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While COVID-19 continues to deliver devastating health and economic impacts, Canada’s pandemic response – from transparent public outreach to collaborative efforts to implement solutions – reveals the power of individuals, communities, organizations and industry to collectively address complex problems.
Starting with honest, evidence-based communication
Watching the pandemic unfold worldwide has highlighted the importance of – and interplay between – individual behaviour and public policy. B.C.’s medical officer, Dr. Bonnie Henry, came to understand this first as a flight surgeon in the navy, and in her later work in Canada and with the World Health Organization tackling ebola, polio, SARS and H1N1.
“If we provide people with the information we have – what we know, what we don’t know, what we want them to do and why, openly and transparently – most will do what we need them to do in a crisis,” she says. “It’s so important to be able to give the rationale and understanding behind what we’re asking.”
Research data shows that transparency, delivered with trust and respect, results in longer, more sustained buy-in over time than enforcement models, says Dr. Henry. “So many things that we need people to do to help prevent transmission are individual behaviours. Data has shown us over time, time and time again, that what works is a combination of buy-in and making behaviour change the right and easy thing for people to do.”
That means access to high-quality, current data is paramount. “We need systems that support us in sharing information rapidly between jurisdictions, provinces and territories. We’re starting to see the development of this national database. We knew from SARS in 2003 that we needed one, but sometimes it takes another crisis, and now we’re seeing some real innovation. The pandemic has pushed us leap years ahead of where we would have been at our usual pace.”
Collaborating to build back, better
This acceleration of change is not limited to the field of health care. According to Steven Liss, vice-president, Research and Innovation, Ryerson University, “Things we anticipated happening in five or 10 years are now converging at our doorstep. Evolving digital technologies and societal changes are ushering in the future of work.
“Post-secondary education has a key role in facilitating this shift in a way that no one is left behind,” he adds.
Disruptions due to COVID-19 have served to highlight gaps and inequities, explains Dr. Liss. “In order to build back better, we have to tackle many systemic and institutional challenges, including those highlighted by the Black Lives Matter movement and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action.”
The path to inclusive growth starts with understanding that it makes economic sense, says Dr. Liss. In that aim, Ryerson takes a multi-pronged, collaborative approach to propelling positive change, and willingness to listen to diverse voices and form broad, inclusive partnerships is evident in many of the university’s initiatives.
One example, the Future Skills Community of Practice, a recent collaboration between the Future Skills Centre and Magnet, was conceived to help Canadians adapt to new economic realities, he notes. “We mobilized Magnet – a social enterprise within Ryerson that has grown to become a very significant technology platform – for a partnership with the Future Skills Centre. Its software matching platforms connect job seekers to jobs, help employers attract talent, and connect young people in the post-secondary system to internships and placements in industry. It has also been adapted to include government programs and resources from which small businesses can benefit.”
The Future Skills Community of Practice is a free, open platform that supports collaborative learning and enables the exchange of ideas, sharing tips and development of peer-to-peer support systems to overcome common hurdles, says Dr. Liss. Through this and other initiatives, he says, “Ryerson is leveraging the capacity of its centres and schools to expand training, and particularly reskilling, to help displaced workers access opportunities.”
Technology solutions improving access to information and care
Canada’s economy has always depended on the country’s health-care system, but never more so than now. While digital transformation reshapes the future of work, technology, leadership and collaboration are coming together in newly effective ways to accelerate COVID-19 responses.
Thrive Health in Vancouver built the COVID-19 apps and websites for the BC Ministry of Health and Health Canada. Starting in 2017, the company began to build systems that bridge information gaps in patient care, empowering patients and families to be more engaged in their health care. By the end of 2019, the company had successful programs at St. Paul’s Hospital, BC Children’s Hospital and Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario.
“We help people get ready for something that’s going to happen, such as a surgery,” explains David Helliwell, the company’s CEO. “We ask questions and give guidance based on their answers and whatever other clinical information we may have. We provide clinical decision support for doctors and then follow patients through recovery afterwards.”
The model fit with COVID-19, asking and answering critical questions such as whether an individual needed to be tested. In February, the company began adapting its technology to meet the information needs of Canadians facing the pandemic.
“The B.C. health-care system was just on the verge of being overwhelmed,” says Mr. Helliwell. “The platform diverted people away from emergency departments by helping them identify their COVID-19 risk factors. Our surveys found that it reduced the number of app users planning to call 8-1-1 by about 50 per cent; wait time went from more than 12 hours to almost none in two weeks. And we had a website alongside that could give people quick answers from a trusted source, to put their minds at ease.”
Accelerating medical innovation for better health and economic outcomes
Noting B.C.’s success in slowing the first wave of infection, Health Canada adopted the Thrive platform and made it available to all provinces and territories. Over 12 million Canadians have now used it for trusted information and guidance.
Looking ahead, Dr. Henry sees this kind of accelerated innovation continuing, “whether it’s citizen engagement through apps, innovation in laboratory testing, or the need to have a robust, rapid way to validate new lab tests.
“We have seen international global collaboration on new vaccine platforms; innovation that has pushed work that would normally take 15 years into a matter of months. New whole-genome sequencing has helped us understand transmission patterns.”
Now that this collaborative power has been unleashed, the possibilities for social and economic change seem almost endless.
For example, Thrive has also just launched a pilot program in partnership with UBC that will test wellness interventions to improve quality of life for people in the pandemic, partly by helping them help other people, says Mr. Helliwell. “In hundreds of thousands of survey responses, people have told us they want to help others – we want to help them make that happen.”
Produced by Randall Anthony Communications. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved in its creation.