Working with Administrative Data
The course examines:

• The basics of what administrative data are and where they come from
• How administrative data can be used for research
• What the data produced for a research project looks like
• The skills that are needed to work with administrative data
• Basic statistical analysis of these data
• Privacy issues and access to data

Spatial Epidemiology and Outbreak Detection
The course examines: 

• Introduction to spatial epidemiology and outbreak detection
• Visualizing spatial and space-time data 
• Fundamentals of spatial data for epidemiology and outbreak detection
• Disease mapping
• Disease clusters and point pattern analysis
• Space-time cluster analysis
• Spatial exposure assessment
• Small area health studies
• Individual health studies
• Future directions of spatial epidemiology and outbreak detection

Course delivery dates: September 17- December 9, 2012
Mandatory on-line orientation: September 10-16, 2012
Registration deadline: August 24, 2012

For details on course instructors and related program information visit: http://www.popdata.bc.ca/etu/PHDA

For more information or to register contact: Maxine Reitsma, Program Coordinator, UVic Division of Continuing Studies, Phone: 250 721 6477

The University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr. Aslam Anis as Director of the Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences (CHÉOS), effective January 1, 2012 to December 31, 2016.

Dr. Anis is a Professor, Program Director of the Master of Health Administration Program and Co-lead of the Health Care Services & Systems (HSS) in the School of Population and Public Health, UBC. He is also a Senior Scientist at the Arthritis Research Centre of Canada and the National Co-Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Canadian HIV Trials Network.

Dr. Anis’s research activities are extensive and his work has been instrumental in shaping economic policies in Canada, notably those governing access to anti-retroviral therapy (ART) for persons living with HIV/AIDS. Dr. Anis was among the first scholars worldwide to demonstrate the cost-effectiveness of ART and has published widely in peer-reviewed journals on health resource use and costs among HIV/AIDS patients treated and not treated with ART. Research by Dr. Anis in the area of pharmaceutical pricing policies in Canada has also attracted worldwide attention since the 1990s, and he continues to publish on the economic impact of changing drug price regulations.

Dr. Anis has published more than 170 peer-reviewed papers and garnered in excess of $110 million in peer-reviewed research funding. For his significant contributions in health economics, Dr. Anis was inducted as a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.

From 2006 to 2009, Dr. Anis served as a member of the CIHR HIV/AIDS Research Advisory Committee, whose mandate is to make recommendations to the Institute of Infection and Immunity regarding research priorities for HIV/AIDS. Dr. Anis also served on the Public Health Agency of Canada and CIHR Special Planning Committee to review the Federal Initiative on HIV/AIDS in Canada from 2006 to 2007. Provincially, Dr. Anis has served in various capacities at the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research, including its Research Advisory Council.

Please join me in welcoming Dr. Anis to his appointment in the Faculty of Medicine.

Gavin C.E. Stuart, MD, FRCSC
Dean, Faculty of Medicine
Vice Provost Health, UBC

Congratulations to SPPH MPH student Melanie Rivers, who is the recipient of a UBC 2012-2013 Aboriginal Graduate Fellowship award.

These multi-year fellowships are offered to Master’s and doctoral Aboriginal students. Award winners are selected on the basis of academic merit through an annual competition, administered by UBC's Faculty of Graduate Studies in consultation with the First Nations House of Learning.

Congratulations Melanie!

Dr. Patricia Spittal and her team on The Cedar Project Partnership have received a one-year planning grant from the Canadian Institutes for Health Research (CIHR).

The Cedar Project is a prospective cohort study that aims to address the HIV vulnerabilities of Aboriginal youth who use drugs in BC. The project is a unique opportunity to situate sexual health research within a sociohistoric framework that takes into account trauma and gender differences, as well as respecting needs and values of Aboriginal people.

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Dr. Nick Bansback has received funding from The Arthritis Society for his study that will use iPads to try to improve decision-making in patients needing osteoarthritis medication.

In the study, titled “Promoting preference-based informed decision-making: A proof-of-concept study evaluating the effect of an enhanced decision aid in adults choosing between medications for knee osteoarthritis,” patients who visit pharmacies will be asked to use an app Dr. Bansback has developed for an iPad to help them become better informed about treatment, and ultimately, make a more informed decision when it comes to their own health care.

Over-the-counter medications used for reducing pain due to knee osteoarthritis are used millions of times every day in Canada. However, few people are aware of the risks, such as serious liver and gastrointestinal side-effects and may not be making the most appropriate choice. Dr. Bansback says the study will try to help patients make more informed decisions that better align with their own preferences. The working hypothesis suggests that individualizing the way choices and information are presented would improve perceived decision uncertainty and better the congruence between personal values and choices made.

“The study aims to make it easier for patients to make good decisions,” he says.

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