MNO President Margaret Froh and ICES President and CEO Michael
Schull sign a new data governance and partnership agreement.
On July 13, the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) welcomed members of the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) for a meeting at the Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto to sign a new data governance and partnership agreement.
In attendance were Provisional Council of the Métis Nation of Ontario (PCMNO) Senator Joseph Poitras, who opened the proceedings with a prayer and MNO President Margaret Froh, who signed the agreement. Also speaking were Dr. Storm Russell, MNO Senior Policy and Research Analyst and Dr. Jennifer Walker, an ICES core scientist who together with Dr. David Henry and Saba Khan have been instrumental in guiding this research.
“I am delighted to be here today to sign this Agreement, which represents yet another important milestone in our very successful partnership with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.” said President Froh. “This collaboration has spanned almost a decade, and produced a landmark series of studies on chronic disease among the Métis people of Ontario, which has greatly informed not only our work at the MNO but that of our provincial partners and beyond.”
Also according to President Froh: “Métis-specific data is still significantly lacking, not only in health, but in the areas of justice, child welfare, education, employment – the broader social determinants of health and well-being. In many cases the data is simply not there. Such data is crucial for evidence-based policy development and decision making and for targeting resources and interventions to where they will be most effective.”
“The ongoing research we are doing with ICES is doing much to address these gaps and to inform our collective programming and evaluation efforts. The data governance and partnership agreement we are signing provides the essential foundation for this important work moving forward,” concluded President Froh.
“All of us at ICES are honoured to have helped the Metis Nation of Ontario begin to tell the story of Métis population health in Ontario,” said Michael Schull, President and CEO of ICES. “Together, ICES and the Métis Nation of Ontario have a strong collaboration, which, since 2009, has produced Métis-specific information about a wide range of chronic diseases, always in close partnership. The agreement signed today will further advance our collaboration and confirm our shared commitment to capacity building so that we can continue to move forward with the Métis Nation of Ontario in the use of administrative health data to support the health and well-being of Métis citizens.”
Posted: July 14, 2016