July 2009 - Constituent Society Corner

Public Health Research Education and Development Program (PHRED) What’s New with PHRED?

by Charlene Beynon, PHRED Representative OPHA Board of Directors

With a history now spanning more that two decades, the Public Health Research Education and Development (PHRED) Program continued to focus on activities key to the practice of public health: applied research, knowledge exchange and workforce development. The 2008-09 year saw a number of notable achievements. We published our second report “then… now… tomorrow allors… maintenant… demain 2008” which was released at the 2008 OPHA Conference in November.

Staff from the five PHRED sites — Hamilton, Kingston, London, Ottawa and Sudbury — often in partnership with others, conducted numerous applied research projects including program evaluations. For a description of the projects, please visit the PHRED website. Linking with more than 12 academic institutions, in 2008 the five sites provided placements for 1,626 undergraduate and graduate students, and connected with almost 9,400 students through classes and tutorials. Providing student placements and influencing curriculum remain important priorities. And we were once again delighted to present the 2008 PHRED Student Award at the OPHA Awards Luncheon to Rebecca Ganann, RN, BScN, MSc (candidate), School of Nursing, McMaster University. Her manuscript was titled “Influence of Maternal Birthplace on Postpartum Health and Health Service Use”.

In addition, PHRED staff continued to collaborate across sites, and have been actively engaged in the province’s public health renewal. Furthermore, the program demonstrated leadership on many provincial initiatives:

  • Maintained the Benchmarking website;

  • Provided evaluation support to Cancer Care Ontario;

  • Initiated the development of an annotated bibliography of online evaluation tools and resources. Watch for the release in the coming months;

  • Completed deliverables for the Ministry of Health Promotion related to Ontario’s Action Plan for Healthy Eating and Active Living (i.e., children’s perceptions of the Northern Fruit and Vegetable Program; Measuring Fruit and Vegetable Intake Among Young Children: A Search for a Valid and Reliable Population-Based Tool; Analysis of the Canadian Community Health Survey Cycle 2.2 Nutrition Data (Ontario Sample) – Phase 2: Knowledge Exchange; Reliability and Validity of Using Self-Reported Clothing Size as a Proxy for Waist Circumference at the Population Level; and data dictionaries for two Rapid Risk Factor Surveillance System (RRFSS) modules.)

  • Continued to partner with the University of Waterloo on the School Health Environment Survey (SHES);

  • Participated in developing a proposal led by COMOH (Council of Medical Officers of Health) to create a provincial surveillance system to monitor childhood healthy weights.

Dissemination of products locally, regionally and nationally and working with others to use PHRED products remain top priorities. For a complete listing of 2008 deliverables, please see the PHRED website.

Discussions were initiated in the fall and are continuing with the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion and the Public Health Division, MOHLTC about how the PHRED functions – applied research, knowledge exchange and workforce development should be structured to meet the needs of Ontario’s public health system. With our history, experienced staff and strong linkages to practice, we remain committed to making a difference to the art and science of public health practice.