Bernard C K Choi
Biographic Data
| ID | 5411440 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Bernard C K Choi |
| GIVEN NAMES | Bernard C K |
| FAMILY NAME | Choi |
| SIGNATURE | CHOI B C K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ottawa |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0508-355X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 27 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 52 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 27 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2001 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 3 |
Public health surveillance and the data, information, knowledge, intelligence and wisdom paradigm
This article points out deficiencies in present-day definitions of public health surveillance, which include data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination, but not public health action. Controlling a public health problem of concern requires a public health response that goes beyond information dissemination. It is undesirable to have public health divided into data generation processes (public health surveillance) and data use proc…
BIG Data … small story
In modern society, a huge volume of data (big data) are being collected and accumulated, and growing exponentially.1 2 Data come from the internet, social media, medical records, customer databases, massive open data and other data sources. Big data are huge in quantity (volume), fast in production sometimes in real time (velocity), structured and unstructured in data types (variety), inconsistent and changing (variability), uncertain in data qua…
The Canadian Health Clock and health calculators
SETTING: This paper documents a participatory process of Health Portfolio staff in the design of a clock, and announces the 2020 Canadian Health Clock, with links to numerous online health calculators. The clock is part of the Health Portfolio's celebration activities in 2019 of "100 Years of Health", as the Department of Health was established in Canada in 1919. INTERVENTION: The intervention was the development of a clock on the Government of C…
The Pan American Health Organization-adapted Hanlon method for prioritization of health programs
Objectives. To document the underlying science of how the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) adapted the Hanlon method, which prioritizes disease control programs, to its wider range of program areas and used it to implement the PAHO Strategic Plan 2014 – 2019. Methods. In 2014, PAHO established a Strategic Plan Advisory Group (SPAG) with representatives from 12 Member States to work closely with the PAHO Technical Team to adapt the Hanlon m…
Period Life Tables for Calculating Life Expectancy
"Period Life Tables for Calculating Life Expectancy: Options to Assess and Minimize the Potential for Bias." , 108(3), p. e14
Risk factors of bicycle traffic injury among middle school students in chaoshan rural areas of china
Bicycle injuries are frequent in China. Three risk factors on bicycle traffic injury among middle school students in Chaoshan rural areas of China were identified. This study provides important data to develop intervention strategies for China and other developing countries
Good thinking
In public health, it is desirable that scientists and policy makers communicate their knowledge effectively or run the risks of barriers in language and understanding. More incentives and opportunities to collaborate will help scientists and policy makers appreciate their different goals, career paths, attitudes towards information, and perception of time.1 2 Knowledge brokers can also bring scientists and policy makers closer to understanding ea…
Enhancing global capacity in the surveillance, prevention, and control of chronic diseases
BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases are now a major health problem in developing countries as well as in the developed world. Although chronic diseases cannot be communicated from person to person, their risk factors (for example, smoking, inactivity, dietary habits) are readily transferred around the world. With increasing human progress and technological advance, the pandemic of chronic diseases will become an even bigger threat to global health. METH…
Grading of evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions
AIMS: Grading of evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions remains a priority to the practise of evidence-based health promotion. Several authors propose grading the strength of evidence based on a hierarchy: convincing, probable, possible and insufficient; or strong, moderate, limited and no evidence. Although these grading hierarchies provide simple and straightforward rankings, the terms that describe the categories in th…
Understanding the basic principles of programme evaluation
In public health, it is important to evaluate programmes (series of activities to achieve specific objectives in specific target groups) in research, surveillance, services, education and policy; in other words, to determine as systematically and objectively as possible the relevance, effectiveness and impact of programmes with respect to their objectives.1 It has been suggested that evaluation should be a built-in component of public health prog…
