Dalla LanaSchool of Public Health

ANNUAL REPORT 2015–2016

Diversity and Partnerships in an Evolving Health Landscape

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2 3DEAN’S MESSAGE

We are leveraging diversity and strengthening partner-ships within our Faculty, the University, the city of Toronto and internationally.

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AWARDS & HONOURS

A stellar complement of faculty members, supervisors and staff are recognized for their contributions to this dynamic academic community.

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FACTS & FIGURES

A snapshot of student, faculty and research activities.

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EDUCATION

A dynamic learning community where tomorrow’s public health and health systems leaders develop a solutions-oriented approach to complex health issues.

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RESEARCH

From sanitation science, nutrition and vac-cine development to infectious and chronic disease prevention, researchers strive for globally recognized excellence and impact in public health and health systems.

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PARTNERSHIPS & LINKS

Strong connections to decision-makers across government, the health sector and social policy system support a meaningful and continued impact on health policy and practice.

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OUR FOOTPRINT

With a new strategic plan to guide the growing Faculty and exciting events to enhance its profile, the School is forging new partnerships and opportunities to enhance public health and health systems.

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INSTITUTES, CENTRES & DIVISIONS

The scope and breadth of the School’s programming provides unparalleled opportunities to learn and work on a range of critical issues in public health and health systems.

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“There are signs of a culture shift in Canada from hardly ever collecting [race] information to now being more open to it.”

Arjumand Siddiqi, page 9

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health is driving societal change through strong partnerships with diverse communities, locally and globally. The School’s innovations in public health education, research and service are visible at a macro level — influencing government policy and building healthier cities — and a micro level — providing culturally specific interventions and mobile technology to manage chronic disease.

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THE CHALLENGES ABOUND. With diversity come differences in language, culture, historical relationships, appearances and preferences — making communicating, interacting and simply coexisting — dif-ficult endeavours at times.

On the other hand, the need for both health care and maintaining health is universal. What all humanity shares in terms of human biology, our responses to our physical and social environments and what is in our food and water, and an intuitive grasp of how “an ounce of pre-vention is worth a pound of cure” dwarfs the differences between us.

Our Faculty’s vision is to be the lead-ing public health school in the world that has an impact on local and global com-munities and populations. To achieve this vision, we are leveraging diversity and strengthening partnerships within our Faculty, the University, the city of Toronto and internationally.

The theme of the 2015–16 Annual Report, Diversity and Partnerships in an Evolving Health Landscape, was selected because it captures the spirit of a number of activities led by faculty, students and alumni who are improving health and health systems with support of community partners near and far. The cover and visuals throughout the report illustrate diverse landscapes, macro and micro, and the effect humans have on their surroundings that dramatically impact health.

As an environmental epidemiol-ogist, these visuals remind me of the complex interplay between the external environment and health. Public health professionals work hard to ensure that cities, towns, workplaces and homes have pollution-free air, safe drinking water and food, and effective sanitation systems. It is when these macro sys-tems break down that we see negative health consequences.

The Flint, Michigan, water crisis exemplifies one recent breakdown of

Dean’s Message

Toronto is the most diverse city in the world. A BBC Radio study released in May 2016 found that 51 per cent of Toronto’s population is foreign born and 230 different nationalities live in the city. As the only public health school in Toronto, the Dalla Lana School of Public Health is arguably faced with both unique challenges and opportunities.

230 A BBC Radio study released in May 2016 found that 51 per cent of Toronto’s population is foreign born and 230 different nationalities live in the city.

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crucial public health systems and the tragic consequences. After the city switched Flint’s water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River — a notoriously filthy tributary that runs through the city — to save money in 2014, physicians reported that levels of lead in children in certain parts of Flint doubled or tripled.

The children and families hardest hit lived in poorer areas of Flint and many were ethnic minorities, illustrating two determinants of health that public health professionals — and all levels of govern-ment — must consider when making decisions that minimize harm and maxi-mize health.

What is the relationship between marginalized populations and divers-ity? In this report, you’ll find a number of stories that showcase members of our community addressing the social determinants of health in a way that recognizes diversity while tailoring interventions and programs to celebrate differences and enhance health.

Professor Arjumand Siddiqi’s research is among the first to show how large the racial health inequities are in Canada. Research by Professors Laura Rosella and Walter Wodchis demonstrates that frequent health-care consumers often struggle in other parts of their life in areas such as income, housing and food secur-ity. PhD candidate Kinnon MacKinnon is breaking down the barriers LGBTQ people face when participating in sport and physical activity.

These are just a few examples of the tremendous impact our thriving com-munity of diverse scholars are having on Torontonians and people across the globe. To make inroads with mar-ginalized groups, it is crucial to have collaborative partnerships with all levels of government, community organiza-tions, within the University and with external academic partners.

The School’s broad and deep con-nection to decision-makers across the

local, provincial and federal govern-ments and sectors of the health and social policy system support a mean-ingful and continued impact on health policy and practice. The School was also an early adopter of community-based research that includes community members in studies as co-investigators or advisors and as such has cultivated authentic partnerships with a host of community-based organizations.

Researchers at the School, Cancer Care Ontario and Public Health Ontario are working together to examine cancer incidence rates in the First Nation population near Kenora, Ontario, in full partnership with the Indigenous community to determine if cancers are elevated and environmentally linked. The Joint Centre for Bioethics is partner-ing with U of T’s Department of Family and Community Medicine, the Toronto Central Community Care Access Centre and Local Health Integration Network to help primary care doctors manage ethical challenges present when treat-ing people with complex chronic illness.

The University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics transitioned from the Faculty of Medicine into the Dalla Lana School of Public Health in July 2015. Together with divisions in the Public Health Sciences and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, our Faculty is addressing upstream social determinants of health and downstream implications on patient care, policies and population health in a truly unique way.

To forge a sense of unity in the School, we launched a consultative stra-tegic plan exercise, Towards 2021 and Beyond. This is the first strategic plan for the new Faculty that provides a path forward to leverage our newly combined strengths and enhance our world-class teaching, research and service on a local and global scale over the next five years and beyond.

The plan’s strategic directions aim to improve the learner experience, ensure globally recognized excellence and impact in research, and enhance part-nerships and management of the Faculty. I invite you to read more about the stra-tegic plan in Section 4: Our Footprint and consider how we can use it to ignite passion among all our audiences — from students, faculty, staff, alumni, partners and beyond — to improve public health and health systems.

By bringing together this group of three historically strong academic units into one Faculty that continues to grow and strive for excellence, the School has earned its place as one of the most diverse and comprehensive schools of public health in the world. Our strength is not only in our sheer size as the largest in Canada. We also have an unmatched breadth and depth of expertise that is reflective of the evolving health and health system landscape.

I bestow my utmost gratitude for making this possible to all our faculty members, staff, alumni, supporters and, in particular, our students. Their 2015 student-led symposium on racial health equity helped accelerate our push to highlight racial diversity as a public health issue. Together, we will continue to push the boundaries in scholar-ship and service in public health and health systems.

In Toronto, the world’s most diverse city, I encourage our entire Faculty community to engage citizens in conver-sations that matter and create a cultural shift in Canada about what it means to be healthy. Let us draw inspiration from our diverse city to show the rest of Toronto and the world what a healthy and sustainable society looks like, today and in the future.

