Family Medicine leaders collaborate on new national approach to pandemic preparedness

News & Announcements | 06 May 2024

Drs. David Barber and Michael Green, Queen’s Family Medicine (QFM), are collaborators on an $18.9-million initiative to shield Canada against future pandemics.

Led by the Upstream Lab, based at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions, St. Michael’s Hospital, Toronto, and funded by the Canada Biomedical Research Fund, the Pandemic Preparedness Engaging Primary Care and Emergency Departments (PREPARED) initiative will create a new approach to pandemic preparedness. It will improve the national response to pandemics by creating a system to alert government agencies and researchers of new pathogens and provide real-time samples for faster vaccine, treatment, and diagnostic development.

“This initiative underscores the critical role of family doctors in research and surveillance,” said Dr. Barber, director of the Pan-Canadian CPCSSN (Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network) and CPCSSN’s Eastern Ontario Network (EON). “As the primary point of contact in the health-care system, family doctors are ideally positioned to lead the monitoring of emerging pathogens. We are enthusiastic about contributing to this initiative, which aims to pioneer faster treatment methods for future pandemics.” Dr. Barber is also chair of the Ontario Medical Association’s Section on General and Family Practice (SGFP).

Dr. Green, president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada who recently served as QFM’s department head, pointed out that the initiative builds on the experience and success of the CPCSSN, “which was spearheaded here at Queen’s and shows the importance of practice-based research and learning networks for real-world health research.”

“It is critical that research is conducted in the community, in contexts where the results will be applied,” he added.

The PREPARED initiative builds on Upstream Lab’s existing research on the social factors that influenced COVID-19, automating surveillance, and evaluating treatments through CanTreatCOVID, an ongoing national trial. "Upstream prevention means thinking about the interplay between infectious threats and social threats," said Dr. Andrew Pinto, Upstream Lab director and project lead.

New solutions to old problems

Canada's health-system challenges during COVID-19 were similar to those of previous pandemics. At the height of the SARS outbreak, hospitals grappled with the rapid spread of a novel virus, recalled Dr. Pinto, a first-year medical student at the time. As with COVID-19, "We didn't have an early warning system, and we didn't have a co-ordinated system to enrol patients in critical research studies," he said.

PREPARED will ultimately partner with 50 sites across Canada to routinely collect samples from patients with respiratory symptoms and continuously scan electronic medical records. The data from both sources will help identify new viruses and monitor the evolution of known diseases.

One problem at the beginning of the pandemic was the absence of co-ordination and ways to control the flow of the virus into Canada, which resulted in lockdowns, said Norman Umali, Upstream Lab research pharmacist and project team member. "PREPARED will aim to fill gaps we saw in Canada during COVID-19, and support the important work of public health organizations locally and nationally."

The initiative will implement new, rapid testing systems for multiple viruses such as COVID-19, RSV, adenovirus, and influenza. With this standardized approach in health-care settings, patients receive care faster and can avoid unnecessary antibiotics. It also helps build healthier communities by safely and securely providing real-time samples to industry partners that develop vaccines, treatments, and diagnostic tests.

PREPARED has emerged as a collaboration with 30 institutions and 16 primary care research networks that serve more than 2.5 million patients in Canada, including those from Ontario, Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Québec. Experts in primary care, infectious diseases, and pandemic preparedness co-lead the initiative.

Looking beyond COVID-19

In addition to enhancing pandemic preparedness, the initiative will go beyond monitoring respiratory illnesses. "We would like to adapt this approach to track other emerging infectious diseases, such as mpox,” said Dr. Benita Hosseini, Upstream Lab research scientist and a project co-lead. “It could be adapted to perform surveillance during other public health emergencies, such as those driven by climate change." 

Part of the project is to train the next generation of researchers through the PREPARED Talent Development Program, Dr. Hosseini added. Trainees can choose a learning stream to focus on surveillance, data science, implementation science, or community-based participatory research.

PREPARED will help Canada be ready for the next pandemic. "We are excited about working with many partners to create a shield that will help protect Canada, now and in the future," said Dr. Pinto.

Family Medicine leaders collaborate on new national approach to pandemic preparedness

New solutions to old problems

Looking beyond COVID-19

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