This event was co-hosted by the National Collaborating Centre for Aboriginal Health (NCCAH) and the National Collaborating Centre for Environmental Health (NCCEH). The focus was on knowledge synthesis, translation, and exchange (KSTE) as the means to bridging the knowledge gap between primary health research and the work of front-line practitioners as well as policy-makers. Overall, the Summer Institute highlighted a range of initiatives that exemplify KSTE in action in the six public health areas of the NCCs: Aboriginal Health, Determinants of Health, Environmental Health, Healthy Public Policy, Infectious Disease, and Methods and Tools.
The Conference Objectives were to:
- Explore what’s new and what works in knowledge synthesis, translation, and exchange to inform public health policy, practice, and research.
- Highlight what’s happening in the National Collaborating Centres and other organizations involved in KSTE
- Network with innovative thinkers in KSTE and public health
- Provide practical, how-to opportunities related to KSTE
Besides being a partner in organizing the Summer Institute, the NCCHPP was also involved in several presentations and collaborative sessions. Below, you can find a brief introduction to each NCCHPP presentation with a link to its full contents.
To learn more about the presentations made by the NCCHPP team members:
1. Deliberative dialogues: A different way to gather evidence
Policy decisions are influenced by considerations that are not always addressed by the available effectiveness studies. The NCCHPP has designed a knowledge review methodology that can help public health actors better understand the political implications of various policy measures. This public policy synthesis methodology combines evidence, public policy knowledge, and contextual information.
In this session, the NCCHPP's Marie-Christine Hogue presented background information on the public policy review methodology and the theoretical implications underlying the use of deliberative dialogues to gather contextual information relevant to decision makers. The presentation also offered preliminary results of a deliberative dialogue held with public health actors in Vancouver.
Marie-Christine Hogue - Deliberative dialogues: A different way to gather evidence 
(PDF 344k)
2. NCCDH, NCCAH & NCCHPP and the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health (CSDH)
This plenary session explored the work of the World Health Organization (WHO) Commission, and asked what this work means in the Canadian context. Questions included: In what way can a concerted focus on the social determinants of health serve to reduce health inequalities and disparities in Canada? Who needs to be involved? What scientific evidence and best practices are leading discussion and policy change? And, what are the challenges and benefits for health associated with a determinants of health approach?
The NCCHPPs Val Morrison presented the conceptual framework employed by the CSDH. The issues and questions she addresed include:
- The usefulness of analytical synthesis
- Understanding the dynamics between the social determinants of health and their political, social and economic contexts
- What is the relevance for Canada?
- How does the framework break down?
Val Morrison - Working with the CSDH conceptual framework in the Canadian context (PDF 278k)
3. NCCAH, NCCDH, & NCCHPP – Determinants of Health NCCAH
This plenary session examined how different perspectives (social, political, cultural, etc.) on social determinants inform each other and help support a coordinated, coherent, and comprehensive or whole-of-government approach to addressing health status and disparities in population health.
Val Morrison presented a case study of a community organization (Quint Development Corporation) to illustrate how the World Health Organization's Commission on the Social Determinants of Health's (CSDH's) conceptual framework can help us to understand policy interventions.
Some of the issues for policy intervention examined in relation to the framework:
- How community organizations are/can be involved in the policy process
- The types of intervention in which community organizations can be involved
- How these organizations act on the social determinants of health
- The types of partnerships that public health actors might form with community organizations
Val Morrison- Working with the CSDH conceptual framework for policy intervention: presentation of one community organization (PDF 310k)
4. Interactive Workshop: influencing public policies
Public Health actors are more and more frequently asked to play a role in influencing public policies. However, despite a good deal of practical know-how, many are not trained in the policy field and may not necessarily have the theoretical tools that would allow them to navigate the world of public policy even more effectively.
In this workshop, NCCHPP Lead François Benoit set out to present the most commonly used and accepted theoretical frameworks in political science and to present them in a form that can be usefully linked to practices. He began by defining certain terms used in the field of healthy public policy and then presented several concepts and theories of policy analysis. The objective was to elaborate these tools for public health actors. The presentation concluded with several concrete examples of how theoretical frameworks can be used to understand the development and implementation of healthy public policies.
François Benoit- Policy frameworks and public health influence (PDF 292k)
4. Not-for-profit organizations and influencing healthy public policy: one experience
This workshop, presented by the NCCHPP's François Gagnon, focused on a knowledge exchange project between the NCCHPP and six not-for-profit organizations from across Canada who are engaged in work that influences healthy public policies. Besides the project's origin and objectives, the presentation included lessons learned from the collaborating organizationspolicy-influencing practices as well as promising avenues for future work of this kind.
François Gagnon- Supporting Non-profits for Healthy Public Policy: an experience and its futures (PDF 580k)
To view the complete Summer Institute program and read about the various presentations, click here.