Finding the real case-fatality rate of H5N1 avian influenza
BACKGROUND: Accurate estimation of the case-fatality (CF) rate, or the proportion of cases that die, is central to pandemic planning. While estimates of CF rates for past influenza pandemics have ranged from about 0.1% (1957 and 1968 pandemics) to 2.5% (1918 pandemic), the official World Health Organization estimate for the current outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza to date is around 60%. METHODS AND RESULTS: The official estimate of the H5N1 CF ra…
All-cause mortality and risk factors in a cohort of retired military male veterans, Xi'an, China
The three leading causes of diseases were cancer, CHD and stroke, and COPD. Aging, cigarette smoking, high systolic blood pressure, high triglyceride, family history of cancer, hypertension and stroke, existing cases recovering from stroke, diabetes and cancer, underweight, younger age of smoking were risk factors for all-cause mortality. Quitting cigarette smoking, maintaining normal blood pressure, triglyceride and weight are effect control str…
Bringing chronic disease epidemiology and infectious disease epidemiology back together
When modern epidemiology first took shape, there was only one kind of epidemiology – epidemiology, period. Over time has come specialisation into chronic and infectious disease epidemiology. Does this segregation into chronic and infectious disease epidemiologies benefit public health? Dividing epidemiology into chronic disease and infectious disease “camps” is, in itself, problematic, in that each is based on an incompatible classification syste…
Vision for a Global Registry of Anticipated Public Health Studies
In public health, the generation, management, and transfer of knowledge all need major improvement. Problems in generating knowledge include an imbalance in research funding, publication bias, unnecessary studies, adherence to fashion, and undue interest in novel and immediate issues. Impaired generation of knowledge, combined with a dated and inadequate process for managing knowledge and an inefficient system for transferring knowledge, mean a d…
Emerging issues in public health information
not counted. In reality the provision and delivery of health care coincides with consumption and cannot be separated, in particular in emergency contexts. Procedures and treatments cannot be stored like products of the manufacturing or drug industries; it is rather a matter of oversupply or undersupply of facilities and personnel in relation to health care needs or demands. It follows that the subjects of cost effectiveness evaluation as conceptu…
Enhancing regional capacity in chronic disease surveillance in the Americas
Existe la necesidad de reforzar la capacidad regional para la vigilancia de las enfermedades cronicas en las Americas. Los objetivos de este articulo son 1) ofrecer nuestro apoyo decidido a favor de la vigilancia de las enfermedades cronicas, 2) presentar una revision descriptiva y un resumen de las actividades de vigilancia y los problemas en torno a las mismas en las Americas, 3) confeccionar una lista de recursos y fuentes de consulta para obt…
Can scientists and policy makers work together
This paper addresses a fundamental question in evidence based policy making—can scientists and policy makers work together? It first provides a scenario outlining the different mentalities and imperatives of scientists and policy makers, and then discusses various issues and solutions relating to whether and how scientists and policy makers can work together. Scientists and policy makers have different goals, attitudes toward information, languag…
Diseases of comfort
Context: The world has started to feel the impact of a global chronic disease epidemic, which is putting pressure on our health care systems. If uncurbed, a new generation of “diseases of comfort” (such as those chronic diseases caused by obesity and physical inactivity) will become a major public health problem in this and the next century. Objective: To describe the concept, causes, and prevention and control strategies of diseases of comfort. …
Understanding and Minimizing Epidemiologic Bias in Public Health Research
Public health practitioners can learn from the weather forecasters
Background CTLA-4 is an inhibitory immune checkpoint receptor and a negative regulator of anti-tumor T-cell function. This study aimed at a comparative analysis of CTLA-4 + cells between different tumor entities. Materials and Methods To quantify CTLA-4 + cells, 4,582 tumor samples from 90 different tumor entities as well as 608 samples of 76 different normal tissue types were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray format. Two di…
Bridging the gap between scientists and decision makers
As public health professionals, we recognise a gap between scientists and decision makers. Firstly, communication is a problem. Scientists and decision makers do not use the same language. Because decision makers are usually not current in complex analytical approaches, study results must be put forth in a compelling manner—for example, through visually interesting presentations that accurately and effectively summarise complex analyses. Secondly…
Understanding the functional components of public health surveillance
