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| Larry Svenson - In Memoriam Person1 #690187 Dr. Larry Svenson, who passed away unexpectedly on Friday, March 25, 2022, was an Associate Professor, Special Continuing in the Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta. | 
In Memoriam: Dr Larry Svenson [1] - “…Born October 26, 1964, in Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Larry graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Alberta. He received a PhD from Manchester Metropolitan University in Manchester, England, in 2015, and was also a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. He was an Associate Professor, Special Continuing in the Division of Preventive Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta for almost six years, an Adjunct Professor with the School of Public Health, University of Alberta for over 25 years, and an Adjunct Associate Professor with the University of Calgary, Cumming School of Medicine for almost 20 years.
- In addition to his academic roles, he was the Provincial Health Analytics Officer and Executive Director for Analytics and Performance Reporting at the Alberta Ministry of Health and was said to be an integral part of our province’s response to COVID. Keenly watching the first cases unfold in Wuhan, he and his team knew COVID would become an international concern and started thinking about what would happen if the virus appeared in Canada. They began their work in late January 2020 prompting the province to impose the necessary public health measures to flatten the curve and prevent adverse impacts on the healthcare system. This work was instrumental in him being awarded the Premier’s Public Service Award for Individual Leadership in 2020.
- Larry was a member of the Public Health Agency of Canada expert surveillance advisory committees for cardiovascular disease, arthritis, chronic respiratory disease, neurological conditions, and diabetes. He also recently chaired the National Surveillance Infrastructure Task Group of the Public Health Network Council of Canada, which developed a public health surveillance blueprint for Canada…”
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+Citations (2) - CitationsAdd new citationList by: CiterankMapLink[2] Improved vaccine coverage for First Nations children receiving first dose on-reserve: a retrospective cohort study in western Canada
Author: Shannon E MacDonald, Bonny Graham, Keith D King, Li Huang, Lawrence W. Svenson, Gregg Nelson
Publication date: 12 December 2023
Publication info: BMJ Global Health 2023;8:e013261.
Cited by: David Price 3:51 PM 12 January 2024 GMT
Citerank: (4) 690172First Nations and Inuit Health10015D3D3AB, 701020CANMOD – PublicationsPublications by CANMOD Members144B5ACA0, 704041Vaccination859FDEF6, 716743VaccinationVaccination » Relevance » First Nations and Inuit Health10000FFFACD
URL:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2023-013261
| | Excerpt / Summary [BMJ Global Health, 12 December 2023]
Introduction: Fragmentation in immunisation reporting systems pose challenges in measuring vaccine coverage for First Nations children in Canada. Some Nations have entered into data-sharing agreements with the province of Alberta’s health ministry, enabling novel opportunities to calculate coverage.
Methods: Partnering with a First Nations community in Alberta, this retrospective cohort study calculated routine childhood vaccine coverage. Administrative data for vaccines delivered within and outside the community were linked to calculate partial and complete immunisation coverage in 2013–2019 at ages 2 and 7 years for children living in the community. We also compared vaccine coverage each year for (a) children who were and were not continuous community residents and (b) children who received or not their first vaccine at the on-reserve community health centre. We also calculated the mean complete coverage across all study years with 95% CIs.
Results: For most vaccines, coverage was higher (p<0.05) at ages 2 and 7 years for children that received their first vaccine at the First Nations health centre, compared with those who received their first dose elsewhere. For example, for pneumococcal vaccine, the mean level of complete coverage in 2-year-olds was 55.7% (52.5%–58.8%) for those who received their first vaccine in the community, compared with 33.3% (29.4%–37.3%) for those who did not; it was also higher at 7 years (75.6%, 72.7%–78.5%, compared with 55.5%, 49.7%–61.3%).
Conclusion: Initiating the vaccine series at the on-reserve community health centre had a positive impact on coverage. The ability to measure accurate coverage through data-sharing agreements and vaccine record linkage will support First Nations communities in identifying individual and community immunity. The findings also support the transfer of health funding and service delivery to First Nations to improve childhood immunisation uptake. |
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