Dr. James (Jamie) Blanchard, BSc Med, MD, MPH, PhD, is a professor of Community Health Sciences and Medical Microbiology in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Manitoba. He received his Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in epidemiology and global public health in 2004. Blanchard’s research aims to better understand the underlying determinants of epidemics, and ultimately develop effective public health strategies to better allocate health services and reduce disease spread. He investigates why some people get sick and other do not, and why some communities are more at risk than others. The epidemiologist studies the local and global distribution of communicable and non-communicable diseases like HIV in India, and diabetes mellitus and inflammatory bowel disease in Canada. Blanchard has received numerous awards, including the Frederick G. Banting Award from the Canadian Diabetes Association and the 2006 Rh Award for Health Sciences at the University of Manitoba from the Winnipeg Rh Institute Foundation. After receiving his MD from the University of Manitoba in 1986 and completing an internship with the Manitoba Teaching Hospitals, Blanchard worked as a general practitioner for the University of Manitoba’s Northern Medical Unit in Fisher Branch, Manitoba, for two years. He then pursued education in epidemiology and public health at the Johns Hopkins University School of Hygiene and Public Health, receiving his master’s in public health in 1990 and his PhD in epidemiology in 1997. Blanchard’s research interests include epidemiology and control of sexually transmitted infections and HIV, HIV transmission dynamics, social and behavioural aspects of HIV, and inflammatory bowel diseases etiology. (From chrr.info)