Developing a public health surveillance system is similar to developing a housing estate. Besides the actual building process (setting up infrastructure for data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination) there are many other requirements to be identified in planning—and care must be taken to ensure products will stand up to the test of time. The first step is to identify “wants” of homebuyers (recognise and integrate all the “needs”…
Future challenges for diagnostic research
Background HIV transmission among men who have sex with men has recently become a major concern in China. Little is known, however, about HIV transmission among male sex workers (MSW). This study aimed to investigate HIV infection prevalence and risk factors among MSW in Shenzhen, China. Materials and methods Following formative research, a cross-sectional study was conducted using time–location sampling among MSW in Shenzhen, from April to July …
Understanding the basic concepts of public health surveillance
Public health surveillance has been defined as the ongoing collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data essential to public health practice, closely integrated with timely dissemination of information for intervention. This is analogous to a 24 hour surveillance camera (data collection) under the watchful eyes of guards (data analysis and interpretation) who have telephone access (information dissemination) to the police and firefighte…
Developing regional workplace health and hazard surveillance in the Americas
An objective of the Workers' Health Program at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is to strengthen surveillance in workers' health in the Region of the Americas in order to implement prevention and control strategies. To date, four phases of projects have been organized to develop multinational workplace health and hazard surveillance in the Region. Phase 1 was a workshop held in 1999 in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of developing a …
Can scientists and policy makers work together
This paper addresses a fundamental question in evidence based policy making—can scientists and policy makers work together? It first provides a scenario outlining the different mentalities and imperatives of scientists and policy makers, and then discusses various issues and solutions relating to whether and how scientists and policy makers can work together. Scientists and policy makers have different goals, attitudes toward information, languag…
Enhancing global capacity in the surveillance, prevention, and control of chronic diseases
BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases are now a major health problem in developing countries as well as in the developed world. Although chronic diseases cannot be communicated from person to person, their risk factors (for example, smoking, inactivity, dietary habits) are readily transferred around the world. With increasing human progress and technological advance, the pandemic of chronic diseases will become an even bigger threat to global health. METH…
Bridging the gap between scientists and decision makers
As public health professionals, we recognise a gap between scientists and decision makers. Firstly, communication is a problem. Scientists and decision makers do not use the same language. Because decision makers are usually not current in complex analytical approaches, study results must be put forth in a compelling manner—for example, through visually interesting presentations that accurately and effectively summarise complex analyses. Secondly…
Diseases of comfort
Context: The world has started to feel the impact of a global chronic disease epidemic, which is putting pressure on our health care systems. If uncurbed, a new generation of “diseases of comfort” (such as those chronic diseases caused by obesity and physical inactivity) will become a major public health problem in this and the next century. Objective: To describe the concept, causes, and prevention and control strategies of diseases of comfort. …
Future challenges for diagnostic research
Background HIV transmission among men who have sex with men has recently become a major concern in China. Little is known, however, about HIV transmission among male sex workers (MSW). This study aimed to investigate HIV infection prevalence and risk factors among MSW in Shenzhen, China. Materials and methods Following formative research, a cross-sectional study was conducted using time–location sampling among MSW in Shenzhen, from April to July …
Understanding the basic concepts of public health surveillance
Public health surveillance has been defined as the ongoing collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data essential to public health practice, closely integrated with timely dissemination of information for intervention. This is analogous to a 24 hour surveillance camera (data collection) under the watchful eyes of guards (data analysis and interpretation) who have telephone access (information dissemination) to the police and firefighte…
The need for global risk factor surveillance
