The Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) has awarded our project team three years of support for the research project entitled "Optimizing Healthcare Workers Interpandemic Vaccine Uptake in Acute and Long Term Care". The goals of this project are to 1) evaluate the use of the Ottawa Influenza Decision Aid (OIDA) as an adjunct to occupational influenza immunization campaigns in acute and long term healthcare organizations; 2) to develop and evaluate the use of an Implementation Guide for influenza immunization campaigns which incorporates methods to integrate the OIDA into a campaign; and 3) to establish a national knowledge exchange network to improve best practices in influenza immunization among healthcare workers (HCW).
We are an interdisciplinary, interprofessional team. We are:
Anne McCarthy MD, MSc, FRCPC is Co-Principal Investigator, is an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Ottawa Hospital, where she is the Program Director for the Infectious Diseases Training Program. She is actively involved in Tropical Medicine and International Health including the development of prevention and treatment strategies for malaria and recommendations for travel related vaccine preventable diseases. Dr. McCarthy is the National Coordinator of the Canadian Malaria Network in collaboration with Health Canada's Travel Medicine Program and chairs the malaria subcommittee of the Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel. She has up to recently served as a liaison member of the National Advisory Committee on Immunization and an editor for the Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases.
Her educational interests include undergraduate and postgraduate medical teaching in infectious disease, travel medicine, tropical medicine and international health.
Her clinical interests include directing the Tropical Medicine and International Health Clinic at the General Campus, clinical infectious diseases with emphasis on infections in the intensive care unit, transplant patients, as well as malaria and tuberculosis.
Her research interests include infections in compromised hosts, implementation of vaccine delivery programs within a healthcare setting, studies on antimalarial drugs - including tolerability and interactions with concurrent medication (such as antiretroviral drugs for HIV), vaccine efficacy, and compliance with travel medicine recommendations
Larry W. Chambers PhD, FACE, HonFFPH (UK) is Co-Principal Investigator, President and Chief Scientist, Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute, a Bruyère Continuing Care and University of Ottawa Partnership; Vice-President, Research, Bruyère Continuing Care; Professor, Department of Epidemiology & Community Medicine and Department of Family Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa; Professor, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa; Professor, Faculty of Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies, University of Ottawa
Dr. Larry W. Chambers' areas of research and development are health research, continuing professional development of health practitioners and the promotion of health in older adults. He pursues a path of lifelong learning and has committed his career to advancing science and spearheading innovative research translation initiatives.
The ÉBRI has 60 scientists and support staff. All scientists have University faculty appointments. The ÉBRI runs nationally recognized, applied health research programs in primary care (the CT Lamont Centre), restoration and rehabilitation (including Technology Assisted Friendly Environment for the Third Age (TAFETA), palliation, inter-professional practice, management of health services, health of the elderly and health promotion and disease prevention (including the Cardiovascular Health Awareness Program (CHAP). Dr. Chambers has authored and co-authored over 130 peer-reviewed articles and books. He has worked as a visiting professor at the University of Oxford, United Kingdom, the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe (Copenhagen), the University of Copenhagen, and the University of Montpellier, France.
Dr. Chambers fosters the relationships and networks required to develop solutions to complex problems, knowing that input from partners will help ensure his research remains relevant. He pays particular attention to involving policymakers and practioners, and building their consideration into research programs early on in planning. He has demonstrated a commitment to using comprehensive dissemination strategies and lay communication products to position his findings for the greatest impact.
Dr. Chambers' works towards stronger linkages between research, public health planning and programming, clinical medicine and health service delivery in Canada. This is achieved in part through supervision of graduate students, holding peer-reviewed research grants from agencies such as the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and leading the Elisabeth Bruyère Research Institute. He has served on a number of international, national, provincial and local advisory groups including being the Co-Chair of the Board of Ontario's Seniors Health Research Transfer Network and Chair of the Review Panel for the Ontario Health Research Personnel Development Award Program, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-term Care.
Annette O'Connor RN, PhD is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair Professor, University of Ottawa School of Nursing; and Senior Scientist, Ottawa Health Research Institute Clinical Epidemiology Program. She brings her internationally recognized expertise in making information about complex decisions easier understand to the team .She is a Fellow of the prestigious Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and has been recognized with awards, such as the Society for Medical Decision Making John Eisenberg Award for Exemplary Leadership, 2005 University of Ottawa Researcher of the Year, and the 2006 Ottawa Life Sciences Council Health Innovation Award. Dr. O'Connor leads the International Cochrane Collaboration team that summarizes trials of patient decision aids and updates a global inventory of evaluated patient decisions aids (over 500 that are hosted at OHRI http://www.ohri.ca/decisionaid). She has also developed a generic Ottawa Personal Decision Guide to help people identify what makes a decision difficult for them (inadequate knowledge, values clarity or support) and what they can do about it. She co-leads an international consensus process on standards for developing and evaluating patient decision aids. Dr. O'Connor has immense experience in the area of decision aid development, locally, nationally, and internationally, and has played a key role in the development of the OIDA. Her wealth of experience and her academic networks support the collaborative nature of this project and will provide a student with access to academic resources, personnel and mentoring from this expert and other team members.
