Office of Community Medicine

The Office of Community Medicine (OCM) of the First Nations and Inuit Health Branch (FNIHB) was established in 2002 to provide strategic leadership and expert medical and public health advice to senior managers and directorates in FNIHB. OCM collaborates with other units within FNIHB and with external partners to advance effective public health initiatives for First Nations (FN) on-reserve and Inuit people.

For further information please contact the Office of Community Medicine.

Roles and Key Activity Areas
Highlights of Work in Key Activity Areas
About Community Medicine

Roles and Key Activity Areas

The roles and responsibilities of the Office of Community Medicine are aligned with its expertise in community medicine, medicine, and public health.

Office of Community Medicine:

• Provides community medicine, medical and public health expertise;
• Provides professional leadership, national coordination and support to First Nations and Inuit Health Regional Medical Officers (RMOs); and
• Supports and encourages interdisciplinary collaboration within Health Canada.

The Office of Community Medicine works with health professionals across many disciplines in order to fulfill this role and mandate. In most cases, OCM projects and activities are undertaken in partnership with various FNIHB divisions, Regional Medical Officers and external public health organizations. The organization carries out its activities by co-leading projects, developing and reviewing documents and participating in meetings and on committees.

The Office of Community Medicine also contributes expert knowledge about the practice of community medicine in a First Nations context to better inform FNIHB programming and to better serve our clients.

Highlights of Work in Key Activity Areas

Working with external public health stakeholders and expert committees

• The Office of Community Medicine represents FNIHB as the senior public health physician in external public health organizations and committees such as the Council of Chief Medical Officers of Health (CCMOH), which is comprised of provincial/territorial chief medical officers of health and the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC); and
• Contributes expertise in community medicine and the practice of public health in a First Nations context to external committees. For example, the Office of Community Medicine represents the branch at various national expert groups, such as the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), to ensure an Aboriginal context is reflected in policy changes and positions.

Contributing community medicine and public health expertise to program and policy development

• The Office of Community Medicine collaborates with other divisions within FNIHB to address key public health issues affecting First Nations and Inuit communities such as tuberculosis and infection control issues;
• Supporting and promoting interdisciplinary collaboration in seeking the resolution of health practice issues specific to the branch through the Professional Practice Advisory Committee (PPAC). This Committee reports to branch Senior Management and includes specialists in medicine, nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and environmental health.

Professional leadership to regional medical officers within the FNIH Regions

• Supports the delivery of front line health services by providing experienced temporary replacement medical officers during staffing short falls and public health emergencies such as communicable disease outbreaks;
• Chairing of FNIHB's Council of Medical Officers in Public Health (CMOPH), which brings together medical officers (from FNIH, the territories and those working in other FN organizations such as the Assembly of First Nations and the Northern Inter-tribal Health Authority), and FNIHB director generals as appropriate. The Council is a forum for discussing and planning resolutions of issues affecting the medical officers' practice, as well as emerging public health issues across the regions;
• Working with the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada to provide accredited learning opportunities; and
• Working with community medicine residency programs at various universities to promote the branch as a residency placement opportunity to assist in dealing with current and future recruitment/retention issues.

Contributing to knowledge of the practice of public health in a First Nations context

• The Office of Community Medicine conducted a review of branch policy on the use of Bacille Calmette Guérin (BCG) vaccine in First Nations children to control tuberculosis (TB); and
• The Office of Community Medicine led a study to measure led a study to measure the incidence of severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID) among young First Nation children to further inform the policy on the use of the BCG vaccine.

About Community Medicine

What is community medicine?

Community medicine is a branch of medicine concerned with the health of populations. A specialization in community medicine involves a five-year residency after the completion of medical school. The specialty prepares physicians for senior roles in public health systems, often as Medical Officers of Health / Medical Health Officers (MOHs/MHOs), at local, regional, provincial, national, and international levels.

What does a community medicine specialist do?

Community medicine specialists use population health knowledge, skills and experience to maintain and improve the health and well-being of communities. Through key partnerships, community medicine specialists measure the health needs of populations and develop strategies focused on health promotion, disease and injury prevention and health protection.

What is a Medical Officer of Health (MOH)/Medical Health Officer (MHO)?

A Medical Officer of Health (MOH), recognized as a Medical Health Officer (MHO) in certain provinces, is a licensed physician appointed under provincial public health acts with the authority to safeguard the health of the populations they serve. Of the many duties MOHs perform they are responsible for the surveillance of reportable communicable diseases as well as taking actions to investigate and mitigate communicable disease and/or environmental health risks. Most of the MOHs/MHOs have additionally recognized credentials in public health. These are usually obtained after a residency in community medicine, or a master's degree in public health.

Learn more about the roles of a MOH or MHO.

What is public health?

Public health is the science of promoting health, preventing disease, prolonging life and improving quality of life through organized efforts programs and services. Public Health looks at the health and well-being of whole communities rather than treating individual illnesses and disabilities. Public health programs and services emphasize two things - prevention of disease and the health needs of the population as a whole ― either the public as a whole, (e.g., through programs aimed at controlling the spread of infectious diseases or assurance of safe food and water), or targeted sub-groups (e.g. expectant mothers through pre-natal health). Public health practitioners encourage program and policy makers to consider the broader health implications of their proposed policies.