James Talbot

Dr. James Talbot is a Canadian public health physician based in Alberta.

Talbot was educated at the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta.

Talbot was previously Chief Medical Officer of Health for the Province of Alberta from 2012-2015,¹⁾ a Medical Officer of Health for the city of Edmonton, and Chief Medical Officer of Health for Nunavut. He was also Director of the Public Health Laboratory (ProvLab) for Northern Alberta.

He is an Adjunct Professor in the University of Alberta's School of Public Health.²⁾ He served as the Chair of the Board of Directors for PolicyWise.^{3) 4)}

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Talbot participated on the AHS COVID-19 Scientific Advisory Group as a representative of the Alberta Health Services Office of the Chief Medical Officer of Health, Deena Hinshaw.

He also served as co-chair of the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association's Strategic COVID-19 Pandemic Committee from November 27, 2020 to June 30, 2021.⁵⁾

Talbot was a member of the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force.⁶⁾

Talbot was a founding member of SIREVA, a project of the Pan American Health Organization,⁷⁾ and the Alberta Real Time Syndromic Surveillance Network (ARTSSN), an “early-warning system” for influenza.⁸⁾

He participated as a member of the Alberta Provincial Pediatric EnTeric Infection TEam (APPETITE), researching epidemiology, emerging organisms, and economics. The team was funded by Alberta Innovates and Alberta Children's Hospital Research Institute with in-kind support from Copan Diagnostics and Luminex.⁹⁾ He worked alongside Martin Lavoie, who went on to become Deputy Provincial Health Officer at the BC Ministry of Health under Bonnie Henry during the COVID-19 pandemic and a representative on the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI).

He has also had research funded by Alberta Health Services and the Alberta Ministry of Health.¹⁰⁾

In 1998, Talbot received the John Snow Award for Excellence in Sciences from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).¹¹⁾