Michelle Driedger - KT ICEBeRG / GReBECI

Biography

Dr. Michelle Driedger (PhD, 2001, McMaster University) joined the University of Ottawa’s Department of Geography in July 2002, after having completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship at McMaster University. Although a relatively new scholar, Dr. Driedger obtained her first Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant as PI in 2004 and her first Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) grant as PI in 2005. In addition to these grants, she has also been involved on the funded research grants with the KT ICEBeRG Team as a qualitative health research methodologist.

Her primary research focus involves the study of how new and emerging risk controversies develop within a science-policy context in environment and health. As is characteristic of new risk controversies, the research program represents issue-driven inquiries where the facts are uncertain, values are in dispute, the stakes are high and decisions are urgent. Specifically, she is interested in how we communicate these risks and uncertainties within civil society. Dr. Driedger’s SSHRC funded study (2004-2007) provides a useful example as it seeks to understand how public perceptions of drinking water risk have changed post-Walkerton given the influence of different groups competing to have their version of events communicated (e.g. the news media, Justice O’Connor Inquiry, etc).

Her secondary research focus has been developing since her arrival at the University of Ottawa, through her active collaborations and partnerships with transdisciplinary research teams to examine issues of knowledge translation in health services research. In addition to her work with the ICEBeRG Team, Dr. Driedger is the primary lead on a one largely overlooked KT situation – knowledge producer and user pairs who work in close proximity – by evaluating the usefulness of maps (i.e., spatial data) as a KT communication tool to improve the use of local data in programming and policymaking. She is studying this process by examining how data analysts and their managers present and use evidence to make decisions for program planning in the Ontario Early Years Centres (CIHR, 2005-2007).

Dr. Driedger’s research program is unique in that it draws on two discrete bodies of knowledge that speak to the same issue but are rarely integrated. The primary conceptual and methodological contribution of her research program derives from the intersections of knowledge from the risk communication and knowledge translation (KT) research domains. The core of Dr. Driedger’s qualitative research program will be to study different communication strategies to develop a better understanding of what may work or not in a risk communication setting, by drawing on lessons learned in the management of contentious and equivocal environment and health risks as well as from KT in health services delivery.

Robinson K., Driedger SM., Elliot S. Facilitators of and Barriers to Health Promotion Practice. [Accepted June 2005]. Health Promotion Practice.
Robinson K, Elliott SJ, Driedger SM, Eyles J, O’Loughlin J, Riley B, Cameron R, and Harvey D. Using Linking Systems to Build Capacity and Enhance Dissemination in (Heart) Health Promotion: A Canadian Multiple-Case Study. Health Education Research . 2005; 20(5): 499-513.

Farmer A, Grimshaw J, Mayhew A, McGowan J, Graham I, Driedger SM and K Shojania. Systematic reviews of knowledge translation interventions: contributions of process evaluations and contact with authors. Canadian Coordinating Office of Health Technology Assessment Final Performance Report, April 30th, 2005.Ottawa.

Driedger SM and Eyles J. Different frames, different fears: Communicating about chlorinated drinking water and cancer in the Canadian media. Social Science and Medicine . 2003; 56: 1279-1293.

Driedger SM, Robinson K, Eyles J, Elliott SJ, Iannantuono A. Forwarding health promotion priorities: Stories of capacity building from the Canadian Heart Health Initiative (CHHI). [Submitted June 2005]. Qualitative Health Research.

Driedger, SM, Crooks, VA, and Bennett, D. 2004. Engaging in the disablement process over space and time: narratives of persons with Multiple Sclerosis in Ottawa, Canada. Canadian Geographer. 48: 119-136.
Driedger, SM, and Eyles, J. 2003. Charting uncertainty in science-policy discourses: The construction of the chlorinated drinking water issue and cancer. Environment and Planning: C. 21: 429-444.
Driedger, SM, and Eyles, J. 2003. Drawing the battle lines: Tracing the ‘science war’ in the construction of the chloroform and human health risks debate. Environmental Management. 31: 476-488 .
Driedger, SM, and Eyles, J. 2003. Different frames, different fears: Communicating about chlorinated drinking water and cancer in the Canadian media. Social Science and Medicine. 56: 1279-1293 .
Driedger, SM, Eyles, J, Elliott, SJ, Cole, DC. 2002. Constructing scientific authorities: Issue framing of chlorinated disinfection byproducts in public health. Risk Analysis. 22(4): 789-802.
Driedger, S.M. and Eyles, J. 2001. Organochlorines and breast cancer: The uses of scientific evidence in claimsmaking. Social Science and Medicine. 52(10): 1589-1605.