Item - 2025.HL26.3

The Board of Health:

1. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to continue to engage in knowledge translation activities with City divisions, health care partners, social service agencies and others who would benefit from the information on the Population Health Status Indicators dashboard, including future data refreshes.

2. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to explore a community data governance framework for Toronto Public Health, in alignment with the City of Toronto's Data for Equity Strategy.

3. Requested the Medical Officer of Health to work with the Toronto Police Service, Social Development, People and Equity and frontline serving agencies on the feasibility of adding an Intimate Partner Violence indicator as a part of the Population Health Status Indicator dashboard and report back to the Board of Health with an update in the first quarter of 2026.

The Acting Medical Office of Health and the Manager, Epidemiology and Data Analytics Unit, Toronto Public Health, gave a presentation on Toronto Population Health Status Indicators: A Tool to Advance Health Equity.

Toronto Public Health is responsible for assessing and reporting on the health status of the city's population as mandated under the Ontario Public Health Standards. This information can be used by Toronto Public Health, other City of Toronto divisions, health care partners, social service agencies, and other public and private sector organizations to identify targeted interventions to improve health outcomes for residents. In 2024, Toronto Public Health released its Strategic Plan 2024-2028, which included a priority to  "Advocate to advance health equity".

This report provides an update on the Population Health Status Indicators (PHSI) dashboard, which is an initiative to provide population health information to advance health equity. Identification of health inequities requires characterization of patterns and trends in disaggregated population-level data. The Population Health Status Indicators dashboard was originally launched in 2019 and was refreshed and updated in 2024. The dashboard currently includes over 100 indicators across seven public health topics. Trends are shown over time, by geography and by available socio-demographic characteristics that can include age, sex, ethno-racial identity, and income groupings. These indicators can help Toronto Public Health and partners identify, monitor and respond to health and social inequities.