Grant: Planning and Dissemination Grant - Institute Community Support

Ontario is Canada's most populous province and an estimated 1 in 2 people living there will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime. The burden of cancer is expected to continue to increase, with a projected 113,000 new cases per year in 2030, up from about 84,000 cases in 2019. However, there are large differences in cancer rates across the province. We set out to understand where these differences occur at the community level, how they have changed over time and possible reasons for these differences. By doing so at the local level, we can provide knowledge users with information to support equitable cancer outcomes in their communities, such as through targeted planning and service delivery efforts. To that end, we successfully adapted a new statistical approach that allowed us to visualize cancer incidence and survival across small areas of geography over time. To enhance the understandability and use of the study methods and findings, our knowledge translation (KT) approach included engaging knowledge users throughout the research process through an advisory committee. The committee advised on the methods, results and knowledge products. To ensure study information is broadly shared with researchers and other anticipated knowledge users, a full dissemination plan will be implemented. Dissemination activities through this grant will focus on sharing the statistical methods with other Canadian researchers in accessible formats and through wide-reaching channels, an integral component of our KT plan. This will include: 1. detailing the application of the statistical methods in an open-access manuscript; and 2. connecting with knowledge users by presenting at a national conference. The conference presentation will provide the opportunity to meaningfully demonstrate the application of the small-area methods as well as other aspects of our KT plan, such as the development of an online digital atlas for publicly sharing the study results.