Office of Community Medicine

The Office of Community Medicine is the focal point for community medicine expertise, providing strategic leadership and expert advice related to public health issues and program development, developing policies on public health issues, and offering professional leadership to the medical officers working in the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB).

Specifically, the roles and responsibilities of the Office are as follows:

• Professional leadership and support
• Providing functional and professional leadership and support to Branch medical officers on community medicine, public health and medical issues;
• Assisting regions and leading the process in headquarters in hiring the adequate complement of community medicine specialists and medical officers to meet the program needs of the Branch;
• Collaboratively developing evidenced-based medical and public health policies, standards and procedures for the Branch;
• Encouraging and fostering continuing medical education programs for medical officers and community medicine specialists in the Branch;
• Clarifying roles/responsibilities of medical officers and community medicine specialists in the Branch, and subsequently advocating for and communicating these roles and responsibilities in the Branch;
• Actively pursuing and developing research opportunities for community medicine specialists and medical officers interested in research in the Branch; also seeking opportunities for interdisciplinary research in public health with other health sectors in the Branch, such as nursing, dental, pharmacy, nutrition, and environmental health;
• Ensuring accreditation - through the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada - of the Branch (including all regions) as a site for community medicine residency placements, and actively promoting the Branch to universities as a good placement opportunity;
• Advocating for a work environment for medical officers in the Branch that ensures optimal recruitment and retention; and
• Holding regular meetings of Branch medical officers for mutual information sharing and discussion of community medicine/medical/public health issues requiring national consideration.
• Horizontal linkage of community medicine expertise with program and policy development
• Meeting regularly with directors general in the Branch, attending directorate meetings, and attending meetings related to key public health files in the Branch, as a means of consistently linking community medicine expertise into policy and program development;
• Serving as the primary headquarters contact for regional medical officers, directors general, and regional directors on issues related to public health, community medicine, and medicine;
• Ensuring ongoing interdisciplinary collaboration on public health issues in the Branch through participation in a professional working group that includes specialists in nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, nutrition, and environmental health;
• Providing regional medical officers with regular communications about issues in headquarters that might impact on their work environment; and
• Serving as the primary link for Branch staff wishing to communicate with regional medical officers as a group.
• Advocacy for an evidence-based, horizontally integrated, and systematic approach to community medicine/public health issues
• Collaboratively developing and maintaining a public health strategic plan for the Branch, which has measurable targets and goals;
• Providing strategic and tactical advice on public health, community medicine, and medical issues affecting First Nations and Inuit communities to the Assistant Deputy Minister, the Deputy Minister and the Minister;
• Advocating to senior management in the Branch for First Nations and Inuit community medicine/public health needs; and
• Initiating a process for developing policy around core public health programs for the Branch.
• Linkage and collaboration with community medicine/public health stakeholders
• Increasing co-ordination and integration of First Nations and Inuit public health/community medicine issues across the Branch and across Health Canada ;
• Strengthening Branch co-operation and integration with provincial and territorial public health programs and services through establishing and maintaining a link with the Canadian Council of Chief Medical Officers;
• Establishing and serving as the primary public health/community medicine link for the Branch to national professional associations (such as the Canadian Medical Association, the Canadian Public Health Association, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and others); and
• Ensuring legislation-enabled medical officers of health services are clearly and reliably available to every First Nation or Inuit community FNIHB is responsible for; this may entail facilitating delegation under provincial Public Health Acts in some regions and/or assisting regions with obtaining negotiated agreements for cross-coverage arrangements.

For more information, please contact us.