Data for Action to Promote Health Equity: - An Introduction to Health Inequality Monitoring in Canada
Black Opportunity Fund and Public Health Agency of Canada Presents: Data for Action to Promote Health Equity – An Introduction to Health Inequality Monitoring in Canada
Oct 17, 2024
6:30 pm – 7:30 pm EST
Our public health surveillance and information systems provide the scientific evidence essential to shape conversations and decision-making about policies, programs, and resource allocations to more effectively reduce health inequities. But they can fall short of considering equity in a comprehensive way, as well as ways that build equity into the whole data life cycle, from what gets collected, how it is analyzed, reported, contextualized, and used. It is imperative to integrate more data disaggregation across monitoring activities along the full breadth of relevant social, economic, and structural dimensions, such as race, gender, where people live, their income and jobs, the discrimination they face, and their access to health care. Comprehensive data disaggregation by social dimensions (e.g., gender and sexual orientation, disability, income, education, and race) remain infrequent within our public health surveillance and information systems.
Mindful of this, this session gathers and presents health inequality monitoring projects and platforms at the national level, with an emphasis on the Pan-Canadian Health Inequalities Data Tool (HIDT). The reflections throughout this session include the pivotal role of crafting information systems that incorporate the social determinants of health, yielding better evidence for all people.
The Speakers
MHSc, PhD, Manager (Acting), Health Equity Policy Directorate, Strategic Policy Branch (Public Health Agency of Canada)
Dolon Chakravartty is the Acting Manager of the Equity Analysis Policy Research team within the Strategic Policy Branch at the Public Health Agency of Canada where she leads the Pan-Canadian Health Inequalities Reporting Initiative (HIRI). Dolon holds both a PhD as well as an MHSc from the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Dolon’s research interests include health equity, the impacts of racism and discrimination on health and environmental health.
RD, MSc, Policy Analyst, Health Equity Policy Directorate, Strategic Policy Branch, (Public Health Agency of Canada)
Natalie Osorio is a policy analyst in the Health Equity Policy Directorate of the PHAC. She is the Knowledge Mobilization co-lead for the Pan-Canadian Health Inequalities Reporting Initiative. She has developed many knowledge mobilization products for the Initiative and is currently working on the related products for the upcoming report on mental health inequalities. She holds a bachelor’s in nutrition from Université de Montréal and is a registered dietitian in l’Ordre des diététistes-nutritionnistes du Québec. She completed a master’s at l’École de santé publique de l’Université de Montréal, specialized in health promotion and prevention.
PhD, Economic and Socio-economic Analyst/Researcher, Health Equity Policy Directorate, Strategic Policy Branch (Public Health Agency of Canada)
Matthew Perks holds a PhD in Sociology from the University of Waterloo and specializes in qualitative research methodologies, particularly participant-observation and ethnography, with a strong focus on digital methods. Matthew has extensive experience working internationally, having collaborated with researchers and institutions across the globe. Currently, Matthew is with the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC), where he conducts critical research on the systemic and structural barriers leading to health inequalities in Canada.
by Dr. Ato Seyki-Otu and Dr. Bukola Salami (Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary)
Closing remarks by Dr. Ato Seyki-Otu and Dr. Bukola Salami (Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary)
