Provincial Lead Medical Officer of Health, Promoting Health

Alberta Health Services has an exciting medical leadership opportunity for a physician with training and experience in Public Health and Preventative Medicine to join our team as a Provincial Lead Medical Officer of Health (PLMOH) for our Promoting Health (PH) division. You will work in a dyad partnership with the division’s Executive Director, sharing responsibility for strategic planning, managing, and evaluating services within the Promoting Health team. As a member of the Provincial Population and Public Health (PPPH) senior leadership team, the PLMOH develops and maintains strong working relationships with key stakeholders both internal and external to AHS, spanning Zone MOHs and public health teams, leaders in other relevant provincial programs and provincial health agencies, and other partners. PLMOH’s function as clinical experts in their area of public health practice, offering medical consultation to other MOHs, physicians, healthcare providers and other stakeholders on both individual and population level issues. PLMOHs focus on specific core public health functions including carrying out duties under the Public Health Act and other legislation related to threats to population health. The PLMOH works with partners to support people and their communities to be as healthy as possible and to advance health equity. This includes supporting the Indigenous Wellness Core and key partners in achieving the AHS Indigenous Health Commitments: Roadmap to Wellness. PLMOHs leverage the Healthier Together initiative as a unified way of working with communities to identify and address local priorities and implement solutions. This role offers flexibility to work remotely anywhere in Alberta while collaborating within a highly skilled, cohesive team. You will also enjoy career advancement opportunities to move between a variety of roles and programs across the province.

The PLMOH, Promoting Health mobilizes partnerships and delivers evidence-informed programs and services that promote health and prevent disease and injury in the places where people live, learn, work, play and heal. Promoting Health work has broad applicability across different geographies, age groups, and settings, while being specifically tailored to meet the unique needs of populations and communities, particularly those facing health inequities. Major accountabilities span Medical Expertise, Strategic Leadership and Program Support, Collaborative Communication, Operational Excellence as well as Scholarly and Academic Activities to achieve the following mandates: Reducing chronic disease and harms associated with risk factors such as physical inactivity and ultraviolet radiation exposure. Preventing the use of commercial tobacco and vaping products, reducing harms of cannabis and tobacco, in alignment with Alberta’s Tobacco Smoking and Vaping Reduction Act. Providing leadership in addressing leading causes of injury through partnerships, coordinated efforts, and applied injury prevention strategies. Promoting health and preventing disease across the lifespan in the priority areas of sexual and reproductive health, parental, child, and youth health. Supporting oral health prevention services and delivering dental treatment for populations that are underserved. This role supports the Promoting Health team in gathering prevention data to support community-driven priority setting and develops evidence-based tools and resources, including strategy kits, implementation guides, and evaluation tools. This role promotes health by building capacity and strengthening collaborations across the Healthier Together initiative through a broad network of partnerships, capacity building, and locally led interventions within communities, schools, workplaces and health services.

Medical Doctor (MD) eligible for licensure in Alberta. Advanced training and experience in public health and preventive medicine, with focus in an area related to population health and health promotion. Eligible for registration with the College of Family Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. Proven leadership abilities including in the areas of people management, strategy development and/ or project planning, program implementation and evaluation, and quality improvement.

Accomplished verbal and written communication skills that allow for the delivery of key public health messages across an array of audiences that include medical and non-medical groups. (Public speaking, interviews with the media, technical document development, and briefings to senior leaders.) Demonstrated ability to develop and maintain strategic relationships with key stakeholders and interdisciplinary colleagues that span peers and colleagues in a variety of programs and communities to achieve population health goals.

Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Canada (FRCPC) with specialty in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. Three (3) years’ experience as a Medical Officer of Health (MOH). Other combinations of clinical training, or certifications (e.g., CCFP or FRCPC in other disciplines or training in public health (e.g., Masters in Public Health) and/or applied public health practice.