Howard Hu Dean, Dalla Lana School of Public Health

2021 To forge a sense of unity in the School, we launched a consultative strategic plan exercise, Towards 2021 and Beyond.

“We aspire to be one of the world’s leading Schools of Public Health known for innovative initiatives that are driven by evidence-based and holistic ideas of what a healthy and sustainable society will look like in the future.”

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Dalla Lana School of Public Health At a Glance

Public Health Sciences

PhD• Biostatistics• Epidemiology• Occupational and

Environmental Health• Social and Behavioural

Health Sciences

Master of Public Health (MPH)• Epidemiology• Family and Community

Medicine• Health Promotion• Nutrition and Dietetics• Occupational and

Environmental Health

Master of Science (MSc)• Biostatistics

Master of Health Science (MHSc)• Bioethics

Master of Science in Community Health (MScCH)• Addictions and Mental

Health• Family and Community

Medicine• Health Practitioner Teacher

Education• Occupational Health Care• Wound Prevention and Care

Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation

PhD• Clinical Epidemiology and

Health Care Research• Health Services Research

Master of Science (MSc)• Clinical Epidemiology

and Health Care Research• Health Services Research• Quality Improvement and

Patient Safety• System Leadership and

Innovation

Master of Health Science (MHSc)• Health Administration • Combined Health

Administration and Social Work

Master of Health Informatics (MHI) • Health Informatics

GRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMS 87Core Faculty (including five budgetary cross)

44Non-budgetary cross appointed faculty

663Community and Partner-Based Faculty

38Residents and Post-Doctoral Fellows

$33,502,437Annual Research Funding

645Master’s Program Students

235PhD Program Students

7Canada Research Chairs

DLSPH is the largest and most comprehensive public health school in Canada and is ranked as one of the top 15 schools of public health globally.

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Education

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health is a dynamic learning community where

tomorrow’s public health and health policy leaders are exposed to new areas of

scholarship that challenge paradigms about what it means to be healthy and cultivate a solutions-oriented approach to address

complex health issues.

New Course Focuses on Cultural Diversity

The School is a diverse community with a history of focusing on cultural diversity and inequity. Following in this tradition, a new course was introduced in January 2016, led by Assistant Professor Ananya Tina Banerjee, which reflects the health-care needs and sensitivities of Toronto’s diverse cultural groups.

Banerjee’s own research focuses on developing physical activity interventions for diabetes prevention and management in the South Asian community.

“My work is mindful of barriers, respectful of culture and language appro-priate,” said Banerjee.

A group of master’s degree students keen to take such a course wrote to Dean Howard Hu explaining that, “the course

would be an opportunity for students and faculty alike to become more cogni-zant of how their own identity and the ethnocultural identities of the commun-ities with whom they work impact our role as public health professionals.”

Less than six months later, Banerjee was in the classroom, teaching a pilot version of the ethnicity, culture and health course.

“We focused on developing cultural competency and trying to understand cross-cultural transactions in health-care settings,” Banerjee said. “We also looked at social determinants of health and how they intersected with culture and opportunities.”

Banerjee said the feedback from her inaugural six students has been positive and rewarding. Her interdisciplinary approach, a variety of guest speakers

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who work with diverse populations and relevant assignments prompted some students to call it one of the best courses they have taken. Given such a good response, in 2017 the course will be open to many more students.

Joint MD/MPH Degree Nears Implementation

Once all approvals are in place, the University of Toronto will be able to boast of having the first joint MD/MPH (Master of Public Health) degree in Canada in September 2017.

“There’s a huge need for this degree,” said Professor Ross Upshur, a promin-ent public health researcher and one of the DLSPH faculty leading the charge for the program. “If you look at the literature and the policy, there is a trans-formation in the way we are practicing medicine and organizing health-care sys-tems. There is an incredible emphasis on population health and social determin-ants of health.”

Upshur praised the foresight shown by the Faculty of Medicine and the

Dalla Lana School of Public Health in establishing the joint five-year degree program, which will encourage phys-icians “to take a broader population view on delivering health care.” The degree already exists at a number of universities in the United States.

He anticipates that the first class to earn the joint degree would prob-ably comprise five medical students, with additional places added as interest demands. The course cycle hasn’t been finalized yet, but Upshur said the pro-gram will utilize the depth and strength of DLSPH faculty to tailor the degree to student interests.

“This program creates a vehicle for students who are motivated to be

clinicians for the twenty-first cen-tury,” Upshur said. “They will have an enhanced set of skills to diversify their practices and scholarship.”

New System Leadership Concentration at IHPME

There’s a new Master of Science (MSc) degree concentration offered by the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) in System Leadership and Innovation (SLI).

The program builds on IHPME’s rich history in leadership training and the Leadership Education and Development initiative developed

Education 2017 The first joint MD/MPH degree will be offered in Canada next year.

“There is a transformation in the way we are practicing medicine and organizing health-care systems with an emphasis on population health and social deter-minants of health.”

Left: Professor Ross Upshur is the Clinical Public Health Division Head and is spearheading a new MD/MPH degree program.

Above: (left to right) Racial Justice Matters co-chairs Navita Singh, Meena Bhardwaj and Anjum Sultana (not pictured: Eden Hagos).

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in partnership with the Faculty of Medicine’s Undergraduate Medical Education program. The SLI concen-tration will provide medical students and postgraduate medical trainees with leadership education through course-work and practicums. The first cohort of students was accepted in spring 2016.

The coursework in this non-thesis MSc program focuses on the key aspects of physician leadership for system innovation, including leadership and motivation; strategic thinking and plan-ning; research methods for evaluating health system innovation; and policy analysis and techniques for system change. The practica allow students to apply that knowledge and work with mentors in a range of health and health-care settings.

Racial Justice Matters

Four graduate students co-chaired the 2015 Racial Justice Matters: Advocating for Racial Health Equity conference at DLSPH. The student-led conference was recognized at U of T’s inaugural International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination campaign on March 21, 2016.

“We chose this theme for our confer-ence because of the staggering inequities faced by racialized individuals in Canada that not only affect their social out-comes, but health outcomes as well,” wrote the co-chairs, Meena Bhardwaj, Eden Hagos, Navita Singh and Anjum Sultana. “Racial health inequities are a public health concern and we must address the consequences of racism and its root causes.”

In the run-up to the conference, DLSPH students created a Digging Deeper blog to educate the public about the ways racism infiltrates their lives. Topics included How Media Representations of Race Affect Us and Environmental Racism: Yes, It Happens in Canada.

Associate Professor Arjumand Siddiqi contributed the blog entry Should We Routinely Collect Data on Race? Canada at a Crossroads, in which she argued for the necessity of having data to help illuminate (and address) inequities in care.

“Put crudely, we need to get over it, and start thoughtfully collecting infor-mation about race in every facet of life

that influences our access, opportunities and our health,” she wrote. “Until then, Canadians will continue to have trouble telling our story, learning the true nature of the problems our fellow Canadians face and the solutions in which we all must participate.”

Siddiqi said there are signs of a cul-ture shift in Canada from hardly ever collecting this information to now being more open to it. This conference offered a step forward in educating the public health community about existing racial inequities and providing an opportunity to work towards solutions.

200 Racial Justice Matters hosted more than 200 participants, 30 speakers and 22 breakout sessions in October 2015.

Above: Professor Arjumand Siddiqi argues race-based data are required to help address health inequity.

