Welcome Dr. Paul Ronksley - our new associate scientific director, health systems, at the O'Brien Institute for Public Health

The O’Brien Institute for Public Health is thrilled to announce the arrival of Dr. Paul Ronksley as its new associate scientific director, health systems.

A distinguished health services researcher and associate professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Dr. Ronksley earned his PhD in Epidemiology at the University of Calgary and honed his expertise in Clinical Epidemiology through a Post-doctoral Fellowship at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. His impactful program of research centers on access to healthcare and cost containment strategies for patients with multimorbidity, demonstrating his commitment to improving health-care outcomes.

With an impressive record of 195 peer-reviewed publications, >12,000 citations, and a significant role in securing over $30M in research funding, Dr. Ronksley is a highly productive scholar. He currently serves as the co-director of the Alberta Kidney Disease Network (AKDN) and is actively involved in other collaborative initiatives.

As he prepares to take on his new role, which begins Feb. 1, Dr. Ronksley says he is excited to collaborate with O’Brien Institute leadership to strengthen connections and foster transdisciplinary teams across the university, and with the many provincial partners and communities that we serve.

Paul is eager to cultivate new partnerships at local, provincial, and national levels, particularly in the realm of the learning health system. He envisions the O’Brien Institute as a key partner and leader in transforming healthcare, ensuring sustainable high-quality care is available to all people. 

Dr. Ronksley says we are fortunate to have exceptional researchers within the O’Brien Institute that are engaging with patients, providers, and decision makers to address key upstream determinants of health with a particular focus on equity and prevention. In Alberta, we are also fortunate to have all the core elements to build an efficient and effective learning health system. This includes access to high quality health system data, strong partnerships that span patient, provider, and policymakers, the necessary scientific expertise in evidence synthesis and knowledge mobilization to inform practice improvement, and organizations that support these activities. With all of these pieces in place, Paul sees the O’Brien Institute holding the so-called 'playbook' to connect the right people, structures, and processes to meet our goals of better healthcare and healthier populations.

Welcome, Dr. Paul Ronksley, to the O'Brien Institute for Public Health leadership team. We look forward to achieving great milestones together in our mission to advance public health through research excellence.