National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases / Centre de collaboration nationale des maladies infectieuses

Knowledge that's contagious!

Tel: 204.943.0051
E-Mail: nccid@icid.com

Northern Knowledge Exchange Forum

In follow-up to a consultation held in Yellowknife, NWT, NCCID held the Northern Knowledge Exchange Forum on March 25-27, 2009 in Whitehorse, Yukon.  In total, 50 people were invited to the Forum, including researchers, medical officers of health, infectious disease program managers, and senior public health officials. In addition to Canadian participants, international contributors from Anchorage, Alaska, USA also attended the Forum to share experiences and to offer cross-country perspectives.  Presentations from the Forum are available here.

Rationale:
The purpose of the Northern Knowledge Exchange Forum was for practitioners, researchers and policy-makers to share programs and tools which could facilitate the integration or enhancement of current public health programs, as well as to create or strengthen collaborations that may assist regions and communities to respond to public health service needs.  Programs and strategies were shared which may serve to enhance current public health services and “paint a clearer picture” of infectious disease epidemiology and transmission dynamics in northern and remote communities.

The Forum objectives included:

  1. Providing a forum for open exchange of knowledge related to prevention of HIV/STBBI and community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)
  2. Promotion of a population health approach to integrated public health programming
  3. Exploring the potential of integration of HIV/STBBI and MRSA prevention strategies with other communicable disease prevention initiatives
  4. Identifying knowledge translation and exchange strategies that are appropriate for northern and remote communities
  5. Facilitation of knowledge exchange between the Territories and northern regions of provinces related to communicable disease surveillance, transmission of infectious diseases, and integration of public health strategies
  6. Develop a strategy for partnership development between public health stakeholders and rural, remote and northern communities
  7. Identify appropriate and effective roles for the National Collaborating Centres for Public Health program in contributing to improved public health capacity in northern and remote regions