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Research

From our beginnings in sanitation science, nutrition and vaccine development to

today’s advances in infectious and chronic disease prevention, we are deeply engaged

in a broad array of multidisciplinary, problem-oriented research that benefits people here in local communities and

across the globe.

High-Cost Health-Care Users

Walter Wodchis was the first researcher in Canada to evaluate an entire province’s health-care costs by examining anonym-ized patient records for nearly 15 million Ontarians over three years. He found that five per cent of Ontarians account for 65 per cent of provincial health-care costs attributable to individual care with the top one per cent accounting for one-third of these costs overall.

“People who have high health-care needs over multiple years are frequently hospitalized, which is the most expen-sive type of care,” explained Wodchis, Associate Professor in IHPME.

The study — the largest completed to date in Canada and published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal

in January 2016 — suggests that it is likely that at least some of these patients are not receiving adequate commun-ity-based care that could prevent such repeat hospitalizations.

“By finding ways to better support the care needs of this small but needs-in-tensive segment of the population in the community when appropriate, we could substantially lower costs for the health-care system overall.”

This research builds on earlier work with Assistant Professor Laura Rosella that linked Canadian Community Health Survey data to medical claim data where they found that many high-cost health-care users were also struggling in other parts of their life in areas such as income, housing and food security.

“Those of lower socioeconomic status are much more likely to become future

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high health-care users, which empha-sizes the far-reaching health effects of poverty and economic disadvantage,” said Rosella.

Safer Streets Pave Way for Healthier Cities

Toronto residents who would like to see their children walking to and from school will soon have clear guidance about how to advocate for roadway changes that make their neighbourhoods safer with the help of a Guide to Safer Streets Near Schools.

The guide is one of nine projects supported with seed grant funding from DLSPH’s Healthier Cities and Communities Hub as part of a shared

vision to improve community health through partnerships between research-ers, community organizations and local government.

Preparation of the guide was led by Green Communities Canada’s Katie Wittmann, in collaboration with Monica Campbell, Director of Healthy Public Policy at Toronto Public Health, and Assistant Professor with DLSPH.

“About sixty per cent of the parents of today’s students walked to school, but now, only about thirty per cent of stu-dents do so,” said Campbell.

“Many parents want to improve traffic safety around their schools, but they don’t know where to begin,” explained Wittmann.

Among the identified obstacles to walking are safe crossings and traffic.

The guide explains to parents how to work with local transportation officials to implement some of the many iden-tified strategies for overcoming these obstacles — a raised pedestrian cross-ing, for example, or reduced speed limits on residential streets.

“The focus of these strategies is to increase active transportation as a way to prevent youth problems with obesity and chronic disease,” said Campbell.

The guide will be available online in the summer of 2016, with an interactive website to follow.

Investment in Cancer Control in Low- and Middle-

Income Countries

More than one-third of the world’s eight million cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), but many of these cancer patients received no effective treatment and no opioid drugs to control severe pain, or their families became impoverished paying for treatment.

“Those of lower socioeconomic status are more likely to be high health-care users, emphasizing the far-reaching health effects of poverty.”

Left: The Healthier Cities and Communities Hub is improving health through partnerships between researchers, community groups and government.

Below: Professor Prabhat Jha is saving lives by outlining a global plan for cancer control.

9 The Healthier Cities and Communities Hub supports nine projects in partnership with researchers, commu-nity organizations and local government.

Research

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That’s why a team of researchers led by Professor Prabhat Jha have outlined a global plan for cancer control, including prevention, detection, diagnosis, treat-ment and palliative care.

“Most middle-income countries could achieve high coverage of life-sav-ing cancer control within a few years,” said Jha, also Director of the Centre for Global Health Research at St. Michael’s Hospital.

The study, published in The Lancet in November 2015, outlined a series of practical, cost-effective strategies to address most preventable or treatable cancer burdens in LMICs that would cost an additional $20 billion per year for all LMICs, mostly funded by gov-ernments themselves. Global partners and universities can support innovations that make cancer control investments more attractive.

Some of the recommended inter-ventions included increasing tobacco taxes, supporting vaccination programs, encouraging early diagnosis and treat-ment of breast cancer, cervical cancer and selected childhood cancers, and widespread availability and use of pal-liative care and pain management.

U of T Public Health Researchers Urge that Movies

with Smoking Be 18A Rated

An Ontario 18A rating for all movies with smoking would avert more than 30,000 tobacco-related deaths and save more than half a billion dollars in health-care costs, according to Associate Professor Robert Schwartz and his research team at the Ontario Tobacco Research Unit (OTRU).

“There is a solid body of research that demonstrates youth who are exposed to smoking in movies are more likely to start smoking than youth who are not exposed, regardless of personality char-acteristics or their friends’, siblings’ and parents’ smoking and alcohol use,” said Schwartz, OTRU’s Executive Director.

OTRU has long advised that it’s time to butt out smoking in movies that are youth rated, but this report, Youth Exposure to Tobacco in Movies, provides new data about the costs — both eco-nomically and in lives lost — of youth smoking due to movie exposure.

The report projects that at least 185,000 children and teens in Ontario will start smoking cigarettes due to exposure to on-screen smoking. These future Ontario smokers would

185k At least 185,000 children and teens in Ontario will start smoking cigarettes due to exposure to on-screen smoking.

be responsible for at least $1.1 bil-lion in health-care costs attributable to their exposure to on-screen smok-ing. At least 59,000 of these smokers recruited to smoking by exposure to movies depicting tobacco imagery are projected to eventually die prematurely from smoking-related disease.

To communicate this research to the public, Schwartz and Thunder Bay District Health Unit created a five-minute live-illustration video that has had close to 35,000 views on YouTube and more than 37,000 views on Facebook.

8M More than one-third of the world’s eight million cancer deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries.

Above: Robert Schwartz is reaching youth via social media to warn them about the dangers of smoking and the link be-tween tobacco and film.

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Partnerships & Links

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health works collaboratively to achieve our

collective vision of a healthier Canada and a healthier world. We do this by partnering with the University of Toronto’s Faculties

of Medicine, Nursing, Engineering, Management, Law, Arts and Science, and many others. We also have strong alliances

with Toronto’s powerful community of research-intensive hospitals, government

agencies and institutes.

Student-Led Start-Up Helps Women Seize Their Birth Control

Fifteen million women in Canada and the United States use oral contraceptives for birth control, yet up to one in 10 of these women become pregnant during their first year on the pill. Most often, this is because they forget to take it, or take it irregularly.

That’s why a team of U of T students designed the Diem Pouch (formerly Pillsy), a smart pill pouch that auto-matically tracks when pills are taken, and syncs to a smartphone via Bluetooth to give reminders or advice if a pill is missed.

“Diem Pouch is an intuitive device that will give women the confidence that they’re effectively managing their birth control, thereby reducing anxiety and preventing unplanned pregnancies,” said

Courtney Smith, a recent MPH Epi-demiology graduate who worked with graduate students in U of T’s Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineer-ing and Institute for Aerospace Studies on the device.

Smith joined the mostly male engin-eer team to develop a research trial protocol to prove Diem Pouch’s effect-iveness, but her role evolved as her public health perspective persuaded the team to consider far-reaching consequences of unintended pregnancies, such as poor educational and behavioural outcomes for the child and increased risk of depres-sion in the mother.

“Learning about the role of the pri-vate sector in public health, and gaining experience in a cross-disciplinary team, have been valuable additions to my core public health education,” said Smith.

