Dr. Devon Greyson, an assistant professor at the UBC Faculty of Medicine’s School of Population and Public Health, has been appointed an Applied Public Health Chair by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC).
Dr. Greyson is among 12 Canadian scholars named to the 2024 cohort of the program. The Chairs are supported over six years by a $13.8 million investment from the Government of Canada through CIHR and PHAC.
Dr. Greyson is a leading expert in public health communications. Their Chair, titled “Building Trusted Population Health Information Systems and Interventions,” will address barriers to vaccination by filling knowledge gaps on effective health communication interventions, with the aim to build trusted public health information systems and interventions in order to mitigate the dangers of misinformation. The Chair is funded by the Centre for Research on Pandemic Preparedness and Health Emergencies.
Dr. Greyson, also an investigator with the Vaccine Evaluation Center at BC Children’s Hospital Research Institute, is a health information scientist who applies qualitative, multiple, and mixed methods to understand health information behaviour and to assess effectiveness of population health information interventions. Their current research focuses largely on vaccination, including improving vaccine communication and vaccine safety and coverage surveillance.
The Applied Public Health Chairs program was established in 2008 to support creating public health solutions informed by the best available scientific evidence. The 2024 Chairs will continue that critical work on the most critical areas of public health in Canada. With the knowledge they gain through their research, the Chairs and their teams will work with decision makers, both within and outside of the public health sector, to contribute to the development of solutions to some of Canada’s biggest public health challenges.
“Public health leaders cannot tackle the challenges facing our country without the valuable knowledge gained through scientific research,” said the Honourable Mark Holland, Minister of Health. “By working with key decision makers, the Chairs will provide critical, applied, evidence-based information that will shape the programs and initiatives that support the health of all people living in Canada.”
A version of this story originally appeared on the SPPH website.