Douglas Manuel* MD MSc FRCPC (he/they)

Biography

Dr. Doug Manuel is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Family Medicine and the School of Epidemiology and Public Health at the University of Ottawa.  He holds a Tier 1 Clinical Research Chair in Precision Medicine for Chronic Disease Prevention. He is a Senior Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, a Senior Core Scientist at ICES and a Senior Medical Advisor at Statistics Canada.

Dr. Manuel is a Medical Doctor with a Masters in Epidemiology and Royal College specialization in Public Health and Preventive Medicine. He completed his medical degree at Dalhousie University and then worked as a general practitioner in northern and remote communities across Canada. He was the chief of staff of the hospital at Churchill, Manitoba, serving the remote Inuit communities that lined the eastern shore of Hudson Bay. He came to realize during these years that to truly make an impact on the health of his patients he needed to address underlying, preventable causes. He returned to study public health and epidemiology at the University of Toronto. During his residency training he began his research career, which continues to address the same themes that arose during his earlier clinical practice.

Dr. Manuel's research combines his interests in public health, healthcare systems and primary care. The overarching question that spans his research is how to improve the health of communities and reduce inequities most effectively.

He assesses the real-world effectiveness of strategies and interventions. He performs two types of studies: modelling studies or "what if” studies that examine the potential impact of interventions; and observational or "what is" studies that examine the actual impact of interventions that are provided routinely in our society or that are experimentally tested. Modelling studies are supported by advanced predictive algorithms and microsimulation models that he and his colleagues develop using Canada’s large, routinely-collected health data. Dr. Manuel’s studies typically focus on prevention, such as immunization and healthy living.

For over 25 years, Dr. Manuel has been a primary care doctor in rural, remote, and underserved Canadian communities. His most recent practice was at the Ottawa Newcomer Health Centre, the health care entry point for refugees arriving in Ottawa.

His life expectancy is 92 years and, according to projectbiglife.ca, he will breathe 1.3 million litres of air. His favourite physical activity is biking to Champlain Lookout at Gatineau Park.

Course instructor

EPI 9173 – Machine Learning and Data Science

EPI 5143 - Epidemiological Research Using Large Databases