PIMS UNBC Distinguished Speaker Series: Rhonda J. Rosychuk

Alberta has rich sources of administrative health data and the Ambulatory Care Classification System provides an opportunity for research focused on Emergency Department (ED) presentations. I have examined the epidemiology of ED presentations for several respiratory and mental health conditions in the province. These examinations have motivated advancements in statistical methods. I describe approaches to identify geographic areas with higher numbers of ED presentations than would be expected by chance alone. These approaches build on statistical disease cluster detection methods and allow for repeated presentations from the same individual (a key feature of ED presentation data). I will provide an overview recent methodological advances. The approaches will be illustrated with ED presentation data.