Shelly McNeil MD, FRCPC is an Associate Professor of Medicine and an Infectious Diseases Consultant at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She is a Clinical Investigator at the Clinical Trials Research Center and the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology in Halifax where her research focuses on health policy, clinical trials of new vaccines and the evaluation of vaccine-preventable diseases in the elderly and in pregnant women As a member of the Professional Education Working Group of the Canadian Immunization Committee she represents an end user, who would continue the use of the OIDA to HCW to increase vaccine uptake. In her role as a member Pandemic Vaccines Working Group of the National Pandemic Influenza Committee she sees the connections and the interdependence of the annual influenza prevention initiatives and the developed infrastructure will ply in the event of a pandemic. Dr. McNeil has been awarded the Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine Clinical Research Scholar Award for the period 2005-2010, the Canadian Immunization Committee HPV Expert Working Group. She brings her active, influential and ongoing participation as an end user to this research and enhances the supportive environment this project offers to students.
Donna Pierrynowski-MacDougall BScN, MSc, PhD is a graduate of St. Francis Xavier University (BScN, 1993), Syracuse University (MSc, 1998) and the University of Calgary (PhD, 2005). At present, Dr. Pierrynowski MacDougall is an Associate Professor, St. Francis Xavier University, School of Nursing. Dr. Pierrynowski MacDougall's nursing practice career has spanned 15 years with clinical expertise primarily in the area of community health including prenatal education, well child, and family health. She teaches courses in health promotion and client education. Her CIHR, SSHRC and NSHRF funded research focuses on vaccine decision making, vaccination education, and health policy research that has been presented nationally and internationally. Relevant volunteer work in health and other human service sectors and policy include: Involvement on the board of Director's for the Nova Scotia Public Health Association; founding member and past chair of the first Community Health Board in Guysborough, Antigonish, Strait Authority; and a board member of the Eastern Reginal Health Board, Community Health Planning Committee. Dr. Pierrynowski MacDougall will begin post doctoral training in July 2009 at Dalhousie University and the Canadian Center for Vaccinology. Her research program will focus on how ethics, health law, and individual and public health needs interact in the formation of recommendations for employee vaccination programs.
Sherry Bowman BN, BSocSci (Hon) is currently enrolled in Master of Science in Community Health and Epidemiology at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She is a Clinical Associate at the School of Nursing in St Francis Xavier University in Antigonish. Sherry's experience in Public Health and teaching Clinical Community Health to 2nd year and senior nursing students gives an expert end user opinion and access to the informal networks of future generations of frontline HCW. Her research interests include the uptake of influenza vaccine by health care providers and this project provides a valuable opportunity for developing researchers to gain experience, networking opportunities and skills from this initiative. She brings her knowledge of injury prevention; communicable disease control and work life enhancement and provides another perspective to the clinical practical application of interventions such as this OIDA.
Virginia Roth MD, FRCPC is Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa, Director of the Infection Prevention and Control Program at the Ottawa Hospital and University of Ottawa Heart Institute, and medical lead for the Champlain Infection Control Network. Her major academic contributions are combating emerging pathogens (including antimicrobial resistant organisms), pandemic preparedness, and protecting patients and healthcare workers from healthcare-acquired infections. She has published over 30 peer-reviewed articles addressing clinical and healthcare systems research in these areas and will contribute content expertise in the development of the Implementation Guide. Dr. Roth's key contributions are in networking and knowledge translation. Her representation on many national and provincial committees will facilitate linkage and knowledge exchange. These include the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, Canadian Hospital Epidemiology Committee, the Canadian Pandemic Planning Working Group, the National Strategy for Graduate Training in Healthcare Epidemiology, and the Ontario Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee. Dr. Roth has been a key contributor in similar successful knowledge exchange projects. These include "Canada's Hand Hygiene Campaign" with Canadian Patient Safety Institute, the "Just Clean Your Hands" Hand Hygiene Improvement Program with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, and the Infection Prevention & Control Working Group of the Canadian Council on Health Services Accreditation (CCHSA) responsible for developing Infection Control Performance Measures for Canadian Healthcare Facilities. Her role as an educator in infection prevention and control, also make her an end user of this tool.
