Public Health Surveillance pan-Canadian Standards Group (PHS pCSG)

Overview

The Public Health Surveillance Program will implement solutions that support the identification, management and control of infectious disease cases and outbreaks that pose a threat to the public's health.

The need for a national network of interoperable communicable disease surveillance systems was highlighted during the last SARS outbreak. With no system in place, healthcare providers and staff at major health centres were reduced to using stick-on notes to keep track of cases and associated contacts. This is neither effective nor acceptable in today's society.

In March 2004, taking into account the lessons learned from the SARS outbreak and public concern about the ability of public health authorities to deal with emerging communicable disease threats, the federal government assigned Infoway the task of developing a communicable disease surveillance system in partnership with the provinces and territories. The system will allow public health authorities to track communicable disease cases and manage outbreaks to minimize impact on the population.

The Public Health Surveillance Standards Project will leverage the Standards Collaboration Process to establish the standards required to support the Public Health Surveillance Solution. The scope of the standards will include HL7 V3 messaging standards and the terminologies required to facilitate data sharing. The Public Health Surveillance pan-Canadian Standards Group (PHS pCSG) will be critical in providing review and validation of pan-Canadian requirements in this area.

Membership & Nominations

The PHS pan-Canadian Standards Group is a group of stakeholders representing jurisdictions, end users in the health care community and vendors. The following individuals have been selected to participate in this group:

Group Member Stakeholder Category Title & Other Declared Organizational Affiliation Email Telephone
Cindy Anderson Jurisdiction: British Columbia Vancouver Island Health Authority cindy.anderson@viha.ca

250.744.5177
Helen Bangura Jurisdiction: Saskatchewan Saskatchewan Health hbangura@health.gov.sk.ca

306.787.5135
Réjean Dion Jurisdiction: Québec Laboratoire de santé publique du Québec rejean.dion@inspq.qc.ca

514.457.2070 x325
Tracie EisBrenner CPHLN: Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network Canadian Public Health Laboratory Network Tracie_eisbrenner@phac-aspc.gc.ca

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Richard Franck Vendor IBM Richard_franck@us.ibm.com

919.254.4771
Patricia Heath Practitioner and Jurisdiction: Newfoundland Eastern Health PatHeath@hcse.ca

709.229.1574
Alison Locker Practitioner Middlesex-London Health Unit alison.locker@mlhu.on.ca

519.663.5317 x 2463
Tara Mawhinney Jurisdiction: MB and CIRN: Canadian Immunization Registry Network Manitoba Health tmawhinney@gov.mb.ca

204.786.7288
Lisa Belzak CIRN: Canadian Immunization Registry Network Public Health Agency of Canada Lisa_Belzak@hc-sc.gc.ca

613.948.8939
Barbara McLean CIHI: Canadian Institute for Health Information Canadian Institute for Health Information bmclean@cihi.ca

416.544.5502
Marie Muir Jurisdiction: Ontario Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC), Public Health Division Marie.muir@moh.gov.on.ca

416.212.4873
Robert Pless Office of Public Health Practice and CIPHS: Canadian Integrated Public Health Surveillance Public Health Agency of Canada robert_pless@phac-aspc.gc.ca

613.948.6131
Patti Kowalski Jurisdiction: Alberta Public Health Surveillance and Environmental Health Branch, Alberta Health & Wellness patti.kowalski@gov.ab.ca

780.644.3034
Marc Koehn Infoway Project Manager (Chair) Canada Health Infoway mkoehn@infoway-inforoute.ca

250.216.0803
Michael van Campen Facilitator Canada Health Infoway Michael.vancampen@gpinformatics.com

250.881.4568

How to get involved

Online Forum & Mailing List

An online discussion forum has been established to support this work. To register for the forum go to knowledge.infoway-inforoute.ca. The mailing list provides project updates and notifications as specifications are made available for review. To subscribe please contact standards@infoway-inforoute.ca.

How to get more information

For additional information on the Public Health Surveillance pan-Canadian Standards Group, please contact standards@infoway-inforoute.ca.