In Our VoICES

• A Decade of Partnership: First Nations Data Governance in Ontario with Dr. Jennifer Walker and Carmen Jones

  How has First Nations data governance in Ontario transformed over the past decade? In this episode, Jennifer Walker and Carmen Jones discuss how the ICES and Chiefs of Ontario partnership has evolved—reflecting on its origins, its current impact, and the goals shaping its future. Dr. Jennifer Walker is a member of Six Nations of the Grand River with a Ph.D. in Community Health Sciences (Epidemiology) from the University of Calgary. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Indigenous Health Data and Aging at McMaster University and is a Professor in the Department of Health Research Methods, Evidence and Impact. Dr. Walker has demonstrated significant national and international leadership in aging and dementia research as well as Indigenous data sovereignty and governance. She is co-Lead for the Indigenous Cognitive Health Program within the Canadian Consortium for Neurodegeneration in Aging, a national CIHR-funded dementia research network. Her research program has contributed to significant advancements in culturally safe approaches for dementia prevention and diagnosis, including the validation and implementation of the Canadian Indigenous Cognitive Assessment tool, and a new transformative project on decolonizing wholistic brain health assessment.Carmen Jones is a member of the Serpent River First Nation and was raised on the Garden River Reserve where her parents live. She has been with the Chiefs of Ontario for 10 years. Previous to becoming the Director of Research and Data Management she held the position as Health Director and Research for the Chiefs of Ontario. She oversees the new Research and Data Management Sector and is overseeing the development of the First Nation Information Governance Centre for Ontario supported by the Chiefs in Assembly. Here portfolio includes implementing the First Nation Data Governance Agreement with ICES and oversees work in research and data. Carmen is a Board Member of First Nations Information Governance Centre, and she has a ministerial appointment to the Ontario Health Data Council.  Early in her career she spent many years working with First Nation communities in the remote north and with Indigenous organizations. She also worked with the Ontario government for about 14 years in various positions in community development, strategic planning, policy development and constitutional matters.Carmen is co-investigator on various research projects such as: Unlocking Health Information for Older First Nations Populations, First Nation Opioid Surveillance, the First Nations Chronic Disease Surveillance study and the Intergenerational impacts of diabetes among First Nations mothers and their children. OCAP Principles Training The First Nations Principles of OCAP® - The First Nations Information Governance CentreLearn more about the COO and the ICES/COO partnershipResearch and Data Management - Chiefs of OntarioICES | Partnerships & Collaborations | Indigenous Partnerships, Data and AnalyticsICES | Applied Health Research Questions | AHRQ  EPISODE CREDITS:Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up PodcastingArtwork designed by Stella-Luna HaMusic licensed through Melodie MusicLINKS:Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Bluesky, X, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

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• Abortion Access in Canada with Dr. Liz Darling, Dr. Laura Schummers, and TK Pritchard.

