The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) includes frontline practitioners in community settings in the four largest provinces of Canada: British Columbia (BC), Alberta, Ontario and Quebec. The SPSN, administered by the BC Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC), is collaborating with the College of Family Physicians of Canada’s National Research System (CFPC-NaReS) to recruit additional sentinel physicians in BC to contribute to annual influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) monitoring.
As a community-based sentinel physician participating in this program, you will have access to influenza and RSV testing for your primary care patients presenting with influenza-like illness (ILI). Access to such testing is otherwise limited in the outpatient setting in British Columbia.
Each influenza season, specimens submitted by sentinels provide real-time surveillance of influenza strains circulating in our communities and contribute to monitoring the effectiveness of the annually updated influenza vaccine. Twice each year, VE findings are submitted by the Canadian SPSN alongside other VE monitoring networks globally to the World Health Organization to inform its vaccine strain selection for the northern and southern hemispheres. Findings are also published in peer-reviewed journals and have been posted each year for the past 15 years on the publicly available website at www.bccdc.ca/SentinelNetwork.
Sentinels are provided with the required test kits and materials for ILI testing as well as compensation ($10.00 per eligible specimen submitted) for clinic time. Sentinels also receive regular bulletins and updates on findings by the BCCDC.
If you provide primary patient care in the outpatient setting, you are eligible to participate.
For more details and consent form please click HERE.
