KMb Project Highlights

AllerGen KMb Projects: Education/Empowerment

AllerGen KMb Projects: Policy Impact


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AllerGen KMb Projects – Education / Empowerment

Peer Power: Helping Allergic Kids to Help Each Otherap

Project: Sustainable Online Support for Children and Adolescents Affected by Asthma and Allergies

Principal investigator: Miriam Stewart

Children and teens across Canada are benefiting from the online peer support programs developed by this project.


Asthma patients breathe easier in El Salvadorasma

Project: International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease IPI: El Salvador

Principal investigator: Dean Befus

To further support the ability of healthcare providers to educate patients and their families about asthma in El Salvador, Dr. Befus and his team developed a set of Spanish-language teaching tools, including flipcharts and an action plan.


homegrown'Home-Grown' Asthma Support for Aboriginal Children and Youth

Project: Engaging Aboriginal families affected by allergies and asthma in support-education program development

Principal investigator: Miriam Stewart

Dr. Stewart hopes that this work will spur the creation of sustainable programs and inform the development of government policies to support them.


using the internetUsing the Internet to Improve Education and Support for Canadian Children, Teens, and Parents Affected by Asthma and Allergies

Project: Building continuity of support for allergic children with asthma and/or anaphylaxis and their families

Principal investigator: Miriam Stewart

The web-based support tools and education programs designed by Dr. Stewart’s team not only meet the needs of children and teens living with severe allergies and asthma regardless of where they live in Canada, but also the needs of their parents.


e-learning toolsA New Generation of e-Learning Tools for Asthma Education

Project: Can e-health tools improve health outcomes in asthma?

Principal investigators: Scott Tebbutt, Anthony Levinson

“Animations can make science exciting,” notes Dr. Tebbutt. “They also have high impact and help people better remember what is being taught.” Dr. Levinson reports that people from all over the world have been accessing and incorporating their animations into local education programs.


teaching kidsTeaching Kids with Asthma How to Take Charge of Their Health

Project: Enhancing RAP for First Nations Communities

Principal investigator: Allan Becker

The program equips children and their peers with the knowledge, as well as the confidence, skills and tools to control their asthma, needed to keep them healthier over their lifetime.


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AllerGen KMb Projects – Policy

faMore Choice, Less Risk for those with Food Allergies

Project: CanFAST, SPAACE, SCAAALAR

Principal investigators: Susan Elliott, Ann Clarke

Dr. Elliott’s long-range vision, which she shares with many colleagues and other food allergy stakeholders, requires the government’s full support. Their big aspiration: a national food allergy strategy for Canada.


biobanksThe Ethics of Biobanking: Is the Public On Board?

Project: White Paper Series

Principal investigator: Timothy Caulfield

Professor Caulfield hopes to contribute to the creation of ethical and enforceable guidelines for biobanking, and health policies that “rest on a base of evidence—just like good science.”


trafficFrom Traffic Lanes to Twitchy Lungs

Project: Traffic-related air pollution as a risk factor for the development of childhood asthma

Principal investigator: Michael Brauer

Dr. Brauer favours urban planning strategies that separate roads and vehicles from people… He would like to see human health, rather than convenience, inform roadway design policies.


ToA Canadian Quest for Higher Quality Asthma Care

Project: Development of national strategies for implementing and evaluating evidence-based indicators for benchmarking and monitoring asthma care in Canada

Principal investigator: Dr. Teresa To

To address the issues of inconsistent and suboptimal asthma care across the country, Dr. To focused on bridging the gap between the established guidelines and the real-life practice of asthma management in the offices of primary care physicians.


c-careC-CARE Registry Tracks Anaphylaxis Across Canada

Project: Cross-Canada Anaphylaxis REgistry (C-CARE)

Principal investigator: Moshe Ben-Shoshan

Health Canada and other partner organizations will provide a conduit to policy makers to share findings and promote effective strategies for the prevention and management of food allergies and anaphylaxis.


poor2Drug Plans Can Impact Kids with Asthma

Project:

Principal investigator: Wendy Ungar

“Policy makers are very interested in questions around pharmaceutical costs and access,” Dr. Ungar said. “We are making sure that decision makers at local, provincial and national levels are getting this information, not just academics.”


WORK-RELATEDAsthma in the Workplace: Looking to Ease the Burden through Identification and Prevention

Project: Asthma and BC workers

Principal investigator: Mieke Koehoorn

Raising physician and policy maker awareness regarding work-related asthma and the steps that can be taken to mitigate health effects can promote proper treatment that will reduce lost productivity and wages and reduce the chance of asthma re-occurrence or a severe attack.


poorAdults Raised in Poor Socioeconomic Circumstances Show Increased Susceptibility to Chronic Disease

Project: Mini-CHILD: Psychosocial Assessment and Epigenetics

Principal investigators: Michael Kobor and Edith Chen

The next step will be to explore the connection between early-life stress and adult health with policy makers in health care and industry. The team’s discovery can potentially lead to reduced demands on the healthcare system through the implementation of social and economic policy frameworks that address the needs of low socio-economic status families with children.


food labellingAllerGen Food Allergy and Food Labelling Research Team Supports Policy Updates to Enhance the Protection of Food Allergic Consumers

Project: Surveying Canadians to Assess the Prevalence of Common Food Allergies and Attitudes towards Food Labelling and Risk (SCAAALAR)

Principal investigators: Ann Clarke and Susan Elliott

Drs. Clarke and Elliott aim to ensure that this study improves the everyday lives of Canadians, and already it has had a direct impact on public policy, including mandatory changes on food labels for allergen ingredient declaration.


mappingMapping Air Pollution to Predict Asthma

Project: Mini-CHILD Environment – Assessment of Land Use Regression

Principal investigators: Michael Brauer and Ryan Allen

These maps, and the health studies they serve, could one day result in major changes in urban planning i.e., how cities are designed, where schools are built and where major roads are constructed.


stressChildren with Stressed-Out Mothers at Risk for Developing Asthma

Project: Maternal Stress and Childhood Asthma

Principal investigator:Anita Kozyrskyj

Interest in this study extends beyond parents, respiratory health experts and scientists, to government policy makers. Manitoba, which already has an impressive province-wide screening program for post-partum depression, has approached Dr. Kozyrskyj to help it ensure that its public health nurses ask new mothers all the right questions.


scienUsing scientific evidence for effective health policy

Project: Evidence, ethics and health policy research

Principal investigator: Tim Caulfield

Through the project team’s publications and its knowledge mobilization and community engagement efforts, these findings are contributing to more efficient and effective policymaking and to ethical and legal innovations in the management and governance of health research.


foodalThe effect of anaphylaxis legislation on school environments

Project: Building continuity of support for allergic children with asthma and/or anaphylaxis and their families

Principal investigator: Lisa Cicutto

This study has important implications for policy development, implementation and adherence. The gaps identified revealed that school personnel and parents are likely unaware of their own school boards’ written anaphylaxis policy. This discovery can guide school board officials in preparing training, communication and policy.