Kathryn Suh MD, FRCPC, MSc is Assistant Professor of Medicine and Paediatrics at the University of Ottawa, the Director of the Infection Prevention and Control Program at Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario, and the Associate Director of the Infection Prevention and Control Program at The Ottawa Hospital. Her major academic contributions are protecting patients and healthcare workers from healthcare-acquired infections, infection control, and pandemic preparedness. She will contribute content expertise in the development of Infection Control strategies. Dr. Suh's is currently on national and provincial committees, which will facilitate linkage and knowledge exchanging. These include the Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program, Canadian Hospital Epidemiology Committee, the Canadian Public Health Agency Advisory Committee for Early Detection and Reporting, the National Strategy for Graduate Training in Healthcare Epidemiology, and the Ontario Hospital Association Communicable Disease Surveillance Protocols Committee. She was a member of the Provincial (Ontario) Paediatric Pandemic Influenza Planning Working Group in Infection Control for the most recent Ontario Pandemic Influenza Plan in 2007. Dr. Suh has been a key contributor in infection prevention and control projects and initiatives related to hand hygiene and communicable disease surveillance. Her role as an educator and expert in infection prevention and control, also make her an end user of the OIDA and vital advocate for its use.
Paula Arnold RN - Program Manager - Communicable Diseases at Ottawa Public Health will be contributing as an end user who would play a key role in supporting the use of the OIDA throughout community organizations. Her position with Public health and her role in the Champlain District of the Local Health Integrated Networks (LHIN) as designated by the MOHLTC of Ontario give the project a view from a local and frontline public health perspective.
Po-Po Lam BSc is a research assistant at EBRI and a candidate for MSc Epidemiology (University of Ottawa). She will be assisting the team with the development of the implementation guide and provide administrative and research support.
Jane Sutherland BSc, BA, MEd is a research assistant at The Ottawa Hospital. Her experience in project management, data collection, communications and adult education inform her role in administrative support to many aspects of the project. Coordinating logistics, liaising with team members, local coordinators and participating sites are the contributions she brings to the project.
Craig White BScKin, MD is a clinical research associate at the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology in Halifax. He will be assisting the team with local project coordination, protocol writing, data collection, and analysis.
Sarah De Coutere RN, BN is a Research Coordinator at the Division of Infectious Diseases at the QEII Health Sciences Centre in Halifax, NS. She has 10 years experience in coordinating clinical trials and is a regional research assistant in this project team.
Donna Baker RN, ICP has been an Infection Control Professional (ICP) for 19 years with a Registered Nursing (RN) background. She is certified in infection prevention & control through an American-based, Canadian endorsed examination certification process.
She is based at the Elisabeth Bruyère Hospital, one of 3 sites that make up Bruyère Continuing Care. Bruyère Continuing Care (750 beds in total) provides care to patients requiring continuing complex care (CCC), rehabilitation as well as care for the terminally ill. This large institution also includes 2 nursing homes caring for the frail elderly residents from our community. Through her years of working in infection prevention and control she has witnessed the recognition of the risks of infections in this milieu, differing from acute and community hospitals. The programs that we offer within the health care continuum reflect the changes that have occurred over the years, i.e., increasing complexities in our long term patient population, and increasingly frail elderly in our nursing homes requiring more nursing care than some 10 years ago. At different intervals she has had the opportunity to work as an ICP at acute care facilities as well as other long term care facilities in the city. This allowed her to see how different levels of health care work in tandem with similarities yet vastly different infection control issues. Current issues include the increasing risks for infections with the advancements in technologies and pharmaceuticals in health care requiring "targeted surveillance", the increased need to apply special precautions for the safety of our populations, pandemic planning, and the importance of working collaboratively with Occupational Health & Safety to protect our health care workers.
Chantal Lafleur MA works as a Research Assistant on the Canadian Healthcare Influenza Immunization Network and is part of the Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute team. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from the Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières and graduated in 2002 with a Master's degree in Gerontology from the University of Sherbrooke. Chantal will be pursuing a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology at the University of Ottawa starting in the fall of 2009.
Lois Crowe BA is the project manager for the project, as well as the program manager for the Health of the Elderly program at the Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute. She has an extensive background in clinical research administration and management, with a background and interest in research ethics. Her experience includes several years in the non-profit housing sector, group facilitation work and community health.
Joanne Villeneuve BScN is Canadian certified in occupational health nursing. She is a member of the Ontario Occupational Health Nurses Association. She has been working in the field of occupational health & safety for the last 17 years.
Joanne joined Bruyère Continuing Care in 2002. As the Director of Occupational Health & Safety Services, Joanne works with a team of nurses, physiotherapists and kinesiologists to deliver creative programs to assist and support employees in the workplace.
Joanne initiated a Work Reintegration Program for injured employees for which Bruyère Continuing Care received an International Best Practice Achievement Award from the Ontario Hospital Association. Joanne also co-wrote an article on Influenza Decision Aid and Decisional Conflict for the Occupational Health Nurses journal.
Joanne is currently the Vice-President of the Ottawa Occupational Health Nurses Association.