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“Our world is more interconnected now than ever before. All countries — low, middle and high income — are experiencing the massive societal impact of both infectious and chronic disease,” said Chockalingam, Director of the Office of Global Public Health Education and Training.

“Multinational collaborations, such as this one, enable student and faculty exchanges and global partnerships that can improve health for all.”

Workshop presentations were focused on big data, health systems, mental health and non-communicable diseases.

The mental health presentation was led by Professors Kwame McKenzie, Chief Executive Officer of the Wellesley Institute, and Arun Ravindran of U of T’s Department of Psychiatry, both partners of DLSPH’s Institute for Global Health Equity and Innovation. It explored migrant mental health as an emerging and urgent area of scholarship with implications for the incoming wave of Syrian refugees worldwide.

The collaboration goal is to develop a five-way memorandum of under-standing that will allow for student and faculty exchanges and development of a large research partnership between all five institutions. The next workshop will likely be held this fall.

Partnerships & Links 50 Three-day workshop in December 2015 included close to 50 delegates from Toronto, Australia and China.

“Multinational collaborations, such as this one, enable student and faculty exchanges and global partner-ships that can improve health for all.”

Tri-National Public Health Collaboration Creates

New Opportunities in Global Health

The first five-institutional collaboration between DLSPH and leading public health institutions in Australia and China kicked off in a December 2015 workshop in Shanghai, China, that asked: What can we do collectively that each institution cannot do independently?

Led by Professors Arun Chockalingam and Dan Sellen, the three-day work-shop included close to 50 delegates from DLSPH, the University of Melbourne School of Public Health, Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Public Health, Shanghai Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and the Shanghai Mental Health Center.

Left: MPH Epidemiology student Courtney Smith and Diem Pouch collaborator Tony Zhang, U of T Aerospace Engineering student, opened the Toronto Stock Exchange on May 9, 2016.

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50 Cents Can Save Two Lives

Assistant Professor Shafi Bhuiyan is on a mission to improve maternal and child health worldwide using a cost-effective, low-tech tool: the Maternal and Child Health Handbook.

The handbook was first developed by the American army for distribution in Japan during the post–Second World War reconstruction to support healthy preg-nancies, reduce birth risks and improve the quality of child care by providing important information about pre- and postnatal care.

During the past 18 years, Bhuiyan, Professor Yasuhide Nakamura of Osaka University in Japan and col-leagues worldwide have collaborated to bring the handbook to 30 countries,

including Bangladesh, Cameroon, the United States and the Netherlands in multiple languages.

In countries where the health infra-structure isn’t well developed and technology may not be embedded into daily life, the handbook serves multiple purposes:

• A record of a mother’s ongoing health history during pregnancy and a baby’s afterward;

• An education and referral document for information about pre- and postnatal care;

• A repository of family vital stat- istics in countries without a collection system;

• A way to promote two-way communi-cation with health-care personnel.

50� Inexpensive to produce at just 50 cents per copy, the handbook can be adapted for each target population, using drawings to supplement the language when literacy is low.

30 Shafi Bhuiyan and colleagues introduced the Maternal and Child Health Handbook to 30 countries.

In rural areas and in underdeveloped countries, the handbook can be a lifeline, Bhuiyan said. Inexpensive to produce at just 50 cents per copy, it can be adapted for each target population, using draw-ings to supplement the language when literacy is low.

“It’s the cornerstone of the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals [to reduce mortality rates for infants and for women during child-birth],” Bhuiyan said. “It’s a handbook that connects all the programs focusing on a mother and her child from preg-nancy until a child turns six. It’s a bold and solid idea.”

Above: Delegates from Toronto, Australia and China at a workshop in Shanghai, China, from December 3 to 5.

Right: Dr. Babatunde Osotimehin (Executive Director of the United Nations Population Fund) and Professor Shafi Bhuiyan at the Maternal and Child Health Handbook meeting in May 2014 in Toronto.

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Our Footprint

Stimulating the activities of faculty, students, staff and alumni is a top priority

for the School. Since achieving faculty status in July 2013, our path of accelerated

growth has continued and, together, we will chart the course towards better

public health and health systems to support a healthier world.

New Faculty, Renewed Strategy: Towards 2021 and Beyond

In 2015, DLSPH began a strategic planning process to leverage its newly combined and unique strengths.

The strategic planning exercise was co-led by Professors Adalsteinn Brown and Daniel Sellen and included:

• Participation of more than 60 stu-dents, alumni, staff and faculty mem-bers giving direct inputs through six consultative subcommittees which identified 24 potential strategic directions;

• Review of the emerging plans by School community online and School committee meetings;

• Discussion of priorities by more than 150 participants at a Strategic

Planning Retreat on November 23, 2015;

• An external landscape assessment to articulate the School’s local, national and global position.

“Going through this process thought-fully will help us create a sense of purpose across the School, and I think we have an excellent roadmap for growth as a dynamic organization that strives for impact in public health and health sys-tems,” said Professor Adalsteinn Brown.

The new Strategic Plan, to be pub-lished summer 2016, outlines several emerging areas of focus and commits to building on strengths in three new stra-tegic directions:

1. Improve the learner experience in existing and newly created

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programs of education and public health and health systems capacity development;

2. Ensure globally recognized excel-lence and impact in public health and health systems research;

3. Enhance partnerships and manage-ment of the DLSPH.

The plan will be reviewed annu-ally by the Dean, DLSPH’s Executive Committee and the Dean’s Advisory Board, and a strong performance management and benchmarking frame-work will be developed.

“The plan emerging from broad and deep engagement of so many will guide diverse efforts to enhance our collective

impact through shared strategic direc-tions focused on engagement, excellence and impact,” said Sellen.

Celebrating and Strengthening the DLSPH Community

As the newest Faculty at the University of Toronto, building the profile of the Dalla Lana School of Public Health is funda-mental to engaging students, faculty and partners and creating new opportunities for learning, research and service.

Three high-profile events brought close to 800 members of the DLSPH community together around a renewed sense of unity, celebration and academic discussion.

The Building the Future Together event was a shared celebration of DLSPH becoming the University’s first stand-alone faculty in 15 years and the transition of the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation and the Joint Centre for Bioethics into the School.

“Graduates of this school, if they are to correct health inequity and eliminate preventable deaths, must have a broad world view. That’s the promise of the School’s new composition,” said Paul Dalla Lana, who attended the event on September 21, 2015.

Following the fall celebration, DLSPH hosted the inaugural Dean’s Leadership Series (DLS) on February 3, 2016, which featured University of Toronto President Emeritus David Naylor and an expert panel addressing the question: Can we innovate our way to a sustainable health system?

The DLS is designed to strengthen connections between the Faculty and

Left: Dean’s Leadership Series Panellists discussed what inno-vation is needed to create a sustainable health system.

60 Students, alumni, staff and faculty participated in subcommittees that informed strategic plan directions.

Our Footprint

“The University can advance scholarship and ideas while equipping the next generation to effect the change desperately needed in our health-care system.”

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the University community and beyond through lively discussion on significant issues facing the health of Canadians and stimulating ideas on how society can respond to these challenges.

The impressive panel included gov-ernment, hospital and not-for-profit CEOs alongside nationally acclaimed Globe and Mail columnist André Picard and Dr. Ross Upshur, a veteran family physician.

