As part of its membership in the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit (OSSU) under Canada’s Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) initiative, ICES has initiated work to present research findings to the public in new ways. Historically, ICES has published research findings through a number of mechanisms including atlases, investigative reports, media releases and peer-reviewed papers. In the examples below and on the ICES infographics page, we have taken publicly available ICES findings and tailored and reformatted them with the intent of enhancing their relevance for members of the public:
- How do health behaviours improve life expectancy and reduce hospitalization?
- Based on research by ICES, Public Health Ontario, Ottawa Health Research Institute and ICES uOttawa you can use these calculators to estimate your life expectancy, future hospital use, salt intake and the risk of death for people living in nursing homes.
- For more information, and to find out how health behaviours like smoking, alcohol use and level of physical activity can affect your life expectancy and hospital use, view the reports: Seven More Years and 900,000 Days in Hospital.
- What is the prevalence of important chronic diseases in your area?
- ICES data allows researchers to identify the number of people in Ontario who have been diagnosed with certain chronic conditions.
- For example, in collaboration with the Toronto Community Health Profiles, ICES research findings have been used to develop maps at the Toronto neighbourhood level showing the prevalence of diabetes (PDF), hypertension (PDF), chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (PDF) and other conditions. Information about important health conditions in Toronto neighbourhoods can also be viewed in a customizable format.
- At the provincial level, ICES research has been used to generate maps that show asthma and diabetes prevalence by census division.
- How is Ontario’s health care system used?
- ICES studies how patients with certain conditions use the health care system.
- For example, ICES teamed with the Ontario Asthma Surveillance Information System to examine trends in hospital (PDF) and emergency department (PDF) use related to asthma over several years.
- As part of the collaboration with the Toronto Community Health Profiles, ICES presents hospital use information at the neighbourhood (PDF), Health Link (PDF) and provincial (PDF) levels.
Do these topics interest you? Is the information presented in a way that it is meaningful for you and easy to understand? Are there other topics that you would like to know more about? We welcome your feedback and would like to hear from you. Contact us.