Publications by authors named "Suzanne Biro"

Setting: Early in the pandemic, KFL&A Public Health needed a way to capture, organize, and display COVID-19-related events to be accountable for and evaluate our actions.

Intervention: We used accessible software (Microsoft Office 365 suite, Microsoft PowerBI) to develop a data collection and visualization system. The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) developed a timeline and categorization approach for provincial and national COVID-related interventions, which was used to develop a regional version for local events using similar categories.

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Context: Implementation of a population-based COVID-19 vaccine strategy, with a tailored approach to reduce inequities in 2-dose coverage, by a mid-sized local public health agency in southeastern Ontario, Canada.

Program: Coverage maps and crude and age-standardized coverage rates by material and social deprivation, urban/rural status, and sex were calculated biweekly and reviewed by local public health planners. In collaboration with community partners, the results guided targeted strategies to enhance uptake for marginalized populations.

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Background: Population monitoring and surveillance of objectively measured child weight data in Canada is limited to national surveys with poor regional applicability, and no healthy weight data are available for children less than 2 years of age. We aimed to determine the prevalence of childhood overweight and obesity using objective measures derived from primary care electronic medical records.

Methods: Observational data included all height and weight records for children less than 20 years of age, between 2004 and 2013, from 3 Ontario primary care research networks.

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Objective: To evaluate the transformation in smoking status documentation after implementing a standardized intake tool as part of a primary care smoking cessation program.

Design: A before-and-after evaluation of smoking status documentation was conducted following implementation of a smoking assessment tool. To evaluate the effect of the intervention, the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network was used to extract aggregate smoking data on the study cohort.

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Background: Electronic medical records (EMRs) used in primary care contain a breadth of data that can be used in public health research. Patient data from EMRs could be linked with other data sources, such as a postal code linkage with Census data, to obtain additional information on environmental determinants of health. While promising, successful linkages between primary care EMRs with geographic measures is limited due to ethics review board concerns.

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Objectives: This research examines the feasibility of using electronic medical records within the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) for obesity surveillance in Canada by assessing obesity trends over time and comparing BMI distribution estimates from CPCSSN to those obtained from nationally representative surveys.

Methods: Data from 2003-2012 on patients 18 years and older (n = 216,075) were extracted from the CPCSSN database. Patient information included demographics (age and sex) and anthropometric measures (height, weight, body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and waist-to-hip ratio).

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