Conversation with COVID-19 Testing and Contact Tracing Experts
AFTERNOON TEA AND SPIRITS: CONVERSATION WITH COVID-19 TESTING AND CONTACT TRACING EXPERTS
Testing and contact tracing for COVID-19 seems a simple and obvious strategy that has been used extensively in the past to stop epidemics like smallpox and Ebola. So why hasn’t every country done that? Well, it’s not as simple as it appears.
In this virtual Afternoon Tea and Spirits: Conversation with COVID-19 Testing and Contact Tracing Experts, Parliamentarians will have an opportunity to learn more about how we build testing and tracing capacity in this country, what our federal, provincial and territorial governments are doing to ramp up testing capacity and the role that research can play in strengthening our country’s public health system to defeat the current pandemic and be better prepared for the next one.
Expert Panelists:
Jeannette Comeau, MD, MSc, FRCPC, FAAP
Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician, Assistant Professor, Dalhousie University
Medical Director, Infection Prevention and Control, Medical Lead, Antimicrobial Stewardship, IWK Health Centre
Dr. Jeannette Comeau is a Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician, Medical Director of Infection Prevention & Control at IWK, and co-lead of the IWK Pandemic Incident Management Committee.
Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Comeau has had important and positive influence on issues pertaining to testing and contact tracing, amongst other key issues related to infection prevention and control. Beyond the IWK, she also is regularly called upon to provide expert advice and support to other agencies, including the Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness, the Nova Scotia Health Authority, and Nova Scotia Public Health.
Doug Manuel, MD, MSc, FRCPC
Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Clinical Scientist, C.T. Lamont Primary Health Care Research Centre, Bruyère Research Institute
Dr. Doug Manuel is a Medical Doctor with a Masters in Epidemiology and Royal College specialization in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. His research combines his interests in public health, health care systems and primary care. He collaborates to develop advanced predictive algorithms and microsimulation models to assess population health and the health impact of health strategies and has written on how societies with the best population health have achieved their success.
Dr. Manuel supports the Ottawa Hospital and Ottawa Public Health in the development and implementation of COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and assessing the prevalence of COVID-19 in the community. He helps integrate hospital and public health information systems. He uses COVID-19 screening and testing data to develop clinical prediction algorithms and population models. He is on Ontario’s Science Table COVID-19, providing science advice for the province’s pandemic response.
Ashleigh Tuite, PhD, MSc, MPH
Assistant Professor, Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
University Health Network
Dr. Ashleigh Tuite is an infectious disease epidemiologist, mathematical modeler, and assistant professor at the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Her research focuses on integrating data with mathematical models to study the epidemic spread of communicable diseases and identify optimal intervention and control strategies.
Dr. Tuite has developed mathematical models to describe COVID-19 transmission, with the aim of improving decision-making and planning in the face of uncertainty. These models have shown the importance of different public health response measures, including physical distancing, testing, and contact tracing for controlling epidemic spread.
Sponsored By
Innovative Medicines Canada is the national voice of Canada’s innovative pharmaceutical industry. We advocate for policies that enable the discovery, development and commercialization of innovative medicines and vaccines that improve the lives of all Canadians. We support our members’ commitment to being valued partners in the Canadian healthcare system.
AstraZeneca is a global, innovation-driven biopharmaceutical business with a primary focus on the discovery, development and commercialization of primary and specialty care medicines that transform lives. Our primary focus is on three important areas of healthcare: Cardiovascular and Metabolic disease; Oncology; and Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmunity. AstraZeneca Canada headquarters are located in Mississauga, Ontario. For more information: www.astrazeneca.ca.
The Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science (CSMLS) is the national certifying body for medical laboratory technologists and medical laboratory assistants, and the national professional society for Canada’s medical laboratory professionals. We are a not-for-profit organization that promotes, maintains and protects the professional identity and interests of the medical laboratory professional and of the profession.
