Immunization Archives | Pacific Public Health Foundation

Open Awards Program Fall 2019: Six successful applications in recent competition

foundry — Thu, 05 Dec 2019 00:31:26 +0000

The BCCDC Foundation is pleased to announce funding for six new projects: four for “Blue Sky” research awards, one Workshop award, and one Travel award.

Dr Victoria Cook and team have been awarded travel grant funding for “Quality Improvement Initiatives at BCCDC” to present the results on improving patient and client outcomes in multiple service areas at four conferences over the coming months.

Dr Eleni Galanis has been awarded Workshop funding for “Communicable Disease Immunization Services Retreat” to develop the service line work-plan that will allow for a cohesive alignment of research, practice and policy priorities along with accountability to Ministry of Health and PHSA partners.

Dr Mark Gilbert and his team have been awarded blue sky funding for “Defining the scope of digital public health and its implications for practice and research” to identify research and practice gaps in digital public health in BC and develop a strategy for a digital public health program within BCCDC, including a path for future research funding.

Dr Jessica Moe and a large, multidisciplinary team have been awarded blue sky funds for “Buprednorphine/naloxone standard dosing and microdosing in the emergency department: A feasibility study”. This will provide data to develop a larger research trial to compare micro-dosing vs standard dose of these medications in vulnerable populations in the Emergency Department.

Dr Monika Naus and team will receive blue sky funding for “Mapping Immunization Coverage of Children in BC” to work at identifying barriers to service and further exploration of reasons for low vaccine uptake with a goal of improving coverage for vaccine preventable diseases, particularly among preschool and school age populations.

Dr Natalie Prystajecky and team have been awarded blue sky funding for “Fecal Pollution Identification (FP-ID): Laboratory Methods for Determining the Sources of Fecal Pollution in BC Waters” that will build on and address the limitations of an earlier study, validate assays, develop standard operating procedures and interpretation guidelines for routine use in BC.

This marks our final competition of the current OAP. The BCCDC Foundation is very proud to have funded over 50 grants since its first competition in 2014. Twelve rounds of competition later, we have provided over $400,000 in research/knowledge translation funding to BCCDC researchers to help with pilot funding, new team building, and student training. We have been very gratified to watch the initial funding grow, in some cases, to larger projects receiving funding from national and international sources, and to watch results being implemented into policy. Our goal with the OAP was to support and build the research enterprise at the BCCDC, and to add to the overall robustness of the scope of research being done at the Centre, and we can say with utmost confidence that we have been able to reach that goal.

We would like to thank our dedicated Scientific Advisory Board for their work over the years, and their commitment to ensuring we are funding quality projects. We’d also like to acknowledge all the BCCDC Faculty and researchers who have produced excellent results through this program, and have helped to improve public health outcomes in BC.

We will be evaluating the OAP and its outcomes as we look ahead to what types of funding would be most optimal to support our partnership with BCCDC, and to support public health more broadly.

So stay tuned in 2020! Make sure you signed up for our newsletter and follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram to stay in the loop on future funding opportunities and other activities.

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Public Health Superheroes: a Live Podcast Event

foundry — Thu, 11 Jul 2019 17:03:30 +0000

Ever wonder what public health means? What the heck is a Public Health Superhero? Join the BCCDC Foundation for Public Health in partnership with Science World for a free public event to demystify, debunk, and decode public health. Meet BC’s very own public health superheroes from the BC Centre for Disease Control, who work tirelessly to keep you healthy and prevent harm in our communities. Share your own health superhero stories and show off your best cape!

Moderated by BC’s Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry–basically BC’s Public Health Wonder Woman–this event will cover important topics like immunizations, sexual health, overdose crisis response, and the “how-to” of public health like laboratory work.

We’ll answer your most pressing questions with Q&A, and answer some of the questions you didn’t even know you had, like “what’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done in public health?” (hint: it has to do with the wrong end of a goat). Speakers include:

Dr. Bonnie Henry, moderator and BC Provincial Health Officer
Dr. Monika Naus, Medical Director of the Communicable Diseases & Immunization Services at BCCDC
Dr. Troy Grennan, physician lead for Provincial HIV/STI Program at BCCDC
Sara Young, Manager, Hepatitis and Harm Reduction Services at BCCDC
Dr. Agatha Jassem, Clinical Microbiologist & Program Head, Virology, BCCDC Public Health Laboratory.

Join the BCCDC Foundation for this event which will also be the launch of a new public health podcast series, and learn about the often-invisible work happening in our province that keeps you safe every day. Superhero attire encouraged!

Date: Wednesday, August 7th, 2019.
Time: 7:30-9:00 pm.
Location: Science Theatre, Telus World of Science, 1455 Quebec St, Vancouver.
Link for free tickets: https://publichealthsuperheroes.eventbrite.com

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Supporting Knowledge Translation: the Western Canada Immunization Forum

foundry — Wed, 18 Jul 2018 22:36:46 +0000

The BCCDC Foundation is pleased to have supported the Western Canada Immunization Forum on January 30, 2018. This 1 day meeting provided a forum for sharing scientific, policy and operational lessons learned, and to inform the planning and delivery of immunization programs in western Canada

The event was planned in collaboration with representatives from the governments of Alberta, Yukon, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, along with BC’s Ministry of Health, BC regional health authorities and the First Nations Health Authority.

It’s aim was to provide up-to-date information regarding immunization practices to public health professionals across three themes: new recommendations for old and new vaccines; vaccines in pregnancy and vaccine hesitancy. With 20 expert speakers from across western Canada and the US, the more than 260 attendees (in person and via webcast) were delivered current, high level and practical information.

We would like to thank our partners – Merck and Pfizer – whose ongoing support enables us to provide important knowledge translation events such as the Western Canada Immunization Forum.

For those interested, the presentations and the entire day’s webcast is available online here.

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Kids Boost Launch During Immunization Awareness Week 2018

foundry — Wed, 25 Apr 2018 17:54:15 +0000

The BCCDC Foundation for Public Health is proud to support an innovative new Canadian health platform designed to raise literacy about immunization in schools. At an event in Toronto on Monday, April 23^rd 2018, the Federal Minister of Health, the Honourable Ginette Petitpas Taylor, kicked off National Immunization Awareness Week by announcing the new platform – Kids Boost Immunity (KBI).

KBI is a new online educational website where B.C. students in Science 8 and Social Studies 6 learn and earn by taking online quizzes based on the school curriculum, and are awarded with vaccines purchased through UNICEF Canada to immunize children globally. The more questions a student answers correctly, the more vaccines they earn for UNICEF.

The Foundation has been involved in supporting KBI since its inception when it piloted in a few BC schools, with great response.

Students can access KBI using any device connected to the internet such as a laptop, desktop computer or their own smart phone. KBI incorporates videos, stories and articles that cover topics such as how the immune system and vaccines work, the history of vaccination, and epidemic and pandemic responses to global outbreaks.

Other features of KBI include a class leader-board that displays how many vaccines students and classes are earning in real-time, awards online badges to students and challenges other schools to make learning fun.

KBI is a Canadian vaccine education and advocacy platform made possible through a partnership between the Public Health Association of British Columbia, the BC Ministry of Health and the Public Health Agency of Canada. KBI is managed with assistance from the BC Centre for Disease Control with support from the BCCDC Foundation for Public Health, including the Pacific Blue Cross Foundation, Pfizer and Sanofi.

If you’re interested in learning more, or taking the quiz yourself to earn vaccines, click through to the Kids Boost Immunity website.

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