Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Suicide is a major public health concern. It is the leading cause of all injury deaths in Canada, having a very high prevalence among mental health patients. My research presents technological advances in two major areas surrounding suicide, namely prevention and prediction. First, I present my findings from a systematic review of mobile applications and websites available for suicide prevention within Canada. I report on the quality of these e-health interventions that are often the first line of contact in many patients contemplating suicide, and discuss any opportunities for improvement. Next, I present preliminary performance results of a predictive algorithm developed for suicidal patients, to see how well machine learning algorithm that was developed in a U.S. veteran population performs in a Canadian mental health patient population. Both these advances in technology can help pave the path to improved public health informatics interventions both within Canada and globally.