Former N.B. chief medical officer of health talks new job, improving health care

Dr. Jennifer Russell has taken a new position as executive director of the Institute of Population Health at the University of New Brunswick.

Russell was the chief medical officer of health since 2015. She resigned from that position last fall.

She said she first went into public health so she could help solve issues within the health-care system.

“The whole reason I went into public health 10 years ago was because as a family physician I was seeing a lot of things. I thought, ‘Wow, if I had prevention lenses put on some of these issues what would that look like,’” said Russell in an interview with CTV’s Todd Battis on Wednesday.

“During my time in government I could see how the system worked in terms of how to get things across the finish line to make big impacts and you have to choose your opportunities, whether it’s a topic very relevant, very pressing or things that come through years and years of research across the country.”

The Institute of Population Health collaborates with faculties and other UNB institutes to address population health needs in New Brunswick and across the country.

“Everything we saw during the pandemic pointed to the fact that we have some challenges with our population, and we have our challenges with our health-care system across the country. So anything that can take the pressure off the health-care system we did during the COVID-19 pandemic. But looking upstream for population health purposes there are other things we can do now,” said Russell.

“We’ve done a lot of internal communication with the university and the different facilities and researchers. But also I had some great conversations with people externally whether it's government, or the health authorities and some leaders in different communities. It is definitely something that requires a lot of collaboration.”

Russell said the biggest problem currently in the health-care system is the delivery of care and preparation.

“I think right now across the country health service delivery needs to continue to increase, especially here in New Brunswick with an aging population and a growing population. I think looking at the COVID-19 pandemic we know that we have to get prepared for the next crisis, whether it’s a pandemic or a climate crisis and building resilience in our population is really key,” she said.

“We know workforce planning is really important across the country. We know that making sure we have the right staffing is really important. Understanding the climate of how people are working in the system currently. What type of things are being done that are already improving.”

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