All students, please ensure that you attend the SPPH Student Orientation session.

Please visit the Orientation page for the schedule and more information.

Angela Yao, MSc Student, UBC School of Population & Public Health

Roundtable Discussion with Gerardo Chijona (filmmaker from Cuba), Antonio Eligio Fernández, TONEL (Art History, Visual Art, and Theory, UBC), Jerry Spiegel (School of Population and Public Health, UBC), and Oralia Gómez-Ramírez (Research Group on Gender and Sexuality in Latin America, UBC).

In the midst of Cuba’s “Special Period” (1990-1999) — a severe economic and political crisis spearheaded by the downfall of the communist bloc, the US lead-embargo and the failure of its farming industry—Frikies, a crowd of young people including gothic, metal heads, and skateboard kids took over the streets of Havana. They established a vibrant counter-culture scene influenced by European and North American punk culture. It was the same period in which Cuba endured one of the worst health crises in the nation’s history due to the scarcity of nutritious food. Throughout the crisis, Cuba’s public health care system not only managed to stay afloat but sustained worldwide recognition, in part due to its approach in treating the AIDS epidemic. People living with HIV were housed in “Los Cocos”, a clinic located near Havana. Equipped with excellent medical facilities, patients were given salaries, allowed to bring their families to live with them, and were fed high protein meals not easily available to other Cubans. Loosely based on the diaries of Dr. Jorge Pérez Ávila, director of “Los Cocos Sanatorium”, Gerardo Chijona’s film Ticket to Paradise tells the story of a group of Cuban Frikies who see in the AIDS healthcare system an escape from the socioeconomic conditions they encountered.

The event will serve as a forum to discuss the geopolitical forces that have shaped the lives of Cubans in recent decades, their connections with global health policies, and the role that film plays in disseminating these complex histories.

Seeking answers to questions is what a university is all about. What have we accomplished this year? Where are we going from here?

Each year the President’s Town Halls bring UBC faculty, staff and students together for an interactive dialogue.

Dr. Iris Torchalla, PhD
CHÉOS Scientist

Please join CHÉOS in welcoming Dr. Torchalla on September 12.

This talk is open and free to the public, and will include a light lunch.

Save the date

SPPH students, faculty and staff are invited to the SPPH September Reception.

Event is by Invitation only (no spouses) and RSVP is required.

If you have not received your invitation email, please contact Katherine Came

A critical 21st Century paradox is growing concern for “good living” and “collective health” alongside the globalization of unhealthy modes of living and deteriorating ecosystems. In such a context, an understanding of social determination of health can become a critical guide for responsible science and knowledge in the health, environmental and social fields. In contrast, excessively narrow reductionist and functional thinking has distorted this concept into popularized notions of “social determinants of health”.

Talking from the perspective of the “South” we need not only share the challenges, but also the strengths of our theoretical-methodological reasoning (many times neglected by mainstream public health); Latin American critical epidemiology provides a rationale and methodological tools for understanding those differences and building innovative North South collaboration.

Speaker: Jaime Breilh, Md. MSc. PhD
Dr. Breilh is a leading Ecuadorian scientist in the field of social epidemiology and collective health, as well as a senior member (and president-elect) of the Ecuadorian Academy of Medicine. He has fostered a new school of Latin American thought in public health and the development of critical (social) epidemiology. His publications, widely distributed in Spanish and Portuguese throughout Latin America, have pioneered a series of theoretical, methodological and empirical advances in the area of social epidemiology, research methodology and epistemology of science. He is also a leader in “an ecosystem approach to health”. Dr. Breilh has also pioneered innovations in health surveillance, creating instruments for participatory monitoring like the stress scale that is now used for research on social determinants of stress. He co-authored a system for participatory research on neurotoxic and psychotoxic disturbances produced by exposure to pesticides; incorporating those monitoring standards to ensure appropriate internationally recognized agro-industrial practices. And he is leading advances in new paradigms for promoting a transdisciplinary approach to health. In addition to being the Director of the Health Area at the University of Andina Simon Bolivar in Quito (which serves not only Ecuador but the entire Andean Region), Dr. Breilh is the Director of the PhD program in Collective Health, Environment and Society. Dr. Breilh has received many prizes and awards for his work and has been a Visiting Research Scholar at many universities across Latin America and the United States.