“The University can advance scholar-ship and ideas while equipping the next generation to effect the change desper-ately needed in our health-care system,” said Upshur, DLSPH’s Clinical Public Health Division Head.

At the close of the academic year, DLSPH hosted the inaugural Health for Tomorrow: Year-End Celebration on May 31, 2016, at the Gardiner Museum. The event celebrated graduating stu-dents and award recipients, many of whom received a scholarship made pos-sible by one of the School’s donors who also attended the event.

Professor Natasha Crowcroft deliv-ered the keynote address and MPH Epidemiology graduate Courtney Smith spoke on behalf of her fellow students.

Advancing Our Mission and Vision

With the support of philanthropic part-ners and donors, DLSPH is educating Canada’s future public health and health system leaders, significantly influencing health policies and practices and uncov-ering knowledge that will help entire populations flourish.

Through the School’s Boundless campaign, the last year saw an expansion

of student scholarships, faculty-hon-oured awards and innovation funds expanded thanks to donors who sup-port excellence in education, research and programs.

Over the next year, DLSPH will further develop its strengths by focus-ing on dynamic, multidisciplinary and cross-cutting platforms of Integrating Public Health and Primary Care, Using Big Data for Health, Healthy Cities and Communities, Indigenous Health and Global Health.

Thank you to all supporters whose financial contributions help move the Faculty towards a vision of ensur-ing healthy lives for everyone, both in Canada and around the world.

15 DLSPH became U of T’s first new faculty in 15 years, which now includes the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and the Joint Centre for Bioethics.

Philanthropy is integral to advancing DLSPH’s mission, vision and programs. Contributions may be directed towards support of annual funds of greatest need, estate planning, or to create a new, named award.

For more information, please con-tact the Office of Advancement at dlsph.advancement@utoronto.ca or visit www.dlsph.utoronto.ca to donate today.

800 Three high-profile events brought close to 800 members of the DLSPH community together around a renewed sense of unity, celebration and academic discussion.

Above: Building the Future, Together event, held at the MaRS Discovery District on September 21, 2015.

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Institutes, Centres & Divisions

The Dalla Lana School of Public Health is a dynamic learning community where

tomorrow’s public health and health policy leaders are exposed to new areas of

scholarship that challenge paradigms about what it means to be healthy and cultivate a solutions-oriented approach to address

complex health issues.

Institutes and

Centres

Institute of Health Policy, Management

and Evaluation

Improving Infectious Outbreak Reporting

Health-care organizations worldwide regularly turn to respected researchers at DLSPH. Robert Fowler, a critical care physician and Director of IHPME’s Clinical Epidemiology and Health CareResearch program, is collaborating with organizations worldwide to improve the

communication and reporting done during outbreaks of novel infections. With a large team of clinical research-ers at the World Health Organization and Oxford University, he has helped to develop a new, flexible, tiered case reporting form that aims to make data collected worldwide more accountable by employing standard definitions and allowing health-care workers to collect as much data as they can, depending on the resources available.

His clinical focus and research has become the basis for a surveillance program for the severe acute respira-tory infections in Canada and Mexico, revealing that outbreaks leading to high mortality in one health-care setting may not be cause for panic in another, given the variation in health systems and resources among countries.

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“My own education in global outbreaks grew out of our difficult experience with SARS,” said Fowler, whose subsequent research and clin-ical work has spanned H1N1, Ebola and MERS-CoV. He is now helping Latin American colleagues describe compli-cations of Zika virus.

Using Data to Drive Health Policy

Professor Audrey Laporte, the new director of IHPME’s Health Services Research program, is working hard to ensure that the program’s gradu-ates “are always adding value and have enhanced skill sets that are at the cut-ting edge.” Laporte, who also directs the Canadian Centre for Health Economics (CCHE), is determined that the insti-tute’s programs and her own research contribute to that vision and enhance public knowledge.

IHPME’s weekly public seminars, semi-annual symposia and white papers illuminate important areas of policy; Laporte’s most recent white paper on

drug pricing, written in collaboration with Brian Ferguson from the University of Guelph, maintains that Canadians need a better understanding of the forces driving the introduction and financing of new drugs and technologies.

Working with Whitney Berta, she is also in the midst of a CIHR grant that is examining the role of personal sup-port workers in the health-care system in order to build a forecasting model for deploying health-care workers in vari-ous community and health-care settings.

“We want to be able to meet the needs of the changing landscape of care as complexity of care increases,” Laporte said.

Mobile Telemonitoring Platform Improving Heart Health

A mobile telemonitoring platform, or app, that Assistant Professor Emily Seto and her colleagues have been develop-ing, testing and refining for a decade will soon become a permanent fixture at the heart function clinic at the University Health Network.

“We’ve had so many pilots that the opportunity for a sustained program is wonderful,” said Seto.

The app allows patients to enter their symptoms and collects measurements, such as weight and blood pressure, and then uploads the data to servers. If any readings are abnormal, self-care instructions are sent and the patient’s clinician receives an alert. In a random-ized controlled trial at UHN, patients were not only compliant, many changed their behaviour.

Seto has also been involved in test-ing the platform for patients with other chronic conditions, including those with multiple chronic conditions. A sustained telemonitoring program is going to be launched for chronic kidney disease patients at UHN as well.

The platform’s aim is to keep chronic-ally ill people out of hospital. Seto would ultimately like to see it used nationwide.

Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health

New Leadership and Governance

The Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health (WBIIH) inaugural Interim Director, Jeff Reading, con-cluded a remarkable year at the close of 2015, which included the mem-orable naming ceremony in March 2015 and the creation of a community advisory council.

“I am extraordinarily grateful to Michael and Amira Dan who made the Institute possible, and the support

Institutes, Centres & Divisions CCHE As lead of the Canadian Centre for Health Economics, Professor Audrey Laporte says Canadians need a better understanding of new drug and technology financing.

Left: Professor Robert Fowler is working with the WHO to identify and report infectious disease outbreaks.

Below: Professor Emily Seto is using mobile technology to change patient behaviour.

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of staff and faculty who made it a suc-cessful inaugural year,” said Reading, who remains connected to DLSPH as an advisor to the Dean.

Assistant Professor Earl Nowgesic, the Institute’s Associate Director, took on the Acting Director role while Assistant Professor Anita Benoit became the Interim Associate Director in December 2015.

In fall 2015 and spring 2016, WBIIH hosted the first two Community Advis-ory Council meetings. This 20-person council is comprised of Indigenous scholars and community members from across Canada who guide WBIIH’s strategic direction and promote com-munity-driven and relevant scholarship, education and partnership.

Collaborative Program in Aboriginal Health

The Collaborative Program in Aboriginal Health (CPAH) is settling into its new home as part of the Waakebiness-Bryce Institute for Indigenous Health.

“It’s a great move,” said the program’s director, Assistant Professor Amanda Sheppard, herself a CPAH graduate. “I think it will help the program grow. The Institute has an agenda and the object-ives are in line with ours, and we’ll be able to work together and build momentum.”

The recent move from the Faculty of Medicine will also provide CPAH with physical space on campus and admin-istrative support needed to unite the diverse faculty together and promote the program both inside and outside the University.

“We draw our students heavily from public health and education, but we’re also affiliated with anthropology, geog-raphy and nutritional sciences and it would be great to get more students from those departments,” Sheppard said.

