The Canadian Atlas of Child and Youth Injury: Mobilizing Injury Surveillance Data to Launch a National Knowledge Translation Tool

Abstract

Child and youth injury prevention research in Canada has lagged behind other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development nations, despite existing surveillance systems and longitudinal data. A critical need to improve access to the available data, as well as need to tailor its display and interpretation, was identified by injury prevention stakeholders involved in research, policy, and practice. The Canadian Atlas of Child and Youth Injury Prevention (“the Atlas”) was developed to address this need. Following a series of iterative consultation meetings and a pilot testing session, the Atlas was scaled up with national data. Two testing sessions were held to evaluate the tools. The Atlas is comprised of three main components: data, indicators, and visualizations. The accessibility of the dashboard is enhanced by customization of data visualizations and data outputs to suit the user’s needs. Overall feedback indicated that the tools were easy to use, and that the interface was intuitive and visually appealing. The Canadian Atlas of Child and Youth Injury Prevention provides readily accessible information to injury prevention practitioners, policy makers and researchers, helping to chart pathways to success in improving the child and youth injury prevention system in Canada.

Collaborative Visual Analytics: A Health Analytics Approach to Injury Prevention

“…Following this pilot study, a complementary research work was carried out to conduct an extensive beta testing sessions for dashboard users [ 40 ]. The study served to understand users experience working independently on the dashboard, without VAE assistance and to gather feedback that was then used to refine the tool and make the dashboard more intuitive and easy to use by injury practitioners and policy makers outside of the group analytics setting.…”

Human factors applications in the design of decision support systems for population health: a scoping review

“…A modified version of the systematic review filter developed by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network was applied to exclude systematic reviews, scoping reviews, meta-analyses as well as editorials, guidelines, letters and patient education handouts. The MEDLINE search strategy was validated against a key set of eight articles15 18 19 24–28 predetermined by the authors and was peer reviewed using PRESS29 by another librarian, not associated with this study to ensure accuracy and comprehensiveness.…”

“…By doing so, human factors can improve the design of these tools to better support public health professionals in decision-making efforts. For example, Pike and colleagues used an iterative user-centred design process to develop a decision support tool for child and youth injury surveillance and prevention 18. Injury prevention practitioners and policymakers were involved in an evaluation of the tool during which they were presented with a series of fictional planning problems to solve using the tool (eg, determine the trends for suicide and homicide for children aged 10–19 years old from 2007 to 2010).…”

“…For example, Pike and colleagues used an iterative user-centred design process to develop a decision support tool for child and youth injury surveillance and prevention. 18 Injury prevention practitioners and policymakers were involved in an evaluation of the tool during which they were presented with a series of fictional planning problems to solve using the tool (eg, determine the trends for suicide and homicide for children aged 10–19 years old from 2007 to 2010). Following this exercise, users were interviewed during which they were asked to provide feedback on the tool (eg, the dashboard, indicators and specific visualisations) as well as provide feedback pertaining to the ease of navigating the dashboard and overall satisfaction.…”

Development of Policy-Relevant Indicators for Injury Prevention in British Columbia by the Key Decision-Makers

“…An injury indicator is "a summary measure which denotes or reflects, directly or indirectly, variations and trends in injuries, or injury-related or injury control-related phenomenon" [32,33]. There has been a renewed international interest in using injury indicators and increasing recognition by decision-makers of the need to use objective landmarks to justify and inform resource allocation, and to evaluate interventions [34][35][36][37].This is in parallel with the recognition that substantial improvement in decreasing the injury burden can only be expected through a 'systemic approach' to injury prevention, warranting sustained changes at the societal level targeting populationlevel injury indicators [38].Using indicators for monitoring progress in the field of injury prevention is of special importance, as the systems in which injury prevention programs are implemented are complex, multi-sectoral, and multi-dimensional [36].…”