Opportunity for students to get to know some of our faculty and their research. This year featuring an understanding about the School’s themes.


THEME PRESENTER(S)

• Public Health, Emerging Treats and Rapid Response: Jane Buxton, Marcus Lem


• Epidemiology and Biostatistics: Joel Singer


• Global and Indigenous Health: Charles Larson, Jerry Spiegel


• Health Care Services and Systems: TBD


• Maternal-Child Health: Patti Janssen


• Occupational and Environmental Health: Mike Brauer, Mieke Koehoorn


• Social and Life Course Determinants of Health: Chris McLeod

Speaker: Alan Whitehead, President & CEO, Radon Environmental Management

Professor Cam Donaldson, Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health, Glasgow Caledonian University

Publicly-funded health care is frequently under attack, and no less so in these times of relative austerity. Yet, perhaps ironically, there are sound economic arguments as to why systems like Medicare should be protected, even expanded, and supplementary 'revenue raisers', like user charges, abolished. Many of these arguments were developed here in Canada and will be outlined in Dr. Donaldson's talk before he then turns to the unpalatable and unspoken truth still often not recognised in health care - that, despite public funding, we need to recognise and more-explicitly manage scarcity of resources. Dr. Donaldson will also outline a collaborative research and implementation agenda for scarcity management in health care which, if followed, can only further strengthen the efficiency and fairness of Medicare.

RSVP required.

Speaker:
Dr. Cam Donaldson, the Yunus Chair in Social Business & Health at Glasgow Caledonian University, is an internationally acclaimed health economist with over 25 years experience in the field. His current research focus is microcredit and other forms of social business as interventions to improve health and well-being.

Dr. Donaldson has held faculty positions in Canada (University of Calgary), Australia (University of Sydney), and the United Kingdom (Universities of Newcastle and Aberdeen). In Newcastle he was the inaugural Health Foundation Chair in Health Economics and Founding Director of the Institute of Health & Society, and in Calgary was appointed as the Svare Chair in Health Economics.

Over the course of his career Dr. Donaldson has published over 200 scientific papers and authored or edited several books on aspects of health economics and public service delivery. In this lecture Dr. Donaldson will draw on the ideas presented in his latest book, ‘Credit crunch health care: How economics can save our publicly-funded health services.’

Students interested in Global Health are invited to join SPPH Global Health faculty on Sept 14, 5-630 p.m. for a potluck in the SPPH foyer.

The Theme of this year's meeting is "Partnerships for Improving Health Systems." We will look at the links between Researchers and Decision Makers, and how these groups can work together to improve health systems internationally.

Join over 300 registrants from around the world as we examine the interface between researchers, clinicians and managers, and how these key stakeholders can best work together to improve our health systems. We are excited to invite you to join us for a combination of the plenary presentations below, as well as organized sessions from countries around the world, and over 70 oral abstract presentations.

Confirmed speakers include: Drs. Nick Bansback, Stirling Bryan and Craig Mitton

Population Data BC would like to invite you to a seminar by David Ford, co-Lead of the Health Informatics Research Unit (HIRU) for Wales. This unit has quickly established itself internationally as one of the most successful data centres in terms of breadth of data sources, speed of access, and collaboration with policy makers.


The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage (SAIL) databank has been established to link together the widest possible range of health-related, individual-level data of the people of Wales to create a powerful infrastructure capable of supporting a wide range of research. Developed and operated by Swansea University’s Health Information Research Unit, SAIL uses high-powered computing combined with a range of privacy protecting approaches to safeguard the 2 billion+ linked events in the databank. HIRU is actively developing new tools, techniques and data sources to enhance SAIL’s research utility for an ever increasing user base, and to improve the richness of the data
resources available.

The seminar will provide an overview of SAIL and the way in which researchers may access SAIL. It will also provide some examples of current research undertaken by the Health Information Research Unit.

To attend, please RSVP

Abstract: BC's Cesarean birth rate has been rising for decades, and more women than ever before are having surgical births – often unnecessarily. In 2010 the BC Women’s Hospital Cesarean Task Force launched the Power to Push Campaign and Best Birth Clinic to help pregnant women avoid unnecessary and unwanted c-sections. To do this, they sought to empower women and their health care providers with information and tools to make informed choices and take control of their birthing experience. This presentation will provide a behind-the-scenes look at a successful public health campaign that uses design, knowledge translation, online technologies and social media to drive change in the health care sector in BC.

Featured speakers:

Susan Pinkney; Power to Push Campaign + Best Birth Clinic, BC Women's Hospital
Susan Pinkney began working with the CTF during their formation in 2008. She has been centrally involved in the Best Birth Clinic and Power to Push Campaign, acting as Program Coordinator and Research Manager throughout their creation and launch. Susan has a BA in International Development and an MA in International Affairs, and recently returned from public health research work in Sierra Leone. She currently continues to work for the CTF and several other maternity care programs as the founder and director of Equipoise Consulting.

Robyn Sussel; Signals
Since joining Signals in 2001, Robyn has helped Canadian health, research and science organizations clarify their messages and communicate with their audiences to achieve measurable results. Before that, Robyn worked for 10 years as an in-house communicator for a national HIV clinical trials network where she connected community advocates with the HIV research community. Robyn received an honours BA in communications from Simon Fraser University and a Masters degree in Media Studies from Concordia University in Montreal.


Presented by Signals and Providence Health Care, Evening Rounds is a monthly evening speaker series profiling health care communications and social media campaigns, case studies and experts.

Speaker: Dr. Jaime Breilh
Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies International Visiting Research Scholar

The health situation of 21st Century Latin America has become more complex with a resurgence of communicable & chronic diseases alongside the emergence of diseases associated with intensive chemical contamination of food and ecosystems. Both trends are being driven by processes of acceleration and expansion of economic accumulation and social exclusion which boost social inequity and population vulnerability, counteracting the potential contribution of health services. Under these conditions it is crucial to overcome conventional linear and reductionist public health sciences, to consolidate the potential of the new paradigm of Latin American critical epidemiology and to expand professional and community awareness.

Speaker:
Dr. Jaime Breilh is a leading Ecuadorian scientist in the field of social epidemiology and collective health, as well as a senior member (and president-elect) of the Ecuadorian Academy of Medicine. He has fostered a new school of Latin American thought in public health and the development of critical (social) epidemiology. He has been invited to UBC as a Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies International Visiting Research Scholar to advance research collaborations with UBC colleagues in a number of initiatives. As Dean of the Health Area at the Universidad Andina Simon Bolivar in Quito, Ecuador, Dr. Breilh leads an innovative PhD program on Collective Health, Environment and Society and a Regional Health Observatory for Andean countries in South America, both established with the support of UBC. He has published widely in Spanish, Portuguese and English and recently spoke at the WHO’s World Conference on Social Determinants of Health.

Dr. Terry Nolan presents: “Vaccine adverse event surveillance in Australia: Lessons from TIV in children”.

Dr. Nolan is Head of the Melbourne School of Population Health, University of Melbourne, Australia, and the Chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) and a member of the WHO SAGE (Scientific Advisory Group of Experts) immunisation advisory group. He is a member of the Australian Academy of Science’s National Committee for Medicine.

Professor Nolan obtained his medical degree at the University of Western Australia. Following his specialist clinical training in paediatric medicine at the Royal Children’s Hospital in Melbourne and at the Montréal Children’s Hospital in Canada, he completed a PhD in epidemiology and biostatistics at McGill University in Montréal.

