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Key Health Planning Agency gets New Head
OPHA Welcomes Dr. Vivek Goel as President and CEO of Ontario Centre for Health Protection and Promotion and the naming of its Home—The Sheela Basrur Centre
by Connie Uetrecht, Executive Director, OPHA
Emergency Health planning in Ontario took a major step forward this month as the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion (created as one of the responses to the SARS outbreak 5 years ago) took one more step towards being fully operational.
Ontario Minister of Health George Smitherman named Dr. Vivek Goel, currently vice-president and provost of the University of Toronto and one of the leading health care researchers in Canada the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the Agency. The agency is adjacent to MaRs in the heart of Toronto's downtown Discovery District, and its offices have been named The Sheela Basrur Centre in honor of the Ontario Chief Medical Officer of Health and Medical Officer of health for the City of Toronto who managed the SARS crisis in Toronto and worked with the support of OPHA, its Constituent Societies, and other organizations to convince the government to establish the Agency.
The Agency, modeled on the US centres for Disease Control and Prevention, is designed to provide scientific and technical advice and support those working across the various health care sectors to protect and improve the health of Ontarians. The organization will conduct and support activities such as population health assessment, public health research, planning and evaluation.
It will operate public health laboratory services and provide scientific guidance on infectious diseases, chronic diseases and emergency management.
The Agency is part of the government's Public Health Renewal initiative since SARS.
OPHA is pleased about the breadth of the Agency's responsibilities and the program areas it covers. OPHA looks forward to working with the Agency in the enhancement of human resources for Public Health, in research and knowledge transfer and in the clarification of roles between the two components of the health care system: public health and illness care.
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