In the past millennium, infectious diseases, from the plagues in the 14th century to HIV in the 20th century, were spread by international travellers by land, sea, and air. Because of infectious epidemics, global infectious disease surveillance is now in place; outbreaks of infectious diseases in one country are quickly notified to other countries. By comparison, chronic diseases, not being infectious, do not require the same immediate alert and …
Finding the real case-fatality rate of H5N1 avian influenza
BACKGROUND: Accurate estimation of the case-fatality (CF) rate, or the proportion of cases that die, is central to pandemic planning. While estimates of CF rates for past influenza pandemics have ranged from about 0.1% (1957 and 1968 pandemics) to 2.5% (1918 pandemic), the official World Health Organization estimate for the current outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza to date is around 60%. METHODS AND RESULTS: The official estimate of the H5N1 CF ra…
Understanding and Minimizing Epidemiologic Bias in Public Health Research
Good thinking
In public health, it is desirable that scientists and policy makers communicate their knowledge effectively or run the risks of barriers in language and understanding. More incentives and opportunities to collaborate will help scientists and policy makers appreciate their different goals, career paths, attitudes towards information, and perception of time.1 2 Knowledge brokers can also bring scientists and policy makers closer to understanding ea…
Grading of evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions
AIMS: Grading of evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions remains a priority to the practise of evidence-based health promotion. Several authors propose grading the strength of evidence based on a hierarchy: convincing, probable, possible and insufficient; or strong, moderate, limited and no evidence. Although these grading hierarchies provide simple and straightforward rankings, the terms that describe the categories in th…
Understanding the basic principles of programme evaluation
In public health, it is important to evaluate programmes (series of activities to achieve specific objectives in specific target groups) in research, surveillance, services, education and policy; in other words, to determine as systematically and objectively as possible the relevance, effectiveness and impact of programmes with respect to their objectives.1 It has been suggested that evaluation should be a built-in component of public health prog…
Vision for a Global Registry of Anticipated Public Health Studies
In public health, the generation, management, and transfer of knowledge all need major improvement. Problems in generating knowledge include an imbalance in research funding, publication bias, unnecessary studies, adherence to fashion, and undue interest in novel and immediate issues. Impaired generation of knowledge, combined with a dated and inadequate process for managing knowledge and an inefficient system for transferring knowledge, mean a d…
Public health practitioners can learn from the weather forecasters
Background CTLA-4 is an inhibitory immune checkpoint receptor and a negative regulator of anti-tumor T-cell function. This study aimed at a comparative analysis of CTLA-4 + cells between different tumor entities. Materials and Methods To quantify CTLA-4 + cells, 4,582 tumor samples from 90 different tumor entities as well as 608 samples of 76 different normal tissue types were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray format. Two di…
Understanding the functional components of public health surveillance
Developing a public health surveillance system is similar to developing a housing estate. Besides the actual building process (setting up infrastructure for data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination) there are many other requirements to be identified in planning—and care must be taken to ensure products will stand up to the test of time. The first step is to identify “wants” of homebuyers (recognise and integrate all the “needs”…
Vision of a rapid, flexible, cost effective, survey-based public health surveillance system
for both sides
Developing regional workplace health and hazard surveillance in the Americas
An objective of the Workers' Health Program at the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) is to strengthen surveillance in workers' health in the Region of the Americas in order to implement prevention and control strategies. To date, four phases of projects have been organized to develop multinational workplace health and hazard surveillance in the Region. Phase 1 was a workshop held in 1999 in Washington, D.C., for the purpose of developing a …
Vision of a rapid, flexible, cost effective, survey-based public health surveillance system
for both sides
The need for global risk factor surveillance
In the past millennium, infectious diseases, from the plagues in the 14th century to HIV in the 20th century, were spread by international travellers by land, sea, and air. Because of infectious epidemics, global infectious disease surveillance is now in place; outbreaks of infectious diseases in one country are quickly notified to other countries. By comparison, chronic diseases, not being infectious, do not require the same immediate alert and …
Future challenges for diagnostic research