As a paediatric epidemiologist and clinical trials specialist, Professor Nolan established and continues to actively lead Australia’s largest clinical vaccine evaluation programme, and has contributed to the evidence base for licensure and use of several improved childhood vaccine options for Australia and globally. His expertise relates to immunisation, pandemic planning and response, and research investment in clinical and population health research and he has more than 165 related publications.


Webinar/Teleconference
To listen remotely via Teleconference please call in on: 604 899 2339 and use access code 7735351#
For long distance, dial toll free 1 877 385 4099
Please remember to mute your telephones. This can be done by pressing *6 to mute or un-mute your own line.
To view the slide presentation in real time, please go to:
http://connectpro66084143.na5.acrobat.com/r39054734/
Please note: You will need the latest version of Adobe Flash in order to view the presentation.

Bacterial genome plasticity can lead to the emergence of new pathogenic E. coli strains with novel combinations of virulence factors. An example of this is the 2011 European diarrheal outbreak E. coli strain O104:H4 which exhibited virulence factors from (enteroaggregative E. coli or) EAEC and (enterohemorrhagic E. coli or) EHEC, leading to an improved ability to cause severe disease. We analyzed 450 E. coli isolates recovered from Canadian retail meat and abattoir samples for genes and proteins associated with potentially pathogenic EPEC. We found that 4.0% (18/450) of tested strains were atypical EPEC (aEPEC), primarily isolated from chicken and pork sources. These aEPEC exhibited combinations of virulence genes from other E. coli pathotypes (enterotoxigenic and extraintestinal pathogenic E. coli or ETEC and ExPEC). The results of this study indicate that chicken and pork may be reservoirs for aEPEC. Examination of clinical isolates from patients with diarrheal disease of unknown etiology may provide further insight into the ability of aEPEC to cause disease in humans.

Speaker:
Amee Manges, MPH, PhD
Dr. Manges is recently arrived SPPH faculty member from McGill University. She is an infectious disease epidemiologist and heads a research laboratory at the B.C. Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. She trained at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Public Health for her PhD and post-doctoral fellowship.

Please note: Now that the School year has begun, Faculty meetings will begin at 10:15 am so that Faculty members can attend Grand Rounds from 9 - 10 am.

Catherine Trask, PhD, Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan

Please mark your calendars for the 3rd annual Tripartite videoconference.

This year’s presentation will focus on the Transition and Transformation phases of the BC First Nations health reform process. Join our panel of leaders for a 90 minute discussion and question and answer period.

The tripartite panel of presenters includes:
· Grand Chief Doug Kelly, Chair, First Nations Health Council
· Joe Gallagher, Chief Executive Officer, First Nations Health Authority
· Lynn Bernard, Director General, BC Tripartite Initiative
· Shannon McDonald, Executive Director, Aboriginal Healthy Living Branch

(postponed from September 19th)

Movie: ACCEPTED
Getting accepted at SPPH is far more rigorous than at this place...

A high school slacker who's rejected by every university and college he applies to opts to create his own institution of higher learning, the South Harmon Institute of Technology, on a rundown piece of property near his hometown.
Starring: Justin Long, Jonah Hill, Columbus Short, Blake Lively and Lewis Black.


Popcorn will be provided, but please also bring your own snacks, and some to share!

Its FUN FOR ALL in the SPPH family at the PopData County Fair! Join us for food, games, prizes, a chili cook-off, pie contest, and celebrity dunk tank!

All of SPPH are invited to the Fair, which is presented by Population Data BC.


CHAMPION CHILI or PIE MAKER?

• Chili Contest: Think you make a champion chili? Submit your best, vegetarian or con carne, at the SPPH County Fair. Categories include: vegetarian, meat or quirky.
  
  
  A panel of 5 SPPH staff, students and faculty will judge the chili. The winner will receive a gift certificate to the Gourmet Warehouse. Chili will be served to fair attendees. A copy of the winning recipe will be made available to SPPH staff, students and faculty in return for a donation to feed the homeless of Vancouver’s downtown east side.
  Sign up online



• Pie Contest: No, not eating it, baking it! Have a perfect pastry? Enter the pie contest at the SPPH County Fair.
  
