Watch a Video Q&A with Dr. Michael Kidd, DFCM Chair
DFCM welcomed its new Chair, Dr. Michael Kidd, on May 1st. Dr. Kidd has over 30 years’ experience as a family doctor, primary care researcher and medical educator, with special interests in the primary care management of HIV and viral hepatitis, mental health and Indigenous health. He is a medical graduate from The University of Melbourne, and has a doctorate in medical education research from Monash University. His academic experience includes eight years as the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Flinders University in Australia, and 13 years as Professor and Chair of the Department of General Practice at The University of Sydney.
Dr. Kidd recently completed a three-year term as President of the World Organization of Family Doctors (WONCA), a global professional organization in formal collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and representing over 500,000 family doctors in over 150 countries. His global health experience includes service as a consultant to health ministries in many countries, as well as with the WHO, the United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and the Primary Health Care Performance Initiative of the WHO, World Bank, and Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Dr. Kidd has served two terms as the elected President of the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and he is an elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. He has served as a member of numerous Australian Government advisory committees and boards, including the National Health and Medical Research Council, and has served as a director of several national and international health and medical organisations, including Australia’s national mental health initiative, beyondblue. He has been involved in many voluntary community activities including leading the medical team for the gymnastics and basketball venue at the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000, and being a regular health commentator on Australia’s national youth radio station, JJJ, appearing as “Medical Michael”. In 2009, in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List, he was made a Member of the Order of Australia for his services to health care and education.
Get to know him better through a short Q&A below, where he answers questions about his background in academic family medicine, his motivation to join the DFCM, and his ideas about the future of family medicine in Canada and around the world.
