ORCID Profile
0000-0002-2118-4174
Current Organisation
University of British Columbia
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Publisher: Oxford University Press (OUP)
Date: 06-2008
Publisher: European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC)
Date: 25-06-2020
DOI: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.25.1900562
Abstract: Sentinel surveillance of acute hospitalisations in response to infectious disease emergencies such as the 2009 influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic is well described, but recognition of its potential to supplement routine public health surveillance and provide scalability for emergency responses has been limited. We summarise the achievements of two national paediatric hospital surveillance networks relevant to vaccine programmes and emerging infectious diseases in Canada (Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program Active IMPACT from 1991) and Australia (Paediatric Active Enhanced Disease Surveillance PAEDS from 2007) and discuss opportunities and challenges in applying their model to other contexts. Both networks were established to enhance capacity to measure vaccine preventable disease burden, vaccine programme impact, and safety, with their scope occasionally being increased with emerging infectious diseases’ surveillance. Their active surveillance has increased data accuracy and utility for syndromic conditions (e.g. encephalitis), pathogen-specific diseases (e.g. pertussis, rotavirus, influenza), and adverse events following immunisation (e.g. febrile seizure), enabled correlation of biological specimens with clinical context and supported responses to emerging infections (e.g. pandemic influenza, parechovirus, COVID-19). The demonstrated long-term value of continuous, rather than incident-related, operation of these networks in strengthening routine surveillance, bridging research gaps, and providing scalable public health response, supports their applicability to other countries.
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 11-05-2020
Abstract: lt i Herd immunity /i or i community immunity /i refers to the reduced risk of infection among susceptible in iduals in a population through the presence and proximity of immune in iduals. Recent studies suggest that improving the understanding of community immunity may increase intentions to get vaccinated. his study aims to design a web application about community immunity and optimize it based on users’ cognitive and emotional responses. ur multidisciplinary team developed a web application about community immunity to communicate epidemiological evidence in a personalized way. In our application, people build their own community by creating an avatar representing themselves and 8 other avatars representing people around them, for ex le, their family or coworkers. The application integrates these avatars in a 2-min visualization showing how different parameters (eg, vaccine coverage, and contact within communities) influence community immunity. We predefined communication goals, created prototype visualizations, and tested four iterative versions of our visualization in a university-based human-computer interaction laboratory and community-based settings (a cafeteria, two shopping malls, and a public library). Data included psychophysiological measures (eye tracking, galvanic skin response, facial emotion recognition, and electroencephalogram) to assess participants’ cognitive and affective responses to the visualization and verbal feedback to assess their interpretations of the visualization’s content and messaging. mong 110 participants across all four cycles, 68 (61.8%) were women and 38 (34.5%) were men (4/110, 3.6% not reported), with a mean age of 38 (SD 17) years. More than half (65/110, 59.0%) of participants reported having a university-level education. Iterative changes across the cycles included adding the ability for users to create their own avatars, specific signals about who was represented by the different avatars, using color and movement to indicate protection or lack of protection from infectious disease, and changes to terminology to ensure clarity for people with varying educational backgrounds. Overall, we observed 3 generalizable findings. First, visualization does indeed appear to be a promising medium for conveying what community immunity is and how it works. Second, by involving multiple users in an iterative design process, it is possible to create a short and simple visualization that clearly conveys a complex topic. Finally, evaluating users’ emotional responses during the design process, in addition to their cognitive responses, offers insights that help inform the final design of an intervention. isualization with personalized avatars may help people understand their in idual roles in population health. Our app showed promise as a method of communicating the relationship between in idual behavior and community health. The next steps will include assessing the effects of the application on risk perception, knowledge, and vaccination intentions in a randomized controlled trial. This study offers a potential road map for designing health communication materials for complex topics such as community immunity.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 02-2020
DOI: 10.1016/J.VACCINE.2019.12.051
Abstract: Invasive meningococcal disease caused by Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MenB) remains a health risk in Canada and globally. Two MenB vaccines are now approved for use. An understanding of the genotype of Canadian strains and the potential strain coverage conferred by the MenB-FHbp vaccine is needed to inform immunization policies. Serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis strains responsible for meningococcal disease in Canada from 2006 to 2012 were collected as part of the Canadian Immunization Monitoring Program Active surveillance network. Genotypic analysis was done on MenB isolates from 2006 to 2012 with determination of fHbp surface expression for a subset of isolates: those occurring from 2010 to 2012. Two clonal complexes (cc269 and cc41/44) were observed in 68.8% of the 276 isolates. A total of 50 different fHbp peptides were identified among isolates from 2006 to 2012. Surface expression of fHbp was detected on 95% of MenB isolates from 2010 to 2012 and 91% of isolates expressed fHbp at levels that are predicted to be susceptible to the bactericidal immune response elicited by the MenB-FHbp vaccine. Some regional differences were observed, particularly in isolates from British Columbia and Quebec. The majority of MenB isolates responsible for meningococcal disease in Canada expressed fHbp at levels predicted to be sufficient for complement mediated bactericidal activity in the presence of MenB-FHbp induced serum antibodies.
