Health Commons
“Working together to solve complex health challenges”
Health Commons is a publicly funded, not-for-profit innovation lab working with Ontario Health Teams and community organizations to build resilient communities, help all people live with dignity, and improve health and well-being.
- Eliana Castillo, Eve Dubé, Sophie Ikura
Other individuals:
- Kristen Horsley
- Tali Bogler (Population ambassador)
Community: General Pregnant Population (Unidentified)
First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB)
“A shared path to improved health”
Health Canada’s First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) has had a longstanding role of supporting the delivery of health services to First Nations and Inuit. Working with other partners has led to work contributing to many improvements and innovations in how health programs and services are delivered.
Other individuals:
- Sara Wolfe (Population ambassador)
- Julie Wilson
- Nathalie Pambrun
- Bernice Downey
- Shannon McDonald
Community: Indigenous
YouthRex
Our vision is an Ontario where shared knowledge is transformed into positive impact for all youth!
Our mission is to make research evidence and evaluation practices accessible and relevant to Ontario’s grassroots youth sector through knowledge exchange, capacity building and evaluation leadership. We create and curate evidence-based resources to support youth work practice, and to amplify the voices and experiences of young people in Ontario.
Community: Black
Protecting Every Mom & Baby Alberta (PEMBA)
Helping every mother and baby in Alberta be the healthiest that they can be by providing evidence-based information and education regarding infections. Most adverse outcomes from infectious diseases are preventable. Our vision is for every mother & baby in Alberta to be the healthiest they can be by avoiding unnecessary (preventable) events arising from infections. We plan to support families in their decision-making regarding infectious disease prevention and vaccines by providing research evidence and instilling confidence in their ability to protect themselves and their babies.
https://research.ucalgary.ca/pemba
Community: Black
Black Health Alliance
The Black Health Alliance is a community-led registered charity working to improve the health and well-being of Black communities in Canada. Driven by groundbreaking research, strong partnerships, and people, this movement continues to build innovative solutions to improve Black health and well-being, and mobilize people and financial resources to create lasting change in the lives of Black children, families and communities.
https://blackhealthalliance.ca
- Cynthia Maxwell
- Remi Ejiwunmi
- Roberta Timothy
Other individuals:
- Sheila Boamah
- Emma Apatu
- Upton Allen (Black Community Engagement)
- Dr. Modupe Tunde-Byass (OB/GYN)
Community: Black
Rainbow Health Ontario
Rainbow Health Ontario creates opportunities for the healthcare system to better serve 2SLGBTQ communities. We promote better LGBT2SQ health outcomes by improving access to relevant and appropriate care; offer training for healthcare providers across the province to feel more clinically and culturally competent in caring for their LGBT2SQ service users; produce evidence-based print and web resources; act as a research catalyst and contribute an LGBT2SQ health perspective to public policy processes.
https://www.rainbowhealthontario.ca
Other individuals:
- Dustin Costescu
- Wendy Katherine
- Rachel Epstein
Community: LGBT2SQ
South Asian Health Network
“Impact through community partnerships and communication”
The South Asian Health Network is a Canadian collaborative effort to enhance the health and well-being of South Asian and other racialized communities. We specialize in creating culturally appropriate health educational content and public facing advocacy to address structural inequities in health care and public health.
https://southasianhealthnetwork.ca
Community: South Asian
Unambiguous Science
Unambiguous Science was made to help you navigate through the current anti-science vortex by breaking data down into easy to understand posts. No sensational headlines, no politicizing of science. Just evidence based information.
- Sabina Vohra-Miller
https://www.unambiguous-science.com
Other individuals:
- Gina Agarwal (VIP Research Lab Twitter)
- Sonia Anand (Community Engagement Twitter)
Community: South Asian
Association of Ontario Health Centers (AOHC-Canada)
“Equitable health and wellbeing for everyone living in Ontario”
Our mission is to advance comprehensive primary health care and advocate for changes in Ontario’s health and social systems to address inequities.
