Question Period Note: GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH INTELLIGENCE NETWORK (GPHIN)

What is the Government of Canada doing to respond to concerns about Canada’s Global Public Health Intelligence Network?

• The Government of Canada is committed to scientific excellence, and I am committed to ensuring this country has an effective early warning system for potential emergencies – including pandemics.

• That is why I have announced the independent panel that will pursue the review of the Global Public Health Intelligence Network.

• Panel members Margaret Bloodworth, Dr. Paul Gully, and Dr. Mylaine Breton were selected based on their expertise in public health, governance, health security, and intelligence.

• The results of the review will help inform future decisions around Canada’s global public health monitoring system.

GPHIN: KEY FACTS
The Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN) is an early-warning and situational awareness system for potential chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear public health threats worldwide, including outbreaks of infectious disease. GPHIN users include non-governmental public health agencies and organizations, as well as government authorities who conduct public health surveillance. GPHIN requires a free subscription from eligible users. GPHIN is a significant contributor to the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Epidemic Intelligence from Open Sources.

GPHIN consists of two critical components:
• a professional multidisciplinary team of life science analysts conducting rapid risk assessments to detect public health threats; and
• an Information Management Tool that uses machine learning and natural language processing to facilitate the work of the analysts.

Every day, GPHIN analysts conduct their daily review of, on average, 7,000 articles in nine languages (Arabic, Farsi, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, and simplified and traditional Chinese) sourced from open event based surveillance to validate and assess the data for inclusion in reports, including the GPHIN Daily Report published each morning. This report goes directly from GPHIN to Canadian public health practitioners at the federal, provincial and territorial levels, including senior management at PHAC and other government departments.

The Minister of Health requested an independent review of this global public health surveillance system. This review will consider:
• the capabilities and effectiveness of the existing system;
• the system’s role in detecting and informing the Public Health Agency of Canada’s response to COVID-19 and in global and domestic public health surveillance;
• opportunities to improve the system; and
• the future of Canada’s global health surveillance system, including advice on the next generation of intelligence systems and lessons learned from COVID-19, so that Government of Canada is well positioned to respond to future public health events.

SYNOPSIS
The Minister of Health announced the independent panel that will pursue the review of the Global Public Health Intelligence Network (GPHIN).
IF PRESSED FOR DETAILS ON THE INDEPENDENT REVEW

• Panel members will examine the current system and opportunities for improvement.

• Their recommendations and advice will help inform the Government of Canada for future public health event monitoring.
IF PRESSED ON THE ISSUANCE OF ALERTS
• The issuance of alerts will be examined as part of the independent review.