Howard Bergman, FCAHS

Dr. Howard Bergman is Chair of the Department of Family Medicine and Professor at the Departments of Family Medicine, Medicine, and Oncology at McGill University. He is also an Adjunct Professor, Department of Health Administration at the Université de Montréal and Adjunct Full Professor, Faculty of Health Sciences, at Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Previously, Dr Bergman served as Vice-President, Scientific Affairs of the Fonds de recherche santé Quebec (FRSQ), Quebec’s health research funding agency and was Director of the Division of Geriatric Medicine at McGill University and the Jewish General Hospital. He was the first Dr. Joseph Kaufmann Professor of Geriatric Medicine from 2001-2015.

The main thrust of Dr. Bergman’s work has been to link research with policy change in the fields of primary care, aging, chronic disease, and frailty. Dr. Bergman was one of two principal investigators in the development and evaluation of a randomized controlled trial based in primary community and medical care — the Integrated Services for Frail Elders (SIPA) model which is recognized internationally in academic, policy, and government circles. He led the Canadian Initiative on Frailty and Ageing and the International Database Inquiry on Frailty which led to 30 peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Bergman was a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences Expert Panel on improving chronic disease outcomes through health system transformation which in 2010 tabled its report: Transforming Care for Canadians with Chronic Health Conditions: Put People First, Expect the Best and Manage for Results.

Dr. Bergman is a Fellow of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences. He is a past president of the Canadian Geriatrics Society, which awarded him the Ronald Cape Distinguished Service Award; a past president of the Consortium of Canadian Centres for Clinical Cognitive Research (C5R); and a past chair of the Institute of Aging Advisory Board of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). He is internationally recognized for his research on integrated care, frailty, and chronic disease, with more than 170 publications and numerous reports and book chapters. As a member of the Clair Commission, he authored the recommendation to create family medicine groups (FMG). In the Bergman Report, he proposed a central role for primary medical care in the Quebec Alzheimer Plan. He is now working with the Quebec Ministry of Health in the implementation of the plan. Dr. Bergman, with Dr. Isabelle Vedel created The Canadian Team for healthcare services/system improvement in dementia care, a multidisciplinary team involving stakeholders dedicated to the evaluation and implementation of initiatives to improve the capacity of primary care to diagnose and treat older persons with Alzheimer’s disease, and their caregivers.

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