About the Speaker: Dr. Jeffrey Brook
Dr. Jeffrey Brook is CANUE’s Principal Investigator and Scientific Director. He is also an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Department of Chemical Engineering and Applied Chemistry. He has 25 years of experience as an Environment Canada scientist working at the science-policy interface. He is one of Canada’s leading experts in air quality, recognized at all levels of government and academically, including for his substantial contributions in air pollution health research. Dr. Brook has led scientific assessments to inform policy nationally and internationally, and advised multi-stakeholder groups shaping policy.

This webinar will provide an overview of the CANUE data and research opportunities made possible by linking CPTP’s individual lifestyle, genetic and behavioural data with CANUE’s environmental exposure metrics. This collaboration provides health researchers easy access to standardized urban environmental exposures, allowing them to tackle real-world problems related to exposures and the subsequent health outcomes. Ultimately, new knowledge enabled by the CANUE-CPTP partnership will help identify cost-effective actions that promote healthy childhood development and aging, reduce the burden of chronic disease, and minimize the impact of changing environments.

Webinar registration: http://bit.ly/CPTPwebinarFeb13

• Paul Villeneuve,  Professor in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, with appointments in the Department of Health Sciences and in the Departments of Health Sciences and Neurosciences at Carleton University

• Michael Tjepkema, Principal Researcher, Statistics Canada, Division of Health Analysis

• Dany Doiron, Research Associate, Respiratory Epidemiology and Clinical Research Unit, Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC); CANUE data linkage expert.

• Dan Crouse, Consulting Senior Scientist, Health Effects Institute, Boston, MA.

• Trevor Dummer, Co-National Scientific Director of the Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow Project (CPTP).

9am – 10am pacific | 12 noon – 1pm eastern | 1:30pm – 2:30pm NFLD

Advances in technology, including mobile apps, have provided researchers with new ways to collect data. Health researchers are increasingly interested in developing and using mobile apps for research data collection. However, many challenges exist for health researchers when developing mobile apps. The purpose of this webinar is provide an overview of results of a report interviewing 8 researchers who have developed mobile apps. We will also provide recommendations for researchers who are planning to develop a health research apps.

Melissa Tobin is a Master of Science in Kinesiology student at Memorial University and an INTERACT Trainee. She is a graduate of the Bachelor of Kinesiology Honours (Co-op) Degree from Memorial University. Melissa’s master’s research will focus on how exposure to active transportation infrastructure influences physical activity levels. Melissa is very passionate about increasing physical activity levels for all members of our community.

Daniel Fuller is Canada Research Chair in Population Physical Activity in the School of Human Kinetics and Recreation at Memorial University. His research is focused on using wearable technologies to study physical activity, transportation interventions, and equity in urban spaces. He focuses his methodological work on methods for natural experiments, and machine learning.

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9am-10am pacific | 12 noon – 1pm eastern

Non communicable diseases including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality among populations in high income countries. The rapid increase of overweight and obesity among Canadians and its associated consequences, including hypertension and diabetes is a major public health problem, and threaten to halt the declines in cardiovascular disease deaths Canada has experienced in the past 30 years.

Knowledge gaps exist regarding the impact of the built environment in relation to individual risk factor development, and the variation of these built environments across Canada by region and rurality. In order to address these gaps in our knowledge, we convened the Canadian Alliance of Healthy Hearts and Minds – a prospective cohort of men and women recruited from existing cohorts in Canada and through recruitment of a new First Nations cohort study.

As part of the knowledge translation plan of the Canadian Alliance for Healthy Hearts and Minds project, we developed and released an on-line, interactive map of 2,074 communities across Canada that conveys the information from our community contextual health audits. In this presentation, I will describe the development of the map, and describe how to access and use the tools embedded in the map.

Russell de Souza is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster University.  He is a registered dietitian, and his research focuses on dietary patterns, health, and how the food environment shapes food choice and risk of cardiovascular disease.

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9am-10am pacific | 12 noon – 1pm eastern

 The incidence of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) has risen drastically in industrialized nations, such as Canada, over the last half of the 20^th century. Although the incidence rate in adults with IBD has plateaued in Canada, the incidence of IBD among Canadian children is continuing to rise. Environmental risk factors, such as air pollution may be involved in IBD development, but epidemiological studies are inconclusive.

This presentation will summarize the results from a study investigating the effects of ambient air pollution on the risk of developing pediatric-onset IBD using Ontario administrative health data. In-utero and childhood residential exposures to nitrogen dioxide (NO₂), fine particulate matter (PM_2.5) and ozone (O₃) were evaluated in terms of their potential associations with IBD diagnosed before the age of 18. Other environmental factors, such as residential exposure to greenness as well as several maternal and individual-level factors were also considered as potential confounders and effect modifiers of these associations.

Michael Elten is currently completing a Master’s degree in Epidemiology in the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa. His research focuses on evaluating the effects of air pollution on health, with an emphasis on maternal and early-life exposures.

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9am – 10am pacific | 12 noon – 1pm eastern

Utilitarian walkability by 1km buffered postal code – Prepared by Urban Design 4 Health Ltd and Toronto Public Health
The Walkable City: Neighbourhood Design and Preferences, Travel Choices and Health, April 2012 Toronto Public Health

Hear about Dr. Frank’s recent collaborative work in Metro Vancouver, linking detailed data on neighbourhood walkability, regional transit and park access with Type 2 Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, stress, and sense of community relationships across a range of age and income cohorts, followed by a broader discussion of  walkability research and future directions.

Lawrence Frank is Professor in Sustainable Transportation and Public Health at UBC and specializes in the interaction between land use, travel behavior, air quality; and health.  He coined the term “walkability” in the early – mid 90’s; his work led to WalkScore and has been cited over 26,000 times making him one of the 2 most cited planning academics globally. Thompson and Reuters has listed him in the top 1% globally since 2014 as a highly cited researcher.  Dr. Frank has published over 150 peer reviewed articles and reports and co-authored two of the leading books – Heath and Community Design and Urban Sprawl and Public Health which helped to map out the field emerging at the nexus of planning and health.

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