  What does the story of mifepristone reveal about healthcare equity in Canada? This episode explores how one medication reshaped care, the barriers that persist, and what it reveals about equity in reproductive health.Dr. Liz Darling is a professor and the assistant dean, midwifery at McMaster University, an adjunct scientist at ICES, and a registered midwife with graduate training in epidemiology and population health. Her research expertise includes midwifery services, novel care models, health equity, access to care, mixed methods, and administrative health data, and she has particular expertise in the midwifery data collected in Ontario’s perinatal registry (BORN-Ontario). Her CIHR-funded research program focuses on how the expansion of midwifery in Canada can help improve equitable access to sexual and reproductive healthcare for equity-deserving groups.Dr. Laura Schummers is an epidemiologist and health policy researcher and Assistant Professor in the Collaboration for Outcomes Research and Evaluation in the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia (UBC). She completed her doctorate in Epidemiology at the Harvard School of Public Health in 2018 and a postdoctoral fellowship with the British Columbia Ministry of Health and UBC’s Contraception and Abortion Research Team from 2018-2021. Dr. Schummers’s program of research uses population-based health administrative data and draws heavily on causal inference methods to evaluate impacts of health policy and practice changes on service use, access, and health outcomes. TK Pritchard (they/them) is the Executive Director of Abortion Care Canada. TK was previously the Executive Director of a regional Planned Parenthood and has held several leadership roles in related sectors.  In other notable work, TK has authored educational curricula, including sexual health and anti-human trafficking programs, and served as a consultant related to trans and disability inclusion. TK is queer/trans/non-binary, physically disabled, neurodivergent, a survivor of sexual violence, a parent and active community member, and brings this lens to all of their work.Research you heard aboutICES | Trends in abortion rates in Ontario, CanadaICES | Changes in local access to mifepristone dispensed by community pharmacies for medication abortion in Ontario: a population-based repeated cross-sectional studyICES | Abortion safety and use with normally prescribed mifepristone in CanadaMifepristone Access Through Community Pharmacies When Regulated as a Routine Prescription Medication | Health Policy | JAMA Network Open | JAMA NetworkLearn more about Abortion Care CanadaHome - Abortion Care Canada EPISODE CREDITS:Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up PodcastingArtwork designed by Stella-Luna HaMusic licensed through Melodie MusicLINKS:Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Bluesky, X, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

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• Transforming Gender Affirming Care with Dr. June Lam and Dr. Tori Anderson

  What does affirming, respectful, and safe health care look like for transgender and gender diverse individuals- and why does it matter now more than ever? In this episode, we discuss the importance of gender-affirming care and how we can make health care safer and more inclusive for transgender and gender diverse individuals.   Dr. June Lam, MD, PhD, FRCPC is an Associate Scientist with the Institute for Mental Health Policy Research at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) and an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also a psychiatrist working in the CAMH emergency department and the Gender Identity Clinic. He completed a Bachelor of Science Honours Pharmacology program at UBC, his medical training at McGill University, and his psychiatry residency at the University of Toronto. He also completed a transitional age youth and transgender health research and clinical fellowship, as well as a PhD program in Clinical Epidemiology and Health Care Research (at the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation or IHPME) at the University of Toronto. Dr. Lam's academic and clinical focus is on care for 2SLGBTQIA+ communities, particularly using health services research to examine and improve access to mental healthcare for transgender and gender diverse (TGD) people. He has developed expertise in mixed methods research, uniquely integrating health administrative data and qualitative research to leverage the strengths of participant lived experience and population-level data.  Dr. Victoria “Tori” Anderson (she/her) is a resident physician, educator, and advocate passionate about creating inclusive, affirming mental health care for gender diverse youth and their caregivers.  She is a senior resident in the Child and Adolescent Psychiatry subspecialty program at the University of Toronto.  She completed her general psychiatry training at the University of Toronto, where she was recognized with a departmental award for her achievements in scholarship in the areas of sexual and gender diversity in mental health care. ICES research you heard aboutICES | From crisis to silence: systemic failures in mental healthcare for transgender and gender diverse people in OntarioICES | Characteristics of transgender individuals with emergency department visits and hospitalizations for mental healthICES | Exploring mediators of mental health service use among transgender individuals in Ontario, CanadaICES | Physician follow-up among transgender and gender diverse individuals after psychiatric emergency department visits and hospitalizations: a retrospective population-based cohort study EPISODE CREDITS:Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up PodcastingArtwork designed by Stella-Luna HaMusic licensed through Melodie MusicLINKS:Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Bluesky, X, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

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• AI, Big Data, and the Future of Healthcare with Dr. Amol Verma and Nicole Yada

