The University of Ottawa has awarded the title of Distinguished University Professor to the Faculty of Medicine’s Dr. Doug Manuel.
Dr. Manuel divides his time between the roles of public health and family doctor, teacher and researcher. A professor in the Department of Family Medicine and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health, he is a senior scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and a senior core scientist at ICES*.
Dr. Manuel’s research combines his interests in public health, health care systems and primary care, with the overarching question of how to most effectively improve the health of communities and reduce inequities. Specifically, Dr. Manuel assesses the real-world effectiveness of strategies and interventions, studying the potential and actual impact of such strategies.
Dr. Manuel’s lab also helps predict future health and health care trends using big health data and by building advanced predictive health models, such as practical, online tools usable by the public, which enable families to make decisions about their loved ones’ care.
With the rise of big data and artificial intelligence in clinical medicine and public health, Dr. Manuel has cultivated many high-profile, multidisciplinary collaborations across faculties, educational institutions and federal agencies. His work continues to cement the Faculty of Medicine’s position as a world leader in this realm, and demonstrates the collaborative potential of Canada’s largest academic hospital combined with federal agencies and their expertise collecting and using the nation’s health data.
"Societies’ largest problems require collaboration across disciplines,” Dr. Manuel says. “Big data that spans society—health, migration, environment, justice, economy—are vital to understand and find solutions to these problems. It is a privilege to collaborate with my colleagues across government, academia and civil society.
“Together, we are demonstrating the power of Canada’s data strength. In so doing, we recognize our collective responsibility.”
Dr. Manuel will be formally recognized at a reception celebrating excellence in education and research, to be hosted by the University of Ottawa in the fall.
Nominees for Distinguished University Professor must have represented and acted as ambassadors of the University’s mission, vision and values in the various aspects of their career at the University. They must also have demonstrated remarkable scholarly achievement at the University, pre-eminence in a particular field of knowledge and a solid teaching record.
As role models of the University, Distinguished University Professors are expected to be visible in its formal affairs. They are granted a modest fund for research for the first five years of the designation, and receive special recognition at convocation.
*Formerly known as Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
