Sudbury residents are being invited to join the conversation on how important health data should be used to improving the province's health care system.
ICES (Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences) opened their sixth and final satellite location at Health Sciences North last September, forming ICES North, a partnership among Health Sciences North Research Institute, Laurentian University and the Northern Ontario School of Medicine.
ICES North will allow researchers to answer questions with a northern focus.
"The data ICES holds is primarily data that is collected to administer the OHIP program," said Dr. Michael Conlon, site director of ICES North. "So every time someone uses their OHIP card that data is collected somewhere, and that's basically the health information that is being used for health services research."
Conlon is now looking to the public to form an advisory council where members will share their lived experiences, values and ideas in order to provide guidance on the way the daya is used by researchers to improve heal care for all Ontarians.
"There are a number of different way (this data) is used; people use it to assess access to care, and to look at outcomes from care," said Conlon. "In the north, our northern health care usage is often different than southern Ontario so a lot of people are interested in who gets care, and how people get followed up for care."
The advisory council will be leaned on to provide a northern perspective, and ICES North will be able to encourage and work with researchers to answer questions with a Northern Ontario focus.
Health data is used largely in research projects and ICES will be able to look over how many people had a certain condition, how many received care for that condition, and how many received follow up care for that condition.
At its core, ICES will be a key cog in tailoring and shaping the direction health care to the specific needs of people living and receiving health care in Northern Ontario.
Since 1992 ICES, an independent not-for-profit research institute with seven locations across Ontario, has been entrusted with protecting the private health information of Ontarians. ICES uses this data to study and evaluate the health care system.
Health leaders also use this information to improve how health care is delivered. ICES carefully protects the privacy and security of this data with oversight from Ontario’s Information Privacy Commissioner. ICES is a model for health data institutes across Canada.
Here in Northern Ontario, if researchers wanted to access and use the type of data that ICES will be using, it could only be done from downtown Toronto prior to the establishment of ICES North.
"People didn't have local access to the data," said Conlon. "One of the things that our new northern satellite will be doing is encouraging access to this data, but up in the north so that folks who are more concerned with northern issues, and a lot of them differ from southern concerns - we have a much lower population, geographically disperesed, challenges with getting health care - those perspectives can now be more fully developed."
The advisory committee will be made up of 20 people and Conlon's hope is that people will nominate themselves to be entered into the selection process.
"One of the opportunities is that if you don't get on this committee right now but you've put your name forward, there may be opportunities for other interactions in the future," said Conlon.
"We're looking for members of the public who just have an interest and a perspective."
Anyone interested in joining the ICES Public Advisory Council can apply online at www.ices.on.ca/public. Deadline for applications is Jan. 23.