  How is GEMINI using AI to turn routine hospital records into tools for national healthcare reform? In this episode we discuss how AI and health data can be harnessed to improve healthcare and how we ensure these tools are used responsibly.  Amol Verma is a physician and scientist in General Internal Medicine at St. Michael’s Hospital and the Temerty Professor of AI Research and Education in Medicine at the University of Toronto. He is a health services researcher, studying and improving hospital care using electronic clinical data. Dr. Verma co-founded and co-leads GEMINI, Canada’s largest hospital clinical data research network, which is collecting data from >35 hospitals in Ontario. He also co-founded and co-leads VITAL, a multi-provincial clinical data platform. Dr. Verma completed medical training at the University of Toronto, a Masters degree at the University of Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar, and research fellowships through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, the Canadian Frailty Network, and AMS Healthcare. He served on the Council of Canadian Academies Expert Panel on Health Data Sharing, is a Provincial Clinical Lead for Quality Improvement in General Internal Medicine with Ontario Health, and is the Chair of the Researcher Council and a Board Member of the Digital Research Alliance of Canada and AMS Healthcare. He received the 2022 Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada Early Career Leadership Award, the 2022 Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s early career Trailblazer Award in Population and Public Health Research, and the 2023 Canadian Society of Internal Medicine’s New Investigator Award.Nicole Yada is the Director of the VITAL Platform at GEMINI. Prior to joining the GEMINI team, Nicole was the inaugural Program Director for the Accelerating Clinical Trials Consortium and oversaw business development for ICES. She holds a master's degree in health informatics from McMaster University and is completing her PhD in Health Services Research at the University of Toronto. Ms. Yada trained as a graphic designer in Tokyo, Japan and has a background in marketing and research journalism. Research you heard aboutCharacterizing medical patients with delirium: A cohort study comparing ICD-10 codes and a validated chart review method - PubMedLearn more about GEMINIICES | New data partnership to expand insights on hospital care in Ontariohttps://geminimedicine.ca/ EPISODE CREDITS:Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up PodcastingArtwork designed by Stella-Luna HaMusic licensed through Melodie MusicLINKS:Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Bluesky, X, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

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• Aging in Place with Dr. Derek Manis and Dilys Haughton

  Does assisted living adequately balance older adults’ need for independence and regulated medical care? In this episode we shed light on assisted living—its benefits, shortfalls, and why so many Canadians prefer to age in place. Dr. Derek Manis is an interdisciplinary health services and policy researcher and epidemiologist who has expertise in population-level analytics, observational and quasi-experimental study designs, causal inference, and mixed methods. He primarily uses health system administrative data that are linked at the level of the individual to examine health care quality, models of care, and health outcomes among older adults with an emphasis on older adults in residential care facilities (e.g., nursing homes, assisted living facilities, etc.) Dilys Haughton is an advocate for patient centered care and has experience caring for a family member in assisted living. She is a retired Primary Care Nurse Practitioner and healthcare executive who has practiced clinically in primary care practices, long-term care homes, and hospital settings. With a lifelong passion for care of the elderly, she was instrumental in demonstrating the effectiveness of the Nurse Practitioner role in the first wave of Primary Care Team models in Paris, Ontario (late 90's) and implementing a model of care for the elderly in a network of long-term care homes in Hamilton, Ontario. As a health executive, Dilys has led system collaboration and improvement initiatives, and championed research in long-term care and home care. ICES research you heard aboutICES | Do assisted living facilities that offer a dementia care program differ from those that do not? A population-level cross-sectional study in Ontario, CanadaICES | Association between dementia care programs in assisted living facilities and transitions to nursing homes in Ontario, Canada: a population-based cohort studyICES | Transitions to nursing homes among residents of assisted living and community-dwelling home care recipientsICES | Clinical comorbidities and transitions between care settings among residents of assisted living facilities: a repeated cross-sectional studyICES | Clinical and sociodemographic characteristics of new residents of assisted living: a nested case-control studyICES | Addressing long-term care's "dark matter"ICES | Rates of hospital-based care among older adults in the community and residential care facilities: a repeated cross-sectional studyMeeting the needs of older adults in residential care settings EPISODE CREDITS:Produced, edited and mixed by Will Mcintyre, Richard Villeneuve and Pop Up PodcastingArtwork designed by Stella-Luna HaMusic licensed through Melodie MusicLINKS:Be sure to follow and tag ICES on Bluesky, X, Instagram and LinkedIn. To find out more about our organization, visit us at ices.on.ca

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