, Canadian Institute for Health Information

Annette O'Connor, BScN, MScN, PhD
Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing and Faculty of Medicine, Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine, University of Ottawa

Lesley Pinder, MSc, MD
Family Physician, St. Stephen, New Brunswick

Christiane Poulin, MD, MSc
Associate Professor, Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University

S. Leonard Syme, PhD
Professor Emeritus of Epidemiology, School of Public Health, University of California at Berkeley

Wendy Watson-Wright, PhD (June 2001 - December 2001)
Senior Director General, Population and Public Health Branch, Health Canada

Michael Wolfson, PhD
Assistant Chief Statistician, Analysis and Development, Statistics Canada

T. Kue Young, MD, CM, MSc, FRCPC, Dphil
Professor & Head, Department of Community Health Sciences, Faculty of Medicine, University of Manitoba

Evaluation

• Institute staff engaged in a number of evaluation and performance measurement activities, including CIHR-Evaluation-Unit-led educational sessions. They supported a number of efforts to encourage the development of an Institute-wide performance and evaluation framework.
• The Institute documented and tracked key activities for the purposes of monthly and annual reporting and evaluated selected activities such as the national stakeholder consultation and the Vancouver reception. The Institute will put further emphasis on evaluation, once Institute-wide indicators have been determined.
• During this period, an Institute staff member was named to the Evaluation Steering Committee for the IHRT and CAHR initiative.

Participation in CIHR Corporate Committees/Meetings

Institute staff participated in a number of corporate committees and meetings of , bringing an Institute and/or population and public health perspective or contributing to the development of operational procedures across Institute (e.g. workshop guidelines and procedures). A list of selected committees and notable meetings is provided below.

• CIHR Re-Organization Committee
• CIHR Organizational Change Leadership Committee & Culture Subcommittee
• Monthly Scientific Director/RPPC Meetings
• Monthly Assistant Director Meetings
• CIHR Trainee Brainstorming Session (January 2002)

Concluding Remarks

In sum, it has been an exciting start-up period at the CIHR-Institute of Population and Public Health. The Institute and its Advisory Board look forward to continuing in the coming years to:

• Stimulate research excellence in population and public health through inter-institutional funding mechanisms such as a Centres/Network Grant competition to provide research infrastructure support, and the further development of cross-cutting research initiatives that build on Canada's competitive niche;
• Actively support the next generation of PPH researchers through the availability of innovative pedagogical opportunities recognizing the needs of different regions of Canada; and,
• Facilitate the application of new and existing knowledge to policy and practice, in collaboration with other CIHR Institutes and partners.

It promises to be another year of scientific engagement and collaboration involving many disciplinary and multi-sectoral perspectives in population and public health. 
 

Financial Statements

The Canadian Institute of Health Research is funded entirely by federal government appropriations, although funded projects may also be financially supported through partner contributions. For the year ending March 31, 2002, federal appropriations totaled $553.8 Million. The Governing Council of CIHR delegates financial authority for the management of a portion of these funds directly to each Institute. These funds are:

Institute Strategic Initiatives: Each Institute is provided with funding annually to support strategic health research, knowledge translation and capacity building in their respective scientific areas through the awarding of peer-reviewed grants and awards in fields of inquiry related to their Institute.

Institute Support Grant: Each Institute receives an Institute Support Grant of $1 Million annually to operate the Institute and to develop research and knowledge translation capacity in the scientific community they represent through a wide array of collaborative activities.

The following tables provide financial results of operations for the year ended March 31, 2002 for each of these funding sources. Although Institutes have direct responsibility for the management of the funds described above, they also play an important role in supporting research, knowledge translation and capacity building initiatives funded through other CIHR grants and awards. .

The CIHR corporate budget supports other strategic initiatives as well as open, investigator-initiated research, primarily through operating grants and personnel awards. CIHR's Research Planning and Priorities Committee, comprised of the President and the thirteen Scientific Directors of the Institutes, decide on the overall research priorities of CIHR and make recommendations to the Governing Council on appropriate allocation of resources.

Institute of Population and Public Health Investments in Strategic Initiatives
For the year ending March 31, 2002

(click here for larger image)

Institute of Population and Public Health -  Institute Support Grant
For the year ending March 31, 2002

Appendices

IPPH Supported Strategic Training Initiatives

Principal Applicant / Principal Institution	Title of Proposal
Schurr, Erwin A* Hôpital général de Montréal	Training centre in integrative biology of infectious disease and autoimmunology
Teschke, Kay* University of British Columbia	CIHR strategic training program to bridge public health, engineering and policy research
Stewart, Moira A* University of Western Ontario	Interdisciplinary research training in primary
Plummer, Francis* University of Manitoba	International centre for infectious disease training program
Leduc, Nicole Université de Montréal	Programme de formation en analyse et évaluation des interventions en santé pour la prise de décision et les politiques
Cameron, Roy A University of Waterloo	Tobacco research training program
Frankish, Charles University of British Columbia	Transdisciplinary training in community partnership research: Bridging research into practice
Hayglass, Kent University of Manitoba	Allergy and asthma: From molecular regulation to population
Loisel, Patrick Université de Sherbrooke	Training new investigators in work disability prevention
Zernicke, Ronald University of Calgary	Alberta provincial training program in bone and joint health
Labonte, Ronald University of Saskatchewan	Population health training that works: Strengthening the interface between research, policy and
Dosman, James University of Saskatchewan	Public health and the agricultural ecosystem training program

*These grants were funded by the CIHR Central Office, with support from CIHR-IPPH in name only.

CIHR-IPPH Supported Needs, Gaps, Opportunities and Assessment

Principal Applicant	Primary Institution	Title of Proposal
Brunham, Robert	Centre for Disease Control (University of British Columbia	Applications of science in the control of infectious diseases: defining needs, opportunities & gaps for the 21st century
Curtis, Lori*	Dalhousie University	Social assistance and health
Dunn, James	University of Calgary	Housing as a socio-economic determinant of population health
Raphael, Dennis	York University	Income, health and disease in Canada: current state of knowledge, information gaps and areas of needed inquiry

* Support in name only from the Institute of Gender and Health

Glossary of Acronyms

CAHR	Community Alliances for Health Research
CIDA	Canadian International Development Agency
CIHI	Canadian Institute for Health Information
CIHR	Canadian Institutes of Health Research
CMAJ	Canadian Medical Association Journal
CPHI	Canadian Population Health Initiative
CSIH	Canadian Society for International Health
IAB	Institute Advisory Board
IAPH	Institute of Aboriginal Peoples' Health
ICR	Institute of Cancer Research
ICRH	Institute of Circulatory and Respiratory Health
IG	Institute of Genetics
IGH	Institute of Gender and Health
IA	Institute of Aging
IHDCYH	Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health
IHSPR	Institute of Health Services and Policy Research
IHRT	Interdisciplinary Health Research Teams
III	Institute of Infection and Immunity
IMHA	Institute of Musculoskeletal Health and Arthritis
INMHA	Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction
INMD	Institute of Nutrition, Metabolism and Diabetes
IPPH	Institute of Population and Public Health
IDRC	International Development Research Centre
MOU	Memorandum of Understanding
NET	New Emerging Team
NGOA	Needs, Gaps, Opportunities and Assessment
PHRED	Public Health Research, Education, and Development Program
PPH	Population and Public Health
RFA	Request for Applications
RFP	Request for Proposal
SDO	Strategic Directions Outlook

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1  For a complete copy of the SDO, please consult IPPH Website.