Background HIV transmission among men who have sex with men has recently become a major concern in China. Little is known, however, about HIV transmission among male sex workers (MSW). This study aimed to investigate HIV infection prevalence and risk factors among MSW in Shenzhen, China. Materials and methods Following formative research, a cross-sectional study was conducted using time–location sampling among MSW in Shenzhen, from April to July …
Understanding the basic concepts of public health surveillance
Public health surveillance has been defined as the ongoing collection, analysis, and interpretation of health data essential to public health practice, closely integrated with timely dissemination of information for intervention. This is analogous to a 24 hour surveillance camera (data collection) under the watchful eyes of guards (data analysis and interpretation) who have telephone access (information dissemination) to the police and firefighte…
Bridging the gap between scientists and decision makers
As public health professionals, we recognise a gap between scientists and decision makers. Firstly, communication is a problem. Scientists and decision makers do not use the same language. Because decision makers are usually not current in complex analytical approaches, study results must be put forth in a compelling manner—for example, through visually interesting presentations that accurately and effectively summarise complex analyses. Secondly…
Understanding the functional components of public health surveillance
Developing a public health surveillance system is similar to developing a housing estate. Besides the actual building process (setting up infrastructure for data collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination) there are many other requirements to be identified in planning—and care must be taken to ensure products will stand up to the test of time. The first step is to identify “wants” of homebuyers (recognise and integrate all the “needs”…
Public health practitioners can learn from the weather forecasters
Background CTLA-4 is an inhibitory immune checkpoint receptor and a negative regulator of anti-tumor T-cell function. This study aimed at a comparative analysis of CTLA-4 + cells between different tumor entities. Materials and Methods To quantify CTLA-4 + cells, 4,582 tumor samples from 90 different tumor entities as well as 608 samples of 76 different normal tissue types were analyzed by immunohistochemistry in a tissue microarray format. Two di…
Enhancing regional capacity in chronic disease surveillance in the Americas
Existe la necesidad de reforzar la capacidad regional para la vigilancia de las enfermedades cronicas en las Americas. Los objetivos de este articulo son 1) ofrecer nuestro apoyo decidido a favor de la vigilancia de las enfermedades cronicas, 2) presentar una revision descriptiva y un resumen de las actividades de vigilancia y los problemas en torno a las mismas en las Americas, 3) confeccionar una lista de recursos y fuentes de consulta para obt…
Can scientists and policy makers work together
This paper addresses a fundamental question in evidence based policy making—can scientists and policy makers work together? It first provides a scenario outlining the different mentalities and imperatives of scientists and policy makers, and then discusses various issues and solutions relating to whether and how scientists and policy makers can work together. Scientists and policy makers have different goals, attitudes toward information, languag…
Diseases of comfort
Context: The world has started to feel the impact of a global chronic disease epidemic, which is putting pressure on our health care systems. If uncurbed, a new generation of “diseases of comfort” (such as those chronic diseases caused by obesity and physical inactivity) will become a major public health problem in this and the next century. Objective: To describe the concept, causes, and prevention and control strategies of diseases of comfort. …
Understanding and Minimizing Epidemiologic Bias in Public Health Research
Emerging issues in public health information
not counted. In reality the provision and delivery of health care coincides with consumption and cannot be separated, in particular in emergency contexts. Procedures and treatments cannot be stored like products of the manufacturing or drug industries; it is rather a matter of oversupply or undersupply of facilities and personnel in relation to health care needs or demands. It follows that the subjects of cost effectiveness evaluation as conceptu…
All-cause mortality and risk factors in a cohort of retired military male veterans, Xi'an, China
The three leading causes of diseases were cancer, CHD and stroke, and COPD. Aging, cigarette smoking, high systolic blood pressure, high triglyceride, family history of cancer, hypertension and stroke, existing cases recovering from stroke, diabetes and cancer, underweight, younger age of smoking were risk factors for all-cause mortality. Quitting cigarette smoking, maintaining normal blood pressure, triglyceride and weight are effect control str…
Bringing chronic disease epidemiology and infectious disease epidemiology back together