  Pies will be judged by a SPPH panel of faculty, staff and students, looking at pastry, filling, presentation and more. Best pie wins a gift certificate to the Gourmet Warehouse. Pies will be distributed to attendees at the County Fair. Sign up online

SPPH County Fair Dunk Tank Celebrities Announced!
Now’s your chance to dunk your colleagues for a good cause - if dunking them for the sheer fun of it isn’t enough! From noon to 1pm at the SPPH County Fair this coming Thursday, for just a toonie, you can take your aim to try to soak four brave souls from SPPH.

12:00 – 12:15 Jean Shoveller, Professor, SPPH
12:15 – 12:30 Elvis (What? You didn’t know Elvis worked in PopData?)
12:30 – 12:45 Gary Poole, Associate Director, SPPH
12:45 – 1pm Karen Bartlett, Professor, SPPH

All proceeds go towards buying supplies to make sandwiches for people in the downtown eastside.


Faculty, staff and students are all welcome to join in the fun and games. A FREE LUNCH WILL BE SERVED! WE NEED TO KNOW NUMBERS, SO if you haven’t signed up to attend the fair yet, so SIGN UP TODAY!.

Topic: Trends in Postpartum Hemorrhage in British Columbia, Canada and other countries

Speaker: Azar Mehrabadi, MSc (PhD candidate)
School of Population and Public Health and the Dept of Obstetrics and Gynaecology, UBC and Perinatal Services BC

Learning objectives - To provide participants with:

• Information on recent developments in the field


• Multidisciplinary perspectives


• Critical analysis of important topics from a substantive and methodologic perspective (through presentation and discussion of Journal articles, etc)


• A forum for discussing research ideas and research in progress

Next Session: October 2012


** The Academic Perinatology Rounds 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 **

For general questions please contact Ariadna Fernandez (Ariadna.Fernandez@phsa.ca)
For suggestions regarding topics for future rounds please contact one of the co-leaders
Patricia Janssen (Patti.Janssen@ubc.ca) or K.S. Joseph (kjoseph@cw.bc.ca)

Objective: To define a new approach to causality determination

Methods: Two distinct research situations are defined: (a) determining a causal connection between past exposure to an established risk factor and an outcome (such as a known carcinogens) in a sick individual, an approach often required in tort litigation, and usually based on published scientific reports; and (b) discovering a new causal connection between an exposure (e.g., an exposure to a substance that is not known as a carcinogen) and an outcome (e.g., occurrence of cancer) in a population, an approach that is appropriate in scientific research. Results and conclusion: Determining causality after exposure of an individual to a known carcinogen requires a retrospective approach, and causality is determined exclusively by a priori knowledge of carcinogenicity and proof of exposure. Conversely, discovering a new causal risk factor requires a forward-directed reasoning and a population approach based on Hills criteria.

Speaker:
Shai Linn is the Dean of the Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences at the University of Haifa, and Director of the Unit of Clinical Epidemiology at Rambam Health Care Campus. After graduating from the Faculty of Medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, he received Master of Public Health (MPH, 1979) and Doctor of Public Health (Dr.P.H., 1981) degrees from Harvard School of Public Health. He was then appointed as a Deputy Director of the Rambam Hospital (1982-1985). This was followed by a fellowship at the U.S. National Institutes of Health in 1985-1986 and selection as Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology. In 1990-1992 Dr. Linn received the prestigious MacArthur – SSRC Fellowship, and was appointed as a Visiting Professor of Epidemiology at the Department of Health Care and Epidemiology of the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC.

Dr. Linn's main research interests are epidemiological methodology and environmental health.


Key words: Causality, Directionality, Environment, Epidemiology, Methodology, Study Design, Timing

David Diaz Sanchez, PhD, Chief, Clinical Research Branch, US Environmental Protection Agency

The Vancouver Institute presents:
Jeffrey Simpson, (Columnist, The Globe and Mail)
"Chronic Condition: Dragging Canadian Health Care Into the 21st Century"