External Expert Review of the Canadian Task Force on Preventive Health Care: About

Ms. Brenda Andreas is a person with lived and living experiences of the health care system where she collaborates at the provincial, national and international level with health system partners in the areas of accreditation, evaluation, patient-oriented research, policy, and patient and community engagement. Current memberships include the CIHR IAB Institute of Health Services and Policy Research as a community member, Canadian Primary Care Research Network as a patient partner, Saskatchewan Health Authority Patient Family Leadership Council, the North American Primary Care Research Network Board, the University of Saskatchewan Research Ethics Board, and Patient Surveyor with Accreditation Canada. Brenda is a registered retired social worker and holds a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Calgary and a Certificate in Health Care Administration from the University of Saskatchewan. She is a published author, a research collaborator, a patient partner, active community member and passionate about health system transformation. Brenda received the Commemorative Medal for the 125 Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada for volunteerism.

Dr. Michael Barry directs the Informed Medical Decisions Program (IMDP) at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He previously served as chief of its General Medicine Unit. He has been practicing adult primary care provision for over 40 years at MGH. Dr. Barry is a champion of shared decision making between patients and clinicians. Dr. Barry is a past president of the Society for Medical Decision Making and the Society of General Internal Medicine. He served as Chief Science Officer at Healthwise and was president of the Informed Medical Decisions Foundation. He is a Master of the American College of Physicians (ACP). In 2020, he won the ACP’s Henry D. Bruce Memorial Award for Distinguished Contributions to Preventive Medicine. Dr. Barry has also served as a member, vice chair and chair of the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force from 2017 to 2024. He is currently Immediate Past Chair of the Task Force. Dr. Barry graduated from Trinity College and from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine. From there, he went to Strong Memorial Hospital in Rochester, New York, where he did his residency training in internal medicine.

Mr. Gregory Doyle is the Manager of Population Cancer Screening and Registries with Newfoundland and Labrador Health Services. Mr. Doyle is also Chair of the Canadian Breast Cancer Screening Network and an Expert Advisor to the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer. He has over 25 years of professional experience in population health and the cancer care system. Mr. Doyle has been involved in breast, cervical, colon, and lung cancer screening on the provincial and national levels for many years. He is a current member of the Canadian Council of Cancer Registries and has served as the Chair of the Translational Advisory Committee of the PERSPECTIVE project, which will inform both risk based breast screening and the incorporation of oncogenetics into the breast screening paradigm. He has extensively published in the areas of population cancer screening and has contributed to the body of knowledge of screening implementation. Mr. Doyle is a graduate both of Memorial University of Newfoundland and Queen’s University at Kingston.

Dr. Vivek Goel is the University of Waterloo's President and Vice-Chancellor. He previously held a number of senior leadership roles at the University of Toronto including as Vice- President and Provost and most recently as Vice-President Research and Innovation. He served as founding President and CEO of Public Health Ontario from 2008 until 2014 and also as a founding scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES). Goel obtained his medical degree from McGill University and completed post-graduate medical training in Public Health and Preventive Medicine at the University of Toronto. Dr. Goel obtained a master’s degree (MSc) in Community Health from U of T and a master’s degree (MS) in Biostatistics from Harvard University School of Public Health. He is the Chair of the Board of the Canadian Institute for Health Information.

Dr. Alika Lafontaine is an award-winning physician, the first Indigenous physician listed by the Medical Post as one of Canada’s 50 Most Powerful Doctors, and the first Indigenous and youngest physician to have led the Canadian Medical Association in its 156-year history. A Red River Metis with mixed Indigenous ancestry, Dr. Lafontaine has served on all sides of advocacy for the past 20 years, serving on the boards of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, HealthCareCAN, Canadian Medical Association Journal, Alberta Medical Association and Canadian Medical Association. As a rural specialist, he provides front-line care and is a past Zone Leader. He has founded and led serial national projects, including the Indigenous Health Alliance and Safespace Networks.  On September 18th, 2024, the Canadian Medical Association presented a national apology to First Nations, Inuit and Metis Peoples, a process he led over his 3-year term in the CMA presidency cycle. Dr. Lafontaine continues to be a thought leader in health policy, change management and advocacy.

Dr. John Lavis supports efforts to address health and broader societal challenges using the best available research evidence and experiences and insights from citizens, professionals, organizational leaders, and government policymakers. He is co-lead of and lead report writer for the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges, as well as co-lead of Rapid-Improvement Support and Exchange (RISE). He led the development of the ‘SHOW ME the evidence’ approach for reliably getting research evidence to those who need it. He was co-lead of the COVID-19 Evidence Network to support Decision-making (COVID-END). He is the Director of the McMaster Health Forum and Director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy. He is a Professor in the Department of Health Evidence and Impact at McMaster University and the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Evidence-Support Systems. He holds an MD from Queen's University, an MSc from the London School of Economics, and a PhD (in Health Policy) from Harvard University.

Dr. Lawrence Loh is a public health and physician leader with senior-level experience at all three levels of government in two Canadian provinces, and within the non-profit sector as the sixth Chief Executive Officer for the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Best known for his leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Loh’s service in public health has been recognized with a Key to the City of Mississauga, a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, an honorary degree from Toronto Metropolitan University, and recognition on Toronto Life 2021 list of the Top 50 Most Influential Torontonians, among other academic and professional awards. Dr. Loh holds fellowships in family medicine in Canada and public health and preventive medicine in Canada and the United States. He completed MD training at Western University, an MPH at Johns Hopkins, and residency at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health University of Toronto, where he remains on faculty at the rank of Adjunct Professor.

