WILSON, Prof Ruth: North America region president 2013-18
Dr Wilson is a practising family physician and educator. A professor of
family medicine at Queen’s University, she was Chair of the department
for ten years. Her practice as a family physician includes eleven years
in remote communities in Canada, and twenty eight years in Kingston,
Ontario, where she includes obstetrics in her practice.
A graduate of the University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine in 1976, she
did further postgraduate training in family medicine and anesthesia,
and received Certification in the College of Family Physicians of
Canada, in 1980.
From 2001-2004, she served as Chair of the Ontario Family Health
Network, a provincial government agency created to implement primary
care reform in Ontario.
Prof Wilson’s research interests are in women’s health, aboriginal
health, and the lessons from these areas that affect the determinants of
health. She is co-author of the Women’s Health chapters of the Oxford
Textbook of Primary Care, and editor of Implementing Primary Care
Reform: Barriers and Facilitators.
She is a past president of the College of Family Physicians of Canada,
and was Associate Director of Health Policy for the College from
2010-2012. She is a past Chair of the National Drug Scheduling Advisory
Committee and of the Canadian Medical Forum, a roundtable of CEOs and
presidents of Canada’s major medical organizations. She is the Chair of
the Board of the Institute for Safe Medication Practice (Canada).
She is the recipient of the Canada 125 Medal and the Diamond Jubilee
Medal. In May 2002, Prof Wilson received an honorary Doctor of Laws from
Thompson Rivers University. In 2010, she was named a Five-Star Doctor
by WONCA. Also in 2010, she was named one of Canada’s Top 100 Most
Powerful Women. In 2015 she was awarded the Order of Canada.
Prof Wilson is married to a family physician, Dr Ian Casson; they have five grown children and one grandchild