Most individuals in our population have modifiable risk factors for prevalent chronic diseases (notably cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes).  Hence, there is a large opportunity to improve the health of the population.  A clinical approach, treating high-risk people one at a time through face-to-face intervention, is not sufficient to deal with the problem at a population level.  A population-based approach is required: health informatics will play a central role in the emerging science and practice of population level intervention.

 

This presentation will: (a) provide a high level overview of the field, and (b) describe a current national project, lead by Waterloo faculty and staff, designed to develop a system for targeting, evaluating, and studying youth oriented tobacco use reduction interventions.

 

Roy Cameron a Professor in Applied Health Sciences at the University of Waterloo. He trained at the University of Waterloo (MA in English, PhD in Clinical Psychology) and Duke University Medical Center (Clinical Internship). Roy‘s aspiration is to contribute to the improved health of Canadians. In his role with Propel, his focus is on developing capacity that enables leaders in research, evaluation, policy, and practice to work together to plan, study, and continually improve policies and programs that promote health. His own research has been mainly in tobacco control. Roy played a lead role in initiating the Canadian Tobacco Control Research Initiative, and the Population Health Intervention Research Initiative for Canada. Roy has received honours for his career contributions from a number of organizations.