Community: Low SES/Intersectional Barriers
Families Canada
“We’re here for Canadian families. We’re Families Canada”
At Families Canada, we deliver the education, training and tools that empower our network of organizations to reach families from all backgrounds — building stronger families and stronger communities.
Other individuals:
- Rachel Roy
- Lori Dillon
Community: Low SES/Intersectional Barriers
McMaster Institute for Health Equity (MIHE)
McMaster Institute for Health Equity encourages new inter-disciplinary understandings of the social, economic, cultural, political and biophysical forces that lead to health inequities. We investigate health inequities, and use research to achieve health equity, across but not limited to, income, class, employment status, gender, language, race, and ethnicity, from the local to the global levels.
Other individuals:
- Abeer Siddiqui
- John Lavis
Community: Mis/Disinformation Consumers
Representatives from Muslim, Christian, Jewish Populations, and Faith Leaders
- Shaza Fadel (Population Ambassador)
- Jon Barrett (Orthodox Jewish)
- Eve Dubé (Quebec Public Health Organizations, regional and national, twitter)
Community: Faith-based Groups
Afghan and Syrian refugees – Shaza Fadel (Population Ambassador)
Community: Newcomers/Refugees
Hamilton Maternity Centre
At the Maternity Centre of Hamilton we provide expert care to pregnant women at any or all stages of having a baby — from the very beginning, offering free pregnancy tests, right through to labour, delivery, and for six weeks after you give birth.
Community: Newcomers/Refugees
Families Canada
“We’re here for Canadian families. We’re Families Canada”
At Families Canada, we deliver the education, training and tools that empower our network of organizations to reach families from all backgrounds-building stronger families and stronger communities.
Community: Newcomers/Refugees
The Society of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists of Canada (SOGC)
The SOGC is one of Canada’s oldest national specialty organizations. Established in 1944, the Society’s mission is to lead the advancement of women’s health through excellence and collaborative professional practice. The SOGC produces Clinical Practice Guidelines for both public and medical education, which are published in the acclaimed Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Canada (JOGC). The Society is also a Continuing Professional Development provider for physicians and health care providers in Canada and offers a comprehensive suite of Continuing Medical Education events, including an Annual Clinical and Scientific Conference (ACSC), three regional conferences, online courses and the popular Advances in Labour and Risk Management (ALARM) program.
- Jocelynn Cook
- Jon Barrett
- Heather Scott
- Mark Yudin
- Vanessa Poliquin
Community: Healthcare Professional Groups
Vaccine Preventable Disease Network through the University of Toronto
With leadership housed at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health, we are developing an interdisciplinary group of academic researchers, educators and public health advocates. Our vision is to catalyze cutting-edge research and education that maximizes the health benefits of immunization for everyone. We aim to contribute locally and globally to healthy communities through excellence in interdisciplinary vaccine-preventable disease and immunization research and education.
https://www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/institutes/centre-for-vaccine-preventable-diseases/
Community: Healthcare Professional Groups
Provincial Council for Maternal and Child Health (PCMCH)
PCMCH provides evidence-based and strategic leadership for reproductive, neonatal and paediatric health services in Ontario. PCMCH’s vision is healthy pregnancies, babies, children and families for lifelong health in Ontario. PCMCH achieves its mandate through collaboration with provincial government agencies and organizations, regional reproductive and child health networks, care providers, and patients and families, with funding by the Government of Ontario.
