Core Competencies for Public Health Epidemiologists in Ontario

Strengthening the public health work force in Canada through the establishment of core competencies for public health professionals has been a focus of activity since the public health tragedies of Walkerton and SARS.

Establishing discipline-specific competencies for public health epidemiologists in Ontario was identified as a key action to be undertaken by APHEO during the 2004 APHEO strategic planning process. To that end, APHEO contracted University of Toronto researchers to develop a set of core competencies for public health epidemiologists in Ontario. The work was supported by funding from the Public Health Agency of Canada.

Project Membership

Researchers: Susan Bondy, Donald Cole, Ian Johnson, Kim Bercovitz
Members of the APHEO Competencies Working Group: Nancy Day, Mary Lou Decou, Elaine Hector, Philippa Holowaty, Lewinda Knowles (Chair), Ruth Sanderson (Former Chair), Patrick Seliske, Julie Stratton, Samantha Wilson-Clark.

Project Terms of Reference

Project Deliverables

The project was completed in five steps, and produced five associated documents: 

 

 

 

Step 1

Development of a "framework” for core competencies for public health epidemiologists in Ontario drawing on existing frameworks and relevant literature.

 

 

 

 

Step 2

Identification of initial draft competencies using semi-structured interviews with key informants. 

 

 

 

 

Step 3

Validation of initial competencies through a survey of APHEO members and other key stakeholders.

 

 

 

 

Step 4

Drafting a working paper of core competencies i for public health epidemiologists to stimulate discussion.

 

 

 

 

Step 5

Holding a consensus-building workshop of APHEO members to establish a proposed set of competencies for the association to adopt or modify.

 

 

 

 

Project Follow-up

The Core Competencies for Public Health Epidemiologists were discussed at a Pan-Canadian Public Health Epidemiologists meeting, organized by the Public Health Agency of Canada, in Toronto on March 7-8, 2007. In addition to core competencies for public health epidemiologists, the development of a pan-Canadian Public Health Epidemiology network was discussed. A report of that meeting is here: