Dr David Butler Jones chief public health officer of Canada: I should start with I still have the title of the chief public health officer but I shell down about two years ago. That job is kinda a combination of surgeon general cdc and director of health. The reason Im also very pleased to be here I made the unpardenable sin of referring to MSU as U of M, and I thought reza would never talk to me again, so this is doubly a nice privilege for me. To avoid problems in the first place is not possible so we have to have the capacity to deal with the consequences. It is ensuring a balance of them all. The diseases are getting more expensive and bigger, with H1N1, the original virus is not that different than the 1981 virus, in Canada we actually stopped the disease before Christmas. The combination of measures and the ability to change habits and social patterns was something people could actually do to change behavior, so theres hope. The challenges are getting bigger instead of smaller. The drivers of public health are about the interactions of all of these, but the key idea is that they are all connected, and thats something we need to remember. For example to Ebola outbreak, and the heat wave in Europe. In Canada we have been working in how to make communities more user friendly. The other is I remember a number of years ago with the big scandal in china with the pet food and melomen. So we had that settle down but was anybody looking in baby formula, but then again it didnt seem to cross over with the gets and medical folk. The other thing I was really struck, the immune debunk one is actually seen in dogs, why in dogs? So theres lots of great opportunities there, and really I think the whole one health concept provides that. Its an interdependent relationship. We all live in the same environment, but the challenge is the application. Some of the biggest problems we face arent in our core mandates but crossover between animals and humans and the environment. Its not about a whole new discipline its about integrating these ideas. So Im going to talk a bit about challenges and opportunities. We have all these problems but its about finding if we can match them up some how, some small shifts can make a difference. Communication between different languages is tough, we were saying the same things just different ways. Its about thinking in a way to decide who you need in order to solve it. So another problem is how to prove it. Well one example is this approach in Canada with the bored troubles, and someone said as soon as theres a sign of a pandemic well close the boarders but then its too late. The other was that swine was infected by people and the challenge was how to manage it instead of killing all the pigs. In education research and training I think were better progressions at what we do if we have an understanding. If youre a teacher you have some hey interesting case studies, so people are starting to think differently. Also there arent a lot of people that get it and can explain it. So we need to build on those people. And he integration of disciplines, we need the focus and expertise but also they need to be able to work together. Looking at some to the big challenges is hyoid I g our scientific comprehension and knowledge is realizing the connections and connecting them. It requires some changing, so we can try and change behaviors instead of changing mindsets. A lot of the career paths are unclear, especially Im academics. Theres lots of stuff going on OIE WHO etc. GPHIN is constantly searching the internet for disasters infections bioterrorism etc and then consolidating that and sharing with our departments. A lot of outbreaks were actually found by our program.
Posted on: Mon, 28 Jul 2014 17:25:39 +0000