OTTAWA — The University of Ottawa is organizing this coming Thursday, September 17, 2009, a discussion featuring an expert panel on the issues, responses and challenges associated with the H1N1 flu pandemic. Over the next few weeks and months, Canada and much of the world will need to undertake important measures to limit the impact of the H1N1 virus. The panel will be of interest to decision-makers, media and the university community as panel members present an overview of precautions to be taken to minimize the spread of the H1N1 virus, discuss the challenges to the health care system and propose appropriate responses to the pandemic.

The panel will be made up of seven University of Ottawa experts and professors. Professor Louise Lemyre, from the University of Ottawa's School of Psychology, will moderate the discussion.

Amir Attaran is an associate professor in both the Faculties of Law and Medicine at the University of Ottawa, and holds the Canada Research Chair in Law, Population Health and Global Development Policy. Professor Attaran's current research interests include the financial and legal duties of international aid donors; evaluation of policy development in the UN's technical agencies; the role of intellectual property and trade law on access to medicines in less developed countries; and engagement of NATO militaries (particularly Canada's) in the armed conflict in Afghanistan and its implications in human rights law and the law of armed conflict.

A trained sociologist, Luc Bonneville is a full professor in the Department of Communications. He conducted postdoctoral research in the public health sector of the Faculty of medicine at the Université de Montréal. His research focuses on the computerization of health-care organizations, more precisely in an organizational communication perspective. Professor Bonneville is interested in the logics of implementing information-communication technologies (ICT) in health-care organizations, the interactions between health-care professionals and patients in a technological environment, and organizational change.

Earl Brown is a virologist and professor in the Faculty of Medicine's Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology, and Immunology. He is also the executive director of the Emerging Pathogens Research Centre at the University of Ottawa. Dr. Brown has spent his career examining the evolution of virulence in influenza viruses as well as other viruses including hepatitis C virus, reovirus, mumps virus, vesicular stomatitis virus and Torque Teno virus.

Paul C. Hébert is a Critical Care Physician at the Ottawa Hospital and a Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Health Research Institute (OHRI). He is also a full professor in the Faculty of Medicine (Critical Care) at the University of Ottawa, with cross-appointments to the Departments of Anesthesiology and Surgery as well as Epidemiology and Community Medicine. During his 16 years at the University of Ottawa, Dr. Hébert established the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the General Campus of the Ottawa Hospital (1998) and the University of Ottawa Centre for Transfusion Research (1999). On January 2, 2007, Dr. Hébert was appointed Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Medical Association Journal (CMAJ). Dr. Hébert's research interests center on the examination of transfusion practice (when and what to transfuse), including the use of alternatives to transfusion, blood conservation, resuscitation fluids, as well as on cardiac resuscitation and trauma research.

Louise Lemyre is a full professor at the University of Ottawa's School of Psychology and holder of the McLaughlin Research Chair on Psychosocial Aspects of Risk and Health. She also leads a research unit on psychosocial analysis of health called GAP-Santé. Her research interests include the factual and subjective aspects of factors that contribute to stress and anticipation; population health; risk perception and prevention; and social, environmental and organizational stress.

Anne McCarthy is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Ottawa, the director of the Office of Global Health and a member of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Ottawa Hospital. She is actively involved in tropical medicine and international health including the development of prevention and treatment strategies for malaria and recommendations for travelers with regards to vaccinations and emerging infectious diseases.

Kumanan Wilson is an associate professor in the Faculty of Medicine. He holds the Canada Research Chair in Public Health Policy at the University of Ottawa and is a physician in the Division of General Internal Medicine at the Ottawa Hospital. He works to better understand the many facets of public health at regional, national and international levels and thus provide advice on strategies designed to improve public health security. His research focuses on issues such as immunization policy, health surveillance and preparing for potential pandemics.