When modern epidemiology first took shape, there was only one kind of epidemiology – epidemiology, period. Over time has come specialisation into chronic and infectious disease epidemiology. Does this segregation into chronic and infectious disease epidemiologies benefit public health? Dividing epidemiology into chronic disease and infectious disease “camps” is, in itself, problematic, in that each is based on an incompatible classification syste…
Vision for a Global Registry of Anticipated Public Health Studies
In public health, the generation, management, and transfer of knowledge all need major improvement. Problems in generating knowledge include an imbalance in research funding, publication bias, unnecessary studies, adherence to fashion, and undue interest in novel and immediate issues. Impaired generation of knowledge, combined with a dated and inadequate process for managing knowledge and an inefficient system for transferring knowledge, mean a d…
Enhancing global capacity in the surveillance, prevention, and control of chronic diseases
BACKGROUND: Chronic diseases are now a major health problem in developing countries as well as in the developed world. Although chronic diseases cannot be communicated from person to person, their risk factors (for example, smoking, inactivity, dietary habits) are readily transferred around the world. With increasing human progress and technological advance, the pandemic of chronic diseases will become an even bigger threat to global health. METH…
Grading of evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions
AIMS: Grading of evidence of the effectiveness of health promotion interventions remains a priority to the practise of evidence-based health promotion. Several authors propose grading the strength of evidence based on a hierarchy: convincing, probable, possible and insufficient; or strong, moderate, limited and no evidence. Although these grading hierarchies provide simple and straightforward rankings, the terms that describe the categories in th…
Understanding the basic principles of programme evaluation
In public health, it is important to evaluate programmes (series of activities to achieve specific objectives in specific target groups) in research, surveillance, services, education and policy; in other words, to determine as systematically and objectively as possible the relevance, effectiveness and impact of programmes with respect to their objectives.1 It has been suggested that evaluation should be a built-in component of public health prog…
Finding the real case-fatality rate of H5N1 avian influenza
BACKGROUND: Accurate estimation of the case-fatality (CF) rate, or the proportion of cases that die, is central to pandemic planning. While estimates of CF rates for past influenza pandemics have ranged from about 0.1% (1957 and 1968 pandemics) to 2.5% (1918 pandemic), the official World Health Organization estimate for the current outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza to date is around 60%. METHODS AND RESULTS: The official estimate of the H5N1 CF ra…
Good thinking
In public health, it is desirable that scientists and policy makers communicate their knowledge effectively or run the risks of barriers in language and understanding. More incentives and opportunities to collaborate will help scientists and policy makers appreciate their different goals, career paths, attitudes towards information, and perception of time.1 2 Knowledge brokers can also bring scientists and policy makers closer to understanding ea…
Risk factors of bicycle traffic injury among middle school students in chaoshan rural areas of china
Bicycle injuries are frequent in China. Three risk factors on bicycle traffic injury among middle school students in Chaoshan rural areas of China were identified. This study provides important data to develop intervention strategies for China and other developing countries
Period Life Tables for Calculating Life Expectancy
"Period Life Tables for Calculating Life Expectancy: Options to Assess and Minimize the Potential for Bias." , 108(3), p. e14
The Pan American Health Organization-adapted Hanlon method for prioritization of health programs
Objectives. To document the underlying science of how the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) adapted the Hanlon method, which prioritizes disease control programs, to its wider range of program areas and used it to implement the PAHO Strategic Plan 2014 – 2019. Methods. In 2014, PAHO established a Strategic Plan Advisory Group (SPAG) with representatives from 12 Member States to work closely with the PAHO Technical Team to adapt the Hanlon m…
The Canadian Health Clock and health calculators
SETTING: This paper documents a participatory process of Health Portfolio staff in the design of a clock, and announces the 2020 Canadian Health Clock, with links to numerous online health calculators. The clock is part of the Health Portfolio's celebration activities in 2019 of "100 Years of Health", as the Department of Health was established in Canada in 1919. INTERVENTION: The intervention was the development of a clock on the Government of C…
Medicine (25 works) · Public health (15 works) · Environmental health (12 works) · Nursing (10 works) · Computer Science (9 works) · Political science (9 works) · Pathology (7 works) · Public Health Policies and Education (7 works) · Public relations (6 works) · Data-Driven Disease Surveillance (4 works)