Examining Cancer Rates in Northern Ontario

First Nation Community

Dean Howard Hu, an environmental epidemiologist, and a team of col-leagues have been chosen by Health Canada to conduct a study in partner-ship with the Northwest Angle 33 First Nation near Kenora, Ontario, to deter-mine if cancer incidence rates in the First Nation population are elevated and environmentally linked.

“The geographical area has a cancer cluster and there are a lot of worries about environmental exposure, but these are anecdotal reports,” said Hu. “The first step is to rigorously do a count to determine the true rates and see if they are elevated.”

The researchers, along with Cancer Care Ontario and Public Health Ontario, are currently identifying the communities of interest and examining existing data from the Ontario Cancer Registry as part of the epidemiological study. They will also review previous studies about environmental exposure that relate to the area.

“The ultimate goal of their work is to respond to the concerns of the commun-ity and determine what action needs to be taken,” Hu said.

Once the first phase of the project is completed, Hu hopes to have some idea about whether the cancers have an

20 In fall 2015, WBIIH established a 20-person Community Advisory Council comprised of Indigenous scholars and community members from across Canada.

“We must con-sider suchissues as cul-tural sensitivities, communityparticipation, ownership of thedata, the First Nation’s relation to the environ-ment and its acknowledgedhistorical grievances.”

Left: Professor Anita Benoit (left) and Chief Darlene Comegan of Northwest Angle 33 First Nation at the U of T Faculty Club on February 11, 2016.

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environmental cause. He has proposed a second phase of research — yet to be funded — that includes an in-depth bio-medical study of the residents.

“We are conducting the research in full partnership with the commun-ity,” Hu said. “We must consider such issues as cultural sensitivities, com-munity participation, ownership of the data, the First Nation’s relation to the environment and its acknowledged historical grievances.”

Institute for Global Health Equity and Innovation

Renewed Leadership and Vision

Professor Alejandro (Alex) Jadad became the permanent Director of the Institute for Global Health Equity and Innovation (IGHEI) on January 1, 2016, after nine months serving IGHEI as Interim Director.

A global leader in transforming the way health is defined and measured,

Jadad engaged a team of students, fac-ulty members, staff and community partners to co-create the vision, mis-sion, core values and strategic objectives of IGHEI to position it at the epicentre of a pandemic of health through social innovation and entrepreneurship.

“The time has come for us as a spe-cies to join forces and ensure that every person and community could have the same opportunities to live a long and healthy life, as part of a sustainable planet,” said Jadad.

The Agency: Co-creating (Ad)ventures

for Social Change

The Agency is a hub that facilitates introductions and way-finding for stu-dents, faculty, teaching staff, alumni and partners focused on social innovation at U of T. This university-wide initiative of IGHEI is co-chaired by Ms. Cindy Ross Pedersen, President of U of T’s Alumni Association, and Professor Alex Jadad.

On June 27, 2016, IGHEI co-spon-sored and convened Exploring Social

Innovation @ U of T, an invitation-only, student-led event that brought together 60 students, faculty members, staff and external partners to explore what social innovation is and what it should aspire to be at our institution. It also served as a platform to announce IGHEI’s social innovation seed fund, which seeks to accelerate the transformation of innov-ative ideas into social enterprises that could promote greater equity in health, and to harness the diversity of Toronto to facilitate their scalability and sustain-ability worldwide.

Joint Centre for Bioethics

University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

Joins the Dalla Lana School of Public Health

On July 1, 2015, the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (JCB) transi-tioned from the Faculty of Medicine to DLSPH, a reflection of the evolution of bioethics as a field that is expanding its scope to address both upstream social determinants of health and downstream implications on patient care, health policies and population health. Health system integration, big data, chronic dis-ease, epidemics, end of life policy and practice, and the globalization of health are a few areas of focus.

“Health systems face complex challenges locally and globally. These challenges demand new ways of think-ing and new approaches to tackling them. We have a moral imperative to

Institutes, Centres & Divisions

Below: Professor Alex Jadad hopes that IGHEI can create a pandemic of health through social innovation and entrepreneurship.

Right: Students at IGHEI-sponsored Hacking Food event on February 28, 2016, tackling food insecurity with social entrepreneurship.

60 Exploring Social Innovation @ U of T brought together 60 students, faculty members, staff and external partners to explore the potential of social innovation.

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work through these challenges together towards the greater goal of improving health,” said Associate Professor Jennifer Gibson, JCB Director.

A world-leading network of more than 180 interdisciplinary scholars and professionals, the JCB is home to the WHO Collaborating Centre for Bioethics and celebrated its 20th anni-versary in December 2015.

Providing Ethical Advice on Medical Assistance in Dying

The JCB published a number of reports to help policy-makers, health profes-sionals and families navigate the legal, medical, social, ethical and personal

challenges of medical assistance in dying (MAID).

“We want to avoid a patchwork of approaches and develop aligned policies where Canadians know what to expect if they choose to request a physician-as-sisted death, regardless of where they live,” said Gibson.

Gibson co-chaired the Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying, which was created by 11 Canadian provincial and territorial governments in August 2015 to provide advice on the implementa-tion of assisted dying in Canada. She also commissioned a JCB Task Force on medical assistance in dying to inform thinking on key ethical dimensions and implications of MAID.

The JCB Task Force included prov-incial ethics and legal experts, health professionals and community mem-bers working in collaboration with professional associations and health organizations to provide rigorous eth-ical analysis and to develop educational and policy materials and resources for patients and families, health profession-als and policy-makers.

Building Ethics Capacity in Primary Care

The JCB, Toronto Central CCAC, Toronto Central LHIN, and the Department of Family and Community Medicine are partnering on the Primary Care Ethics Integration Initiative, which will ensure that primary health-care providers can deal with the ethical chal-lenges in their daily practice and in an environment of complex chronic illness.

“To date, the primary focus of ethics scholarship and practice was on acute hospital-based care,” said Gibson. “Now we are building ethics capacity across the care continuum to help achieve the high-est possible integration and quality care for people in the community.”

The initiative includes educational, research, and service components for medical students and inter-profes-sional teams in community-based primary practice with a vision of scal-ing up across Ontario. It also provides a forum for building bioethics leader-ship in primary care through the active involvement of their Master of Health Science in Bioethics graduates who are practicing family physicians.

“We are building ethics capacity across thecare continuum to help achieve the highestpossible inte-gration and quality carefor people in the community.”

11Professor Jennifer Gibson co-chaired a Provincial-Territorial Expert Advisory Group on Physician-Assisted Dying, which included 11 Canadian provincial and territorial governments.

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Divisions

Biostatistics

Combining Bayesian Networks and Food Security

Some of the world’s top biostatistics and food security researchers, led by Professor Michael Escobar, joined forces at U of T in May for a workshop focused on creat-ing a new decision support system — a sophisticated mathematical model that will show the consequences of various decisions for food security in Canada.

The goal of the exercise was to aid crisis management, policy design and decision-making in food security at the local, regional, national and — eventu-ally — global levels, Escobar said.

“Rather than a traditional conference, we decided to do something where we get people with ingredients to bring to the salad, mix them and see what they can do,” Escobar said. “We’ll bring every-one together in a room and figure it out.”

Probabilistic graphical models, Bayesian inference and meta-analysis were among the techniques employed to create the nodes of the model and string them all together.

“The model will now need to be tested,” said Escobar. “We are learning how to use these techniques in ways that can be useful.”

