guest lecture

positionality

how you refer to your social/personal identity, your biases, how you interact with the world around you

why is it critical to acknowledge positionality in biomedical sciences?

• It shapes the questions we ask and the methods we use

• It influences how we interpret data and frame results

• It helps identify potential biases and power dynamics within the research process.

• By critically reflecting on our positionality, we can conduct research that is more inclusive, ethical, and aligned with diverse perspectives, ultimately improving outcomes for all populations.

describe the two row wapum treaty

• what is is and what it stands for

• Oldest treated

• Represents the river of life

• Happy life

• Living in friendship and peace

• "your way of life is good for you and ours is good for us"

  • two rows, one for indigenous, one for settlers

• We will share this space without interfering each other

Efficacy

performance of an intervention (drug, treatment, etc) under ideal and controlled circumstances

• Does the drug/treatment work in a perfect world?

Effectiveness

how well an intervention performs in the real world

• Does the drug/treatment work in reality?

explain how administrative data is used

• Administrative data is so useful for science because it is at a population wide

• It is extremely difficult to get consent from all of Ontario so researchers often ask for permission from the board to use without consent

what were the issues with triage in ON hospitals?

• 38% of people arriving to ER were undertriaged

• 19% of people were not able to triaged appropriately because of lack of documentation

describe what was done to fix the triage issues

eCTAS: a provincial electronic triage. Decision Support Tool that supports the standardized application of Canadian Triage Acuity Scale (CTAS) guidelines in Emergency Rooms across Ontario

• Electronic CTAS

• In every hospital in ON

• First cloud-based tool to collect public health data in Ontario

• Implemented in 2010

• Data gets uploaded to Ontario Health in real time

• Data can be used for science

• Caused a 30 second increase in triage time but lead to more complete documentations and thus better patient care

describe the study design for the eCTAS roll out

what were the results of the eCTAS roll out