Community: Healthcare Professional Groups
Other Individuals:
- Liz Darling (Midwifery)
- Sheila Boama (Nursing)
- Liz Alvarez (Family Medicine, APHA, Midwifery clinics)
- Jon Barrett (OB/MFM)
- CHC Groups
Community: Healthcare Professional Groups
McMaster University Faculty
- Jon Barrett
- Susan Ellis
- Bryon DeFrance (SOMCHN leads)
- Rohan D’Souza (Population Ambassador)
- Lori Dillon (Community Engagement)
- Rachel Roy (Community Engagement)
- Emma Apatu (Public Health student)
- Jim Dunn (Public Health student)
- Alfonso Lorio (HEI and KT)
Community: McMaster University
The COPE Network
We are conducting a research study about COVID-19 related to mothers and their newborn. Working with 12 hospitals across the province of Ontario, our goal is to assess if, and how, COVID-19 is transmitted to newborns when the mother has/had COVID-19 during their pregnancy. We also will look at how COVID-19 affects the health of mothers and their newborns by working with the Ontario Birth Registry (BORN Ontario). We expect the new evidence generated by our research will be of high interest and relevance for public health officials and health care professionals providing maternal and newborn care during the COVID-19 global pandemic.
https://omni.ohri.ca/the-cope-study/
Community: Other COVID and Pregnancy Networks
CANCOVID-PREG
Canadian Surveillance of COVID-19 in Pregnancy: Epidemiology, Maternal and Infant Outcomes. Globally, there is limited data on COVID-19 in pregnancy to inform recommendations for pregnant women and their care providers. This national surveillance project serves to better our understanding of the epidemiology and outcomes associated with COVID-19 in pregnancy and to thereby provide critical data to inform recommendations for pregnant women and their infants. A national approach, with regional leadership across Canada, is in progress with provincial/territorial data collection being combined for a national dataset of cases of COVID-19 in pregnancy. This project also lays the foundation for additional COVID-19 research through the establishment of a biospecimen repository from COVID-19 affected mother-infant pairs.
https://ridprogram.med.ubc.ca/cancovid-preg/
Community: Other COVID and Pregnancy Networks
COVERED UBC
The COVERED registry was designed as a Pan-Canadian project with collaborators in every province and territory. The project is led by Dr. Deborah Money and her Reproductive Infectious Diseases (RID) research team at the BC Women’s Hospital in Vancouver, BC. Key physicians and researchers across Canada have worked together to create this registry and collect valuable information around the experience of those that receive COVID-19 vaccinations while pregnant or lactating. Our aim is to report our data to inform safe vaccine recommendations for those that are pregnant and lactating.
Community: Other COVID and Pregnancy Networks
BORN Ontario and other perinatal networks
“Early health. Lifelong health. We want to make Ontario the safest place in the world to have a baby. And we want you and your growing family to get the best care – especially during the critically important early years of your child’s life.”
With over 1 million babies in the BORN Information System (BIS), we have world-class data and the technology to leverage it. High-quality data is an indispensable asset in today’s health care economy.
BORN Ontario works behind the scenes equipping health care providers and organizations with the data they need to provide quality care for your family. BORN Ontario data helps administrators make more informed health care policy decisions.
https://www.bornontario.ca/en/index.aspx
Community: Other COVID and Pregnancy Networks
COVID-END
“COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making”
COVID-END is a time-limited network that brings together more than 50 of the world’s leading evidence-synthesis, technology-assessment and guideline-development groups around the world. It covers the full spectrum of the pandemic response, from public-health measures and clinical management to health-system arrangements and economic and social responses. It also covers the full spectrum of contexts where the pandemic response is playing out, including low-, middle- and high-income countries.
https://www.mcmasterforum.org/networks/covid-end
Community: Other COVID and Pregnancy Networks
The Canadian National Vaccine Safety (CANVAS) Network
We are a national platform that monitors vaccine safety after vaccines are approved for use. We are monitoring the safety of the COVID-19 vaccines in Canada. The purpose of this study is to find out how often health events occur after a COVID-19 vaccine. The CANVAS surveillance network complements Canada’s passive vaccine safety surveillance system with rapid information early in the COVID-19 vaccine campaign. By joining our study you are contributing valuable early data on the safety of COVID-19 vaccines in Canadians. Post-marketing vaccine safety surveillance is an important step in ensuring vaccine safety.
Community: Other COVID and Pregnancy Networks