TABLE 1.

Summary of issues arising from presentations and discussions on the use of modelling in public health

Areas of concern or interest	Consensus discussion	Recommendations
Applying models in public health	Modelling has an important place in public health policy and practice. The utilization of modelling has been far less that its potential in the Canadian context	Create a national infrastructure or network in Canada to develop useful and applicable models based on realistic assumptions and quality data
Closer working relationships	Collaboration, engagement and exchange between modellers, and policymakers are needed to facilitate iterative processes that optimize the value and understanding of models and their results	Identify partners at the provincial level within acute care, emergency services and public health divisions. Formalize exchange processes for regular communication and education
Applying health equity and other lenses	Limited attention has been paid to using health equity or sex and gender analyses. The availability of Aboriginal-specific information has been inconsistent at best	Modellers and users can be called on to create model frameworks and ask questions that will provide better information about where there are inequities and inequalities. Involve the people who understand equity issues
Data quality and access	Access to good-quality, population level data is essential to validate a model and its outcomes. Such data may not necessarily be available or accessible in a timely fashion during an emerging infectious disease	Evaluate data quality and the type of information provided by surveillance for its potential to be used for research modelling. Engage with provinces to determine the nature and availability of data required for modelling
Coherent and consistent descriptions of diseases as well as modelling terminology	Across 13 jurisdictions, public health in Canada does not have universal definitions or natural histories of diseases, such as tuberculosis, to input in models	Undertake the work needed to standardize descriptions, which can inform a standard lexicon of terminology and protocols for infectious disease modelling
Cost effectiveness	Public health personnel and governments do not have enough information about the economics of interventions for comprehensive decision making	Strengthen the existing infrastructure (eg, Canadian Immunization Registry Network, National Advisory Committee on Immunization) to include economic modelling that will inform policy decisions
Standardization of approaches	To develop useful models, three aspects of the modelling will need to be standardized: what (ie, frameworks that are context specific and take into account the population demographic and geographic characteristics); who (ie, involvement of policymakers, knowledge users and modellers with relevant expertise), and how (ie, develop an iterative process from the formulation of health policy questions to the dissemination of model outcomes)	A Communities of Practice network can be tasked with the standardization of this process to ensure that synergies exist when models are formulated to inform clinical or health policy decisions
Roles and responsibilities	Clarification on the roles of health agencies and jurisdictions are needed to engage partners from academic institutes, government health organizations and health industries	National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases will lead the initiative to forge the linkages and develop appropriate channels and effective methods of communication between the involved partners
Capacity	Some jurisdictions lack modelling capacity. There is also a lack of information about which modellers are available to work with public health and their expertise	A centralized list or network could contribute to greater capacity for public health jurisdictions. Develop opportunities for public health personnel to learn more about models and their value