On May 12, 2026, the iCARE Platform hosted a meeting of seven Canadian health emergency preparedness research platforms funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies in Canada (CRPPHE).
The purpose of the meeting was to enable platforms to explore each platform’s expertise, objectives, and capacity and explore the development of a cross-cutting approach to collaboratively support Canadian pandemic and health emergency preparedness research and implementation, policy planning and action, and national infrastructure for emergency preparedness in Canada.
Held on the UQAM campus in Montreal (Canada), the event also featured a CIHR-CRPPHE Steering Committee meeting, a networking dinner event, and a keynote presentations from Dr. Emily Vraga and Jessica Malaty Rivera.
CRPPHE Platforms and Platform Members in Attendance
The Canadian Emergency Department Research Network (CEDRN) – Website
- Platform Lead Dr. Corinne Hohl
- Dr. Patrick Archambault
The Serology and Diagnostics High-Throughput Facility (SD-HTF) – Website
- Platform Lead Dr. Marc-Andre Langlois
- Dr. Cecilia Costiniuk
The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) – Website
- Platform Lead Dr. Danuta Skowronski
- Dr. Christine Lacroix
Evidence Synthesis Network (ESN) for Canada to Support Pandemic Planning and Response – Website
- Platform Lead Dr. Michael Wilson (virtual)
- Dr. Kerry Waddell
The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) Platform – Website
- Platform Lead Dr. Jennifer Brooks
- Noah Frank
Pediatric Outcomes imProvement through COordination of Research Networks (POPCORN) – Website
- Platform Lead Dr. Olivier Drouin (recorded presentation)
- Marianne Rufiange
The iCARE Platform
- Platform Lead Dr. Kim Lavoie
- Dr. Simon Bacon
Agenda
Objectives:
1) Become familiar with all seven pandemic teams (objectives, expertise, capacity)
2) Identify common objectives and priority research themes
3) Define what each team contributes to optimizing Canada’s health emergency preparedness
4) Identify framework to develop a collaborative research Canadian agenda for Y3 and beyond
Keynotes:
- The impact of health mis/disinformation on pandemic and health emergency response: how behavioural science can help – Emily Vraga, PhD, Professor of Health Communication at the University of Minnesota’s Hubbard School of Journalism and Mass Communication
- Science Communication as a Tool for Infodemic Resilience – Jessica Malaty Rivera, MSc, Infectious Disease Epidemiologist and Health Communicator, Johns Hopkins
Team presentations
- Pediatric Outcomes imProvement through COordination of Research Networks (POPCORN) – Dr. Olivier Drouin
- Sustaining and Expanding the Canadian Emergency Department Research Network to Improve Pandemic and Health Emergencies Preparedness – Dr. Corinne Hohl
- Empowering Large-Scale Infectious Disease Research and Mobilizing Knowledge: The Serology and Diagnostics High-Throughput Platform as Critical Research Infrastructure for Pandemic Preparedness, Surveillance, and Response in Canada – Dr. Marc-André Langlois
- The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) for community-based respiratory virus and vaccine effectiveness (VE) monitoring: a multidisciplinary surveillance and science platform for preparedness, rapid research and response to emerging or re-emerging pathogens, seasonal epidemics and pandemics – Dr. Danuta Skowronski
- Evidence Synthesis Network for Canada to Support Pandemic Planning and Response – Dr. Mike Wilson
- The Canadian Partnership for Tomorrow’s Health (CanPath) Platform – Dr. Jennifer Brooks
- Optimising pandemic and emergency preparedness through better coordination and uptake of behavioural science evidence and tools: Extending the iCARE Platform – Dr. Kim Lavoie
