Project Areas

The Health Policy & Translation Group’s key areas of focus are:

  1. Health policy and subsequent translation into front-line immunization programs in Canada and around the world
  2. Legal and ethical implications of vaccine studies with a focus on inclusion and exclusion criteria for clinical trials, issues of consent and assent particularly relevant to research involving children, an examination of the knowledge and attitudes of vaccine providers and recipients, and an exploration of how to provide vaccine-related information to the public.

Current research projects:

  • Immunization of pregnant women including vaccines for influenza and pertussis
  • Immunization of marginalized populations including street youth and Aboriginal people in Northern Canada
  • Ethics, consent and rights issues in school-based immunization programs
  • Influenza vaccine uptake in health care workers
  • Vaccine uptake in Nova Scotia including all paediatric vaccines and HPV vaccine in adolescents
  • Knowledge/attitude/behaviour studies
  • Meningococcal vaccine program for Burkina Faso
  • Health records software Belize model
  • Privacy issues as they limit information sharing for health research
  • Reducing immunization pain
  • Pharmacists as immunizers