Clinical Public Health

Preventing Cancer in Low-Income Neighbourhoods

Researchers are working with Durham Public Health on a four-year study designed to improve participation in prevention and screening actions among adults ages 40 to 65 living in low- income neighbourhoods who don’t have family physicians. The study is funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute.

The study will provide interventions to half the study population and the control group will be told they are on a waiting list. Local public health nurses will meet with participants one-on-one to review their current health status, see what they want to improve and encourage them to undertake prevent-ive actions by getting screened, quitting smoking, etc.

Six months later, nurses will check what actions participants have taken, chart measurable improvements and see whether this is a viable strategy for improving prevention.

“Our long-term vision is to decrease cancer rates in this population,” said Assistant Professor Aisha Lofters, a family physician.

Peer Cancer Education Program for Black Women Improves

Awareness and Screening

Dr. Onye Nnorom and her team of researchers created a novel peer edu-cation project to improve breast and cervical cancer awareness and screening for black women in Toronto’s Malvern community.

“There is a lot of silence in the black community. People think that cancer is not a black issue and many surviv-ors are shy to speak out,” said Nnorom, Associate Director of DLSPH’s Public Health and Preventive Medicine Residency Program.

The project is known as Ko-Pamoja, which means “learning together” and is Toronto’s first community-aca-demic partnership to address breast and cervical cancer education with an Afrocentric lens.

Institutes, Centres & Divisions

Below: Dr. Onye Nnorom created Toronto’s first community-academic partnership to address breast and cervical cancer education with an Afrocentric lens.

“There is a lot of silence in the black community. People think that cancer is not a black issue and many survivors are shy to speak out.”

40–65 Researchers are working with Durham Public Health to improve prevention and screening among adults ages 40 to 65 living in low- income neighbourhoods.

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Program evaluation found increased awareness of breast cancer and cer-vical cancer risk factors and benefits of screening and early detection. Most participants reported they planned to get screened.

“We need more culturally specific cancer prevention programs and research to address the needs of the diverse communities in Ontario.”

Epidemiology

Predicting Seasonal Influenza Patterns

The government virology labs in Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Ottawa will be

forecasting seasonal influenza this fall with the help of a bright IDEA.

Professor David Fisman and alumnae Tahmina Nasserie and Ashleigh Tuite have developed a simple, single-equa-tion mathematical model — IDEA (Incidence Decay with Exponential Adjustment) — which has proven useful in characterizing and projecting re-emerging infectious diseases, includ-ing cholera, MERS coronavirus and Ebola. They tested the model this past year with their Alberta, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Ottawa partners and found that it performed as well as more com-plicated models in characterizing the epidemiology of the seasonal influenza outbreaks.

“It could have a role in guiding public health responses to influenza in real time,” Fisman said. “It also seems to

provide a signal when the dynamics of an epidemic are fundamentally changing, when a first wave of the epidemic is ending and the second is beginning, for example.

“This ability to identify changing dynamics may ultimately be the greatest value added with this model.”

Occupational and Environmental Health

Andrea Sass-Kortsak Honoured as AIHA Fellow

Professor Andrea Sass-Kortsak was recognized by the American Industrial Hygiene Association as a distinguished fellow last June. Sass-Kortsak is one of only 10 or so Canadians to have received this career-recognition honour from the 10,000-member association.

“I was thrilled,” said Sass-Kortsak, former Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. “I’ve trained a whole genera-tion of occupational hygienists, across Canada, many of whom are now in senior leadership positions.”

When Sass-Kortsak entered the field of occupational hygiene almost 40 years ago, she stood out because she wasn’t one of the fellows. Her bosses didn’t want her to go underground into the mines, because women didn’t do such things. Today, this experienced professor, mentor, researcher and administrator has no qualms about taking students — many of whom are women — to a wide variety of workplaces.

“I wasn’t originally thinking of an aca-demic career,” Sass-Kortsak said, “but

Above: Avid cyclist David Fisman developed a model to predict flu outbreaks with Epidemiology alumni.

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after my master’s degree, I decided that teaching this would be very rewarding.”

Hundreds of students — and work-places — have benefited as a result.

Welcome, Microbes!

DLSPH is the new home for the world-renowned UAMH Centre for Global Microfungal Biodiversity, a pre-mier repository of biomedically and environmentally important fungi and bacteria. This research biobank com-prises nearly 12,000 living biospecimens representing more than 3,200 species. The majority of the strains are not repli-cated elsewhere.

“This is the largest repository in the western hemisphere,” said Associate Professor James Scott, head of the Occupational and Environmental Health Division. “It began in the 1930s with the Alberta Public Health Service. Any time a novel or important species was found, ranging from ringworm to systemic disease, they saved it as refer-ence material and for later comparative study. Over the years, the biobank grew,

expanding to include an unparalleled diversity of living, disease-causing microbes from around the world.”

When the University of Alberta was no longer able to host the biobank, DLSPH took on the responsibility.

“It serves the interests of DLSPH and researchers worldwide because diseases caused by these micro-organisms have recently prompted some of the most cat-astrophic extinctions ever seen in crop plants and wild animal species.”

Levitsky Honoured for Global Contributions to

Occupational Hygiene

In recognition of her career contribu-tions to occupational hygiene, including her work as the founding president of

Workplace Health Without Borders, Adjunct Lecturer Marianne Levitsky received the 2015 Hugh Nelson Award from the Occupational Hygiene Association of Ontario.

Levitsky is a senior associate with ECOH Management, but devotes about 50 per cent of her time to Workplace Health Without Borders, which addresses issues in the developing world. In these countries, there is often no sep-aration between home and the workplace and entire families often face exposure to workplace health hazards, leading to a need for novel solutions.

“The hazards are familiar, but the barriers are new and we have to be inventive,” said Levitsky, who has person-ally participated in a Grand Challenges Canada grant project in Gujarat, India, to reduce exposure to silica.

Institutes, Centres & Divisions

Left: Baudoinia compniacensis, known as the angels’ share fungus, that is part of the UAMH Centre for Global Microfungal Biodiversity species catalogue.

Below: In the developing world, there is often no separation between home and the workplace so families often face exposure to workplace health hazards.

12,000 The UAMH Centre for Global Microfungal Biodiversity research biobank comprises nearly 12,000 living biospecimens and is now based at DLSPH.

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Social and Behavioural Health Sciences

Changing the Game for LGBTQ Athletes

PhD student Kinnon MacKinnon received one of three special 2015 INSPIRE Sports Hero Awards from the LGBTQ community as the first transgender man to win a gold medal in powerlifting at the Gay Games.

“These awards were created espe-cially to mark the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am Games and recognized the signifi-cant barriers that LGBTQ people face in participating in sport and physical activ-ity,” MacKinnon said.

As a teenager, MacKinnon competed at a national level in freestyle skiing and snowboarding, but like many LGBTQ youth, quit sports after coming out. Later, he discovered powerlifting. His efforts in drawing attention to the importance of inclusive policies led the Canadian Powerlifting Union to develop and release trans-inclusion guidelines in late 2014.

Leading up to the 2015 Pan Am/Parapan Am games, MacKinnon spoke publicly about the importance of making sport more inclusive for LGBTQ people. He has also been named a top 25 finalist in the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council 2016 Storytellers challenge.

