We had a fascinating meeting with Dr. Adalsteinn Brown. Dr. Brown is a tenured professor at the University of Toronto in the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Dr. Brown has had a wide-ranging academic and professional career, receiving his doctorate in Public Health from the University of Oxford, and working both in the private and public sectors. His academic work tends to focus on promoting health system resilience and improved practitioner performance. However, more recently, he is known for his work as Co-Chair of Ontario’s Science Table through the COVID-19 pandemic.
We spoke on a variety of topics, including by not limited to knowledge translation to government officials in times of crisis. One piece of advice that stood out to us was the importance of having a clear justified stance on what the scientific literature says when speaking to decision makers in times of crisis. While seemingly obvious, he said that many science communicators get lost in the nuances and ambiguities of scientific discourse. This advice was especially relevant to the OLIP interns’ work, which often involved briefing backbench members on debate topics that came forward in the house.
Thank you, Dr. Brown for taking the time to speak with us!