Synthesis and summary

Health impact assessment (HIA) is an intersectoral approach that entails a series of work meetings requiring the coordination of the various actors participating in the process.

This guide is mainly designed for the team responsible for carrying out an HIA but also for anyone who would participate in an HIA process.

It contains information that should help the team responsible for the HIA determine, for each of the work sessions:

Since 2003, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ – Québec’s public health institute) has produced some fifteen publications describing asbestos exposure and asbestos-related diseases in Québec’s general population and its workers. The current state of knowledge leads to the conclusion that chrysotile asbestos is a human carcinogen and as a result, all the preventive and protective measures for the health of workers and the public must be enforced. However, the experience…

Since 2003, the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ – Québec’s public health institute) has produced some fifteen publications describing asbestos exposure and asbestos-related diseases in Québec’s general population and its workers. The current state of knowledge leads to the conclusion that chrysotile asbestos is a human carcinogen and as a result, all the preventive and protective measures for the health of workers and the public must be enforced. However, the experience…

This document is part of a series of documents, webinars, and workshops on wicked problems developed by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP). It is meant to highlight key factors and resources for dealing with wicked problems and to offer readers some practical examples for how these may be addressed. Our hope is that it will be useful to public health actors by helping to focus their approach to the specific problems their organizations are faced with and by…

This briefing note, by Paul Cairney of the University of Stirling, presents the importance of distinguishing between uncertainty and ambiguity in the strategies aimed to develop evidence-informed policy making.

Policy studies often distinguish between uncertainty, defined as a lack of knowledge about a policy problem or its solution, and ambiguity, defined as the potential to produce more than one interpretation of a problem. With this in mind, reducing uncertainty can be thought of…

This article was first published in French in the October 2016 issue of the journal Le médecin du Québec.

Serology is a valuable tool for diagnosing certain sexually transmitted and blood-borne infections (STBBI) and for counselling patients on how to prevent their transmission. Failure to understand how to use it or how to assess its limitations may nevertheless be very risky. Misdiagnosing genital herpes or falsely reassuring patients about the absence of…

This summary, produced in English and in French by the National Collaborating Centre for Healthy Public Policy (NCCHPP), was originally intended to provide francophone readers with easy access to the key information from the original published article, a literature review of the state of ethics education in schools of public health. We have also produced this English-language version for those who wish a short summary of the findings from the literature review. The authors of the review are…

A survey was conducted among coroners and medical examiners to assess the usefulness of developing a toxicovigilance program. They are in favour of setting up a toxicovigilance program based on medicolegal toxicological data from ongoing investigations. Toxicovigilance activities in the Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service are also presented. 

Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux, in collaboration with Institut national de santé publique du Québec and Bureau du coroner…

The purpose of this document is to equip public health actors to conduct a critical and nuanced ethical analysis of public health policies or population-based interventions accused or suspected of being paternalistic.

To deepen understanding of paternalism and help public health actors conduct this type of ethical analysis, this document has been structured around five main questions: 

Given the desire to harmonize medical and nursing practices in the field of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and the need to provide better guidance on the intervention known as expedited partner therapy (EPT), the Institut national de santé publique du Québec received a request from the Collège des médecins du Québec and the Ministère de la Santé et des Services sociaux. The purpose of this request was to issue a scientific opinion, including recommendations, on the effectiveness,…