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Date: 03-2007
DOI: 10.1016/J.CLIM.2006.10.012
Abstract: Human primary immunodeficiencies affecting Toll-like receptor (TLR) signalling reveal a non-redundant role for TLR function in defense against pneumococcal infection. To determine the clinical relevance of TLR abnormalities, we studied a population predicted to be enriched for TLR defects-healthy children who had developed invasive pneumococcal infection in the absence of classic risk factors for infection. We describe the development and optimization of a peripheral blood TLR assay. By testing 38 healthy control neonates, children and adults we demonstrated that TLR function was stable over the first six decades of life. We tested 50 children with a history of invasive pneumococcal infection and although TLR defects were predicted to be over-represented in this population, we did not identify any TLR abnormalities. Although TLR signalling defects are associated with greatly enhanced susceptibility to invasive pneumococcal infection, our results suggest that routine clinical screening for TLR defects in healthy children who develop invasive pneumococcal infection is not justified.
Publisher: JMIR Publications Inc.
Date: 30-10-2020
DOI: 10.2196/20113
Abstract: Herd immunity or community immunity refers to the reduced risk of infection among susceptible in iduals in a population through the presence and proximity of immune in iduals. Recent studies suggest that improving the understanding of community immunity may increase intentions to get vaccinated. This study aims to design a web application about community immunity and optimize it based on users’ cognitive and emotional responses. Our multidisciplinary team developed a web application about community immunity to communicate epidemiological evidence in a personalized way. In our application, people build their own community by creating an avatar representing themselves and 8 other avatars representing people around them, for ex le, their family or coworkers. The application integrates these avatars in a 2-min visualization showing how different parameters (eg, vaccine coverage, and contact within communities) influence community immunity. We predefined communication goals, created prototype visualizations, and tested four iterative versions of our visualization in a university-based human-computer interaction laboratory and community-based settings (a cafeteria, two shopping malls, and a public library). Data included psychophysiological measures (eye tracking, galvanic skin response, facial emotion recognition, and electroencephalogram) to assess participants’ cognitive and affective responses to the visualization and verbal feedback to assess their interpretations of the visualization’s content and messaging. Among 110 participants across all four cycles, 68 (61.8%) were women and 38 (34.5%) were men (4/110, 3.6% not reported), with a mean age of 38 (SD 17) years. More than half (65/110, 59.0%) of participants reported having a university-level education. Iterative changes across the cycles included adding the ability for users to create their own avatars, specific signals about who was represented by the different avatars, using color and movement to indicate protection or lack of protection from infectious disease, and changes to terminology to ensure clarity for people with varying educational backgrounds. Overall, we observed 3 generalizable findings. First, visualization does indeed appear to be a promising medium for conveying what community immunity is and how it works. Second, by involving multiple users in an iterative design process, it is possible to create a short and simple visualization that clearly conveys a complex topic. Finally, evaluating users’ emotional responses during the design process, in addition to their cognitive responses, offers insights that help inform the final design of an intervention. Visualization with personalized avatars may help people understand their in idual roles in population health. Our app showed promise as a method of communicating the relationship between in idual behavior and community health. The next steps will include assessing the effects of the application on risk perception, knowledge, and vaccination intentions in a randomized controlled trial. This study offers a potential road map for designing health communication materials for complex topics such as community immunity.
No related grants have been discovered for Julie Bettinger.