SURVEILLANCE IN PUBLIC HEALTH: From Collection To Intervention

Location: Oshawa, The Holiday Inn

Date: November 16-17, 2000

Goals and Objectives

This Conference will focus on the key aspects of surveillance: collection of data, analysis and interpretation, and the dissemination of information to assist with decision-making for public health program

Conference Goals

To share information regarding the key aspects of surveillance
To examine the challenges and opportunities in public health surveillance

Conference Objectives

To provide an overview of public health surveillance: past, present and future directions
To review what data is essential to collect and how to collect it
To review options for analytical processes and their interpretation
To review how information is best disseminated to enhance accurate and timely decision-making
To provide an opportunity for networking among epidemiologists and other public health professionals
To provide a forum for experts and participants to exchange ideas regarding the issues, concerns, challenges and future directions for surveillance

Agenda

Document Name	Type	Description	Categories	Status	Uploaded by
2000 APHEO Conference Agenda		2000 APHEO Conference Agenda	2000 November Conference Past Conferences & Workshops Agenda	Public	Website Admin - archived

Conference Summary

The goal of the 1999 AHEO Conference was to better understand the impacts of the broader determinants of health, while learning how to apply this knowledge to our day to day work in Public Health. Nearly all of the participants were mostly or very satisfied with the 1.5 day conference held in Hamilton at the Royal Connaught Howard Johnson Plaza Hotel November 18th and 19th. Speakers were passionate during their presentations and topics ranged from the necessity to improve the social determinants through policy development to questioning the nature of the causal relationship implied by the use of "determinant" as a label.

Other presentations dealt specifically with topics such as the physical environment, aboriginal health, measurement of low birth weight, shiftwork and health, calculating the attributable burden of physical inactivity, and health among Canadian children. New this year was the sitting for a panel discussion, which was utilized to allow participants to have more input and time for discussion as a group and with all of the first day presenters. Less dueling than expected among presenters but well received (average rating on evaluation of 7.5, on a scale from 1 to 9 where 1 was not very useful and 9 was very useful), this format (or something like it) will likely be utilized again in future conferences.

Thanks are deserved to our sponsors CWHPIN, NHIP, and SRHIP, as well as the entire conference planning committee. Special thanks are also deserved for Sherri Ennis who assisted me throughout with invaluable tidbits of information and Phillipa Holowaty for chairing the event – although they seem to think that I have a problem delegating. Also, I’m sure we will never forget my attempt to grab cheap laughs because Phillipa took the wrong turn on the freeway and I was left to introduce our key speaker without any biographical information. I still beg to differ with Terry Sullivan when he stated: "At least we know epidemiologists will not be taking over the world anytime soon!"

Conference Evaluation

Average Rating of Presenters, Panel, and Posters (1= not very useful; 9 = very useful)

Sullivan	Eyles	Rachlis	Shah	McDowell	Panel
7.74	7.41	8.21	5.67	7.04	7.5
Mowat	Ennis	Sanderson	Heale	Abernathy	Posters
7.65	7.38	7.26	7.30	7.40	6.4

Other Ratings (% of participants)

Relevance	71.4 Very; 28.6 Somewhat
Amount Learned	71.4 Great Deal; 28.6 Little
Amount of Detail	88.6 Just Right
Amount of Time	94.3 Just Right
Quality	62.9 Excellent; 37.1 Good
Met Expectation	45.7 Almost All; 45.7 Most
Amount of Information	48.6 Very Satisfied; 51.4 Mostly Satisfied
Overall Satisfaction	60.0 Very; 37.1 Mostly
Location	7.1 Excellent; 40.0 Good; 20.0 Fair
Handouts / Audio Visuals	60% Excellent

Planning Committee

Kathy Moran - Co-chair
Philippa Holowaty - Co-chair

2000 Conference