The Healthy Populations Institute (HPI) is a multi-faculty research institute at Dalhousie University that aims to improve population health and health equity in Atlantic Canada and beyond by understanding and influencing the complex conditions that affect the health of communities.
We can achieve our population health goals by focusing on reducing health inequities.
Check out our HPI welcome video to learn more about what we do.
New and Noteworthy:
2nd Annual Leon and Rose Zitner Prize : Now Open
Feb 27, 2023
HPI is administering the cross faculty award for excellence in citizen knowledge and community engagement in health I
HealthcareLCA Launch: The new home of environmental healthcare impact assessments
December 2022
To support the global transition towards sustainable health systems, researchers at Dalhousie University's Healthy Populations Institute and Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS) have launched a new open-access, interactive database of healthcare’s environmental impacts.
The new HealthcareLCA database serves as an up-to-date evidence repository, bringing together new and existing assessments into one publicly accessible location. The platform allows users to sort, search and filter data according to their individual needs and interests.
Learn more about HealthcareLCA here.
Read the accompanying Lancet Planetary Health Article here.
HPI Launches New Report with Whiteboard Animation Video
April 2022
A new report on child and youth well-being in Nova Scotia, led by Dalhousie University’s Department of Pediatrics and the Healthy Populations Institute, is providing the first comprehensive snapshot of child and youth well-being in the province. The One Chance to Be a Child data profile represents the work of a multidisciplinary team of service providers, academics and community leaders across Nova Scotia, and is aligned with HPI’s flagship project “Designing Supportive Environments for Chronic Disease Prevention”.
Using data from national and provincial surveys, the data profile is based upon the Canadian Index of Child and Youth Well-being produced by UNICEF Canada, and uses a child rights lens that included the voices of young people in what matters to their health and well-being. The report has six key recommendations that address broad issues like racism, discrimination and poverty, with 12 specific actions, including investing in a system to collect and monitor key data about children, using child rights impact assessments when making key decisions and passing legislation to keep the issue of child poverty reduction on the agenda of future governments.
Read the report here.
Watch the whiteboard animation on the report here.
Land Acknowledgement:
We acknowledge the presence of the Healthy Populations Institute (Dalhousie University) in Mi’kma’ki, the ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaw people, which is covered by the Treaties of Peace and Friendship signed with the British Crown in 1725. We continually remind ourselves that the treaties did not deal with surrender of lands and resources but, in fact, recognized Mi’kmaq and Wolastoqiyik title and established the rules for what was to be an ongoing relationship between nations. We must all take time to reflect on the inequities caused by historic and ongoing violence against, and oppression, of Indigenous peoples, as well as the African Nova Scotia community and others who have been marginalized on this land.
We are all Treaty People.