Canadian Commissioner of Public Health to Speak About SARS on September 30

For Immediate Release
September 23, 2003
D’Cunha-SARS Lecture
Contact: Andrea Pool at (979) 458-0773
Office of Communications
School of Rural Public Health
The Texas A&M University System
Health Science Center
http://www.srph.tamushsc.edu
Canadian Commissioner of Public Health to Speak About SARS on September 30
Colin D’Cunha, M.D., M.H.S.C., F.R.C.P.C., Ontario’s Commissioner of Public Health and Assistant Deputy Minister, will present “SARS: Response to an Emergent Disease” at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, September 30, as part of the Tenth Annual Jesse D. Ibarra, Jr., M.D., Lectureship in International Health sponsored by The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center School of Rural Public Health and Scott & White.
The presentation will be held at the Leonore and George H. Annenberg Presidential Conference Center (1002 George Bush Drive W.) adjacent to the Bush Presidential Library in College Station. This free event is open to the public. Physicians attending the lecture will be eligible for continuing medical education (CME) credits. For more information, email events@srph.tamushsc.edu.
D’Cunha became Ontario’s Chief Medical Officer of Health in October 1998, and was appointed Commissioner of Public Health and Assistant Deputy Minister on January 21, 2003. He also works closely with the ministries of the environment, municipal affairs and housing, and agriculture and food to provide linkages for public safety and security.
He has 15 years experience in public health at both the local and provincial levels of government. D’Cunha is active in federal-provincial population health matters and is an advocate of healthy public policy.
In 1993, the Scott & White Clinic Board established the Jesse D. Ibarra, Jr., M.D., Lectureship in International Health to honor the contributions made by Ibarra, who retired from Scott & White after 43 years. The lectureship is funded by gifts from the many friends and former patients of Ibarra, who is an internist-endocrinologist.
As chairman of the Scott & White Special Projects Committee, Ibarra initiated the establishment of the original health maintenance organization (HMO) in the late 1970s, which became known as the Scott & White Health Plan in 1982. He also served as president of the Scott & White Health Plan Board of Directors from 1984 to 1989, and currently serves as governor on that board.
The principal lectureship this year will be held October 1 on the Scott & White campus in Temple, also featuring D’Cunha.
The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center provides the state with health education, outreach and research. Its five components located in communities throughout Texas are Baylor College of Dentistry, the College of Medicine, the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, the Institute of Biosciences and Technology and the School of Rural Public Health.
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