Mission

To provide the platform to strengthen an innovative pan-Canadian health surveillance community.

Vision

Timely and quality surveillance of health determinants informs policies and practices across Canada.

History

The Canadian Alliance for Regional Risk Factor Surveillance (CARRFS) has its roots in a think tank forum initiated by the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in 2007 that was attended by over 100 public health professionals. The purpose of the forum was to discuss strategies for risk factor surveillance in recognition that relevant data for public health planning was neither timely nor frequent and was rarely granular enough to be used by communities.

CARRFS was established as a voluntary network in 2008 to continue this work. Since then, the committee has run various programs, including training in public health surveillance skills; research; and an environmental scan to document the current status for laying down the road maps for public health surveillance across the country.

Since 2016, CARRFS has focused on organizing an annual symposium as a pre-conference event of the Public Health conference organized by the Canadian Public Health Association (CPHA) as well as organizing a Collaborator Session as part of their conference.

LEADERSHIP

The members of the 2023 CARRFS Organizing Committee are: 

  • Kavita Singh, Scientific Evaluator, Healthy Environments and Consumer Safety Branch, Health Canada

  • Mayilee Canizares, Scientific Associate, Shroeder Arthritis Institute and Krembil Research Institute, University Health Network

  • Céline Plante, Scientific Adviser, Institut national de santé publique du Québec

  • Yaping Jin, Associate Professor, Department of Ophthalmology and Vision Sciences, University of Toronto

  • Mai-Thanh Tu, Project Manager, Institut de la statistique du Québec, Direction des études longitudinales

  • Noël C. Barengo, Associate Professor, Florida International University & President of Americas' Network for Chronic Disease Surveillance (AMNET)

  • Katherine McMillan, Open Source Software contributor and volunteer, Board of Directors for the EuroBSDCon Foundation

Advisory board members:

  • Bernard Choi, Senior Research Scientist, Public Health Agency of Canada

  • Drona Rasali, Director of Population Health Surveillance & Epidemiology, BC Centre for Disease Control