Our publications

The policy brief is a knowledge transfer tool that has increasingly been used in recent years as a way to inform or influence public policy decisions. Because policy briefs are designated by a variety of terms (e.g.: policy note, research snapshot, etc.) and prepared in various formats, it can be difficult to determine how to go about writing one. What exactly is it? What criteria should be met to produce a high quality document? Which writing guides are of interest?

This professional practice guide is a basic reference on the quality of water used for reusable medical devices reprocessing (MDR) and flexible endoscopic devices reprocessing (EDR). It aims to support activity management, to standardize practices and to improve the quality of MDR. It is intended for all persons working in health care institutions who are directly or indirectly responsible for quality assurance in MDR, including managers, MDR institution respondents, MDR staff, and persons…

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…

What is an effective way to share public health knowledge with the municipal sector? In this document, we present the views expressed by civil servants in Canadian municipalities.

When public health actors wish to share knowledge in order to influence municipal policies that have an impact on health, they may wonder how to do this. Here are several questions that they might ask:

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.

Regardless of its nature, a major disaster such as an earthquake, flooding, an ice storm, a nuclear transport accident or an attack can engender a broad range of impacts on individual health and well-being and on the economy and the environment. The authorities usually properly document the immediate effects, especially as regards physical health and economic aspects. However, mental health impacts can be perceived as harder to document.

The Centre is made up of institutions in the Québec public health network under the scientific coordination of the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ), which, in conjunction with its mission, establishes links with Canadian and international organizations in order to foster cooperation and the pooling of knowledge.

The Collaborating Centre seeks to contribute at the international level to research, development and the dissemination of intersectoral approaches to…

This report presents the annual and cumulative prevalence of substance-related disorders (SRDs). It demonstrates the ability of the Québec Integrated Chronic Disease Surveillance System (QICDSS) to allow for the study of SRDs based on health administrative databases. Prevalences were determined based on administrative data from April 1, 2001 to March 31, 2016, for all persons eligible for coverage by the Régie de l'assurance maladie du Québec and aged 12 and older. To be identified as having…

The prescription and use of opioid drugs has increased significantly in Québec in recent years. According to studies recently published by the Institut national de santé publique du Québec – INSPQ (Gagné et al., 2013; Gagné, Dubé, Légaré and Perron, 2015), an increase in the number of deaths and the mortality rate attributable to opioid overdose was also reported in the province between 2000 and 2012, among the population aged 20 and over.