Dr. Onye Nnorom is a family doctor and public health and preventive medicine specialist. She is a Senior Medical Consultant in the Ontario Ministry of Health, in the Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health; she is the Black Health Faculty Lead at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto, and a clinical consultant at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Dr. Nnorom has dedicated her career to addressing health disparities and improving health outcomes for marginalized communities, with a particular focus on Black populations. Dr. Nnorom completed her medical school at McGill University, obtained an MPH from the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto in epidemiology and completed her residency at the University of Toronto. Dr. Nnorom is the co-founder of the Black Health Education Collaborative, which was established to provide online educational resources on antiBlack racism and Black health for health professional students, clinicians and public health practitioners. She is also the Past President of the Black Physicians Association of Ontario.

Dr. Gina Ogilvie is a Canada Research Chair in Global Control of HPV related diseases and prevention and Professor at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in the Faculty of Medicine’s School of Population and Public Health. She is also the Associate Director of the Women’s Health Research Institute and Senior Public Health Scientist at BC Centre for Disease Control. Dr. Ogilvie is currently principal investigator on over 10 million dollars in research grants. Dr. Ogilvie received her MD from McMaster University and completed a specialty in Family Medicine and a fellowship in Population Health and Primary Care. She received her Master of Science in Clinical Epidemiology at UBC, and her Doctorate in Public Health from the University of North Carolina. She is a member of the College of Family Physicians of Canada. She has provided advice to national and global institutions on STI, HIV and HPV vaccine and cervical cancer policy and programming. Dr. Ogilvie is the recipient of many honours, including being a member of both the Royal Society of Canada (2024) and Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (2022). She has received the UBC Killam Research Prize (2021); Provincial Health Officer’s Award for Excellence in Public health (2015); and Researcher of the Year, College of Family Physicians of Canada (2014).

Dr. Potvin is a full professor at the School of Public Health at the Université de Montréal, she is the Scientific Director of the Centre for Public Health Research and the Canada Research Chair in Community Approaches and Health Inequalities. Her research focuses on community-based prevention interventions and the role of living conditions in the creation of social inequalities in health. She has edited or co-edited 11 anthologies and 12 thematic issues in specialized journals, and has published over 350 articles, book chapters, editorials and commentaries. She was Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Public Health from 2014 to 2023. She is a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. She is the recipient of the 2019 CIHR Institute of Population and Public Health Trailblazer Award and the recipient of the 2021 Canadian Public Health Association R.D. Defries award in recognition of her outstanding contributions to public health. Dr. Potvin holds a Masters degree in Psychology from Concordia University and a doctorate in Community Health from the Université de Montréal.

Dr. Caroline Quach-Thanh started her career at McGill University before joining the Université de Montréal as a full professor in the Microbiology, Infectious Diseases & Immunology Department and the Pediatrics Department. Dr. Quach-Thanh is a clinician-scientist and the Canada Research Chair, Tier 1 in Infection Prevention and Control: from Hospital to Community. She is the POPCORN network director. She is the former Chair of the PHAC National Advisory Committee on Immunization and is the current Chair of the Quebec Immunization Committee. Dr. Quach-Thanh was named a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences and of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America and selected as one of the most Powerful Women in Canada. In 2022, she was made “Officière de l’Ordre national du Québec, received the Distinguished Scientist Award from the Canadian Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Women of Distinction Award – Public Service – from the Women’s Y Foundation. She received the 2023 Certificate of Merit from the Canadian Public Health Association and was admitted as a foreign member of the Académie royale de médecine de Belgique in 2024. Dr. Quach-Thanh graduated from the Université de Montréal Medical School, completed her pediatric residency training at the CHU Sainte-Justine, and her post-graduate Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology training at McGill University where she also obtained a Master of Sciences in Epidemiology.

Dr. Janet Tootoosis is a Cree woman from Poundmaker Cree Nation and has been a practicing family physician since 2001 in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. She has served as a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine since 2008 and is the owner/operator of North Battleford Medical Clinic Inc. Dr. Tootoosis has a long history of active involvement in healthcare delivery and medical education initiatives both regionally and provincially. She has also worked as an instructor and site director for the University of Saskatchewan College of Medicine’s North Battleford Family Medicine Residency Training Program. Additionally, she brings formal governance experience as a former Saskatchewan Medical Association (SMA) Board member (2014 to 2017) and as an inaugural Board member of the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA) (2017 to 2021). Dr. Tootoosis currently holds the position of Vice Dean of Indigenous Health at the University of Saskatchewan’s College of Medicine.

Dr. Gaynor Watson-Creed joined Dalhousie University in 2018 as the inaugural Associate Dean of Serving and Engaging Society for the Faculty of Medicine, and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology. She is a public health specialist physician and served as the Medical Officer of Health for the Halifax area from 2005 to 2017, and Deputy Chief Medical Officer of Health for Nova Scotia from 2017 to 2021. Dr. Watson-Creed has an MD from Dalhousie University, an MSc from the University of Guelph, a BSc from the University of Prince Edward Island, and honorary doctorates from Acadia University and the University of Prince Edward Island. She also sits as chair or member of several national population health councils and boards, and was appointed to CIHR’s Advisory Board for the Institute of Population and Public Health in 2023. Dr. Watson-Creed serves as Chair of the Advisory Board for the National Collaborating Centre for Determinants of Health.