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The new medical officer of health for Windsor-Essex County brings extensive experience in public health, as well as family medicine to his leadership role — along with a keen interest in collaboration.
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“I’m still learning about the organization, about the health in the community,” said Dr. Mehdi Aloosh during an interview in his office at the Windsor-Essex County Health Unit.
Aloosh is settling in to his new job, less than a month after being appointed acting medical officer of health on May 1. He was officially named to the top position just over a week ago.
Born in Iran, Aloosh emigrated to Canada where he trained in epidemiology and medical education with a focus on surgical education at Montreal’s McGill University.
A public health and preventive medicine specialist, Aloosh is also a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and a public health physician at Public Health Ontario. He has provided medical consultation on a range of public health issues.
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He trained in family medicine, as well as public health and preventive medicine at McMaster University where he also works as an assistant professor.
“I worked as a family doctor for a decade,” Aloosh said. “I was very satisfied with family medicine and communication with the patients impacting the health of the individuals.
“At the same time, I was interested into the root causes of diseases and health — what makes people sick and what makes people healthy. So, that was why I switched to public health. I do think they are connected together. To be a good public health physician I think some exposure to the community at the individual level is helpful.”
But in public health, “our patients are not individuals they are population.”
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“So the scope of work is very different,” he said.
Aloosh is setting priorities for his new position while connecting with health care partners and community leaders. He is also working University of Windsor educators to bring research data and innovation to public health work.
There is mandated work all health units must do, such as infectious disease prevention, controlling outbreaks, chronic disease prevention and injury prevention, he said.
“What I see from my experience at the provincial level is that there are issues … not unique to Windsor-Essex County,” Aloosh said. “That’s provincial-wide issues, like sexually transmitted diseases.
“We haven’t seen congenital syphilis for years and now we see that in Windsor-Essex County. We see the rise of chlamydia, gonorrhoea.”
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Other local priorities are dealing with the opioid and mental health crisis, which he believes has grown worse as a result of the pandemic.
Aloosh spoke at his first health unit board meeting about the need to increase HPV vaccination levels in the community to help prevent cervical, anal, penile, head and mouth cancers.
“So, if we would be able to successfully vaccinate our kids and our young generation, we can protect them in the future,” he said. “We can eliminate some of the cancer caused by a virus.”
With a booming economy in Windsor and Essex County, plus many new Canadians — immigrants, refugees, migrant workers — arriving in this region, there are further health care challenges, he said.
“Data shows immigrants are a healthier population because they pass through medical checks,” Aloosh said. “The data also shows after immigration they have their health start to go down.”
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He attributes that decline to a variety of reasons, including language barriers, not knowing how to get health care or no access to a family physician.
Aloosh offered praise to his team at the health unit.
“This is not just the work of a medical officer of health,” he said, adding it takes a team of 300 people working in public health in Windsor Essex County —nurses, health inspectors, clerks, managers, directors — working together.
“I’m here as a consultant and the leader of this organization. The team is very important in accomplishing the work of public health.”
Aloosh is “really excited” about his new role “because I see everyone is thinking about having a better community, a more healthier community,”
“And everyone tries to work to that goal which is what I’m really excited about,” he said.
Collaboration a priority for new medical officer of health - Windsor Star
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