Students Gain Insight into Publishing and the Peer-Review Process

University of Toronto Professors Denise Gastaldo, Director of the Centre for Critical Qualitative Health Research (CQ), Joan Eakin, retired founding dir-ector of CQ, and Ping-Chun Hsiung, Department of Sociology and Guest Editor of a special issue of the prestigious journal Qualitative Inquiry, engaged graduate students in the peer-review submissions process of this internation-ally authored issue.

This innovative exercise was highly productive, offering much to the graduate students (research and profes-sional knowledge), the Editor (careful and thoughtful assessments) and CQ

(extension of its educational program). Student involvement in the peer-review process reflected the theme of the jour-nal issue: teaching as an essential means for the production and reproduction of critical qualitative research.

Martyna Janjua, a doctoral stu-dent reviewer, said the experience was transformative.

“Altogether, this experience has left me more confident, hopeful and excited about my future career in the field of qualitative research.”

Investing in Social Inclusion through the Arts

Associate Professor Suzanne Jackson and Lecturer Charlotte Lombardo, along with alumna Alanna Fennell, col-laborated with SKETCH, a community arts space for street-involved youth, in creating programs to engage and empower marginalized female youth, inclusive of transfeminine identities.

Four 10-week programs were created: textile arts; mindful movement for preg-nant women; songwriting; and Chrysalis, a multidisciplinary space for transfemin-ine youth exclusively. Each program also provided supports, such as meals, day-care and subway tokens to remove some known barriers to participation.

At the conclusion of the programs, research showed an increased sense of self, a sense of inclusion, marketable skills and an interest in advocating for change.

“By bringing together arts, space and programming designed specifically for female-identified youth, we saw signifi-cant positive impacts on self-esteem and feelings of capacity to move forward,” said Jackson and Lombardo.

“This experience has left me more confident, hopeful and excited about my future career in the field of qualitative research.”

Above: PhD student Kinnon MacKinnon’s research recognizes the significant barriers that LGBTQ people face when participating in sport.

Left: SKETCH is a com-munity arts space for street-involved youth that offers programming in textile arts and more.

10 Four 10-week programs were created: textile arts; mindful movement for pregnant women; songwriting; and Chrysalis, a multidisciplinary space for transfeminine youth exclusively.

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Awards & Honours

Public Health Sciences

Zulfiqar A. BhuttaGeneva Forum for Health Award World Health Assembly

Shelley BullAward for Impact of Applied and Collaborative Work Statistical Society of Canada

Donald ColeVic Neufeld Mentorship Award in Global Health Research Canadian Coalition for Global Health Research

Greg EvansTeaching Award Ontario Confederation of University Faculty Associations

Rick GlazierTop 20 Pioneers of Family Medicine College of Family Physicians of Canada

Howard Hu John Goldsmith Award Conference of the International Society for Environmental Epidemiology

Susan JaglalFellow Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

Prabhat JhaTrailblazer Award in Population Health Canadian Institutes of Health Research

Joanne KotsopoulosDistinguished Alumni University of Toronto Victoria University

John McLaughlinFellow Canadian Academy of Health Sciences

Gail McVeyTentanda Via Award York University

Stephanie NixonRising Star Alumni Award University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine

Earl NowgesicOutstanding Native Student of the Year University of Toronto President Awards

James Orbinski Teasdale-Corti Humanitarian Award Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons

Jeff Reading C.P. Shah Alumni Award of Excellence Public Health Alumni Association

Jürgen RehmHighly Cited Researcher (2015) Thomson Reuters

Laura Rosella Canada Research Chair in Population Health Analytics Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Arjumand SiddiqiCanada Research Chair in Population Health Equity Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council

Janet SmylieTop 20 Pioneers of Family Medicine College of Family Physicians of Canada

Ross UpshurFamily Medicine Researcher of the Year Award and Top 20 Pioneers of Family Medicine College of Family Physicians of Canada

Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation

Onil BhattacharyyaHarkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and Practice (2015–16) The Commonwealth Fund

Eyal CohenHarkness Fellowship in Health Care Policy and Practice (2015–16) The Commonwealth Fund

Robert Fowler Order of Ontario Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration

David NaylorInductee Canadian Medical Hall of Fame

Kelly O’Brien Elisse Zack Award of Excellence in HIV and Rehabilitation Canadian Working Group on HIV and Rehabilitation

Michelle Pannor SilverConnaught New Researcher Award (2015) University of Toronto

Joint Centre for Bioethics

Barbara GibsonRoss Upshur Graduate Thesis Mentorship Award University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

Martin McKneallyDistinguished Service to the JCB Award University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

Heather SampsonAnderson Award for Program Innovation and Development Wightman-Berris Academy, University of Toronto

Randi Zlotnik ShaulChristine Harrison Bioethics Education Award for Integration of Theory and Practice University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics

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Facts & Figures

DLSPH

IHPME

SEPTEMBER 2015 INTAKE

‘‘Look at every global problem with hope. Partnership and ally-ship can propel change to bring about health and peace both locally and globally.’’ Bethel AkliluSecond-year MPH Health Promotion student

Domestic Students International Students

PhD MPH MSc MScCH MHSc

Applications Offers Registration

50

150

100

200

73 30 19

44 5 3

792 221 105

102 7 4

60 18 10

47 27 16

52 30 20

8 1 1

15 14 12

1 0 0

PhD MSc MHSc MHI

Applications Offers Registration

20 12 6

11 1 1

129 84 63

10 1 1

131 48 37

11 0 0

86 47 38

19 0 0

50

150

100

200

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UA

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–16

6Promoted to Associate Professor

3Promoted to Professor

7Canada Research Chairs

DLSPH

HEAD COUNT NOVEMBER 2015

FACULTY & STAFF

IHPME

STAFF 40Administrative

33Research (appointed)

56Research (casual)

15Post-Doctoral Fellows

FACULTY 87Core Faculty (including five budgetary cross)

44Non-budgetary cross-appointed faculty

460Status-Only

203Adjunct

663Community & Partner- Based Faculty

MPH (Master of Public Health) MSc (Master of Science) MHSc (Master of Health Science) MScCH (Master of Science in Community Health) MHI (Master of Health Informatics)

235 / MPH

117 / PhD

12 / MHSc

63 / MScCH

29 / MSc

154 / MSc

118 / PhD

69 / MHI

83 / MHSc

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Total research funding awarded to DLSPH inves-tigators was $33,502,437, including IHPME and JCB funds administered through affiliated institutions in the federal fiscal year of 2014–15, of which $12,005,812 was administered on campus.

Government, Other $8,014,909

Not-For-Profit $12,788,586

Three Councils $10,592,733

‘‘We’re hoping to build new relation-ships and strengthen existing community partners by show-ing that building Indigenous ways of knowing and doing into applied health research has tangible benefits.’’ Janet SmylieAssociate Professor of Epidemiology and Director of Well Living House

RESEARCH

$33,502,437Total Research Funding (2014–2015 grant year)

6.5Average published, peer-reviewed papers by each core faculty member with research role (2015-2016)

3.9Average peer-reviewed presentations by each core faculty member with research role (2015-2016)

Institutional Initiatives

$1,155,405

Corporate $950,804

Let’s draw inspiration from our diverse city to show the rest of Toronto and the world what a healthy and sustainable society looks like, today and in the future.

Editor: Nicole Bodnar / Writer: Elaine Smith Design: Underline Studio / Printing: Andora Graphics

Dalla Lana School of Public Health Communications Office

155 College Street, Room 674, Toronto, ON M5T 3M7 dlsph.utoronto.ca

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