Associate Medical Officers of Health

Dr. Jim Pfaff

Dr. Jim Pfaff joined the health unit as a part-time Associate Medical Officer of Health (AMOH) in 2003, immediately joining the Health Protection Service area under which programs such as health hazards, rabies and safe food and water are implemented.

Dr. Pfaff is a graduate of the University of Toronto Medical School with a Masters of Health Science degree in Community Health and Epidemiology. Retired from the military in 1988 with the rank of Colonel, his extensive experience includes roles as Medical Officer of Health in Muskoka-Parry Sound, Hastings and Prince Edward Counties, and work with the provincial SARS team.

As well, he has dealt with environmental health issues as medical director of Ontario Hydro. He is an Associate Fellow of the Aerospace Medical Association and an Academician of the International Academy of Aviation and Space Medicine.

The support and expertise of Dr. Pfaff is an important asset for the health unit, both in regard to immediate threats to health—like adverse water events—and in order to maintain momentum on health issues that will have an impact on the longer term.

Dr. Sue Surry

Meeting the increasing program and professional demands of the health unit became a little easier with the appointment of a new part time Associate Medical Officer of Health in July 2001. Dr. Susan Surry is a pediatric specialist with expertise in children's health including more than 10 years of field work and research experience in population health.

The demands of a rapidly growing population, the mounting pressures in all program areas and the need to ensure strong links with physicians all contributed to the demand for Dr. Surry's expertise. Her background makes her ideally suited to strengthen and enhance the programming and services offered to promote and protect the health of children.

Dr. Surry's interest in children and health began early. As a youth she worked with children in Costa Rica, an experience she repeated later as a medical student. The appreciation that chronic diseases often receive their start in childhood convinced the doctor that there was a role in public health for a pediatric specialist.

"I recognized that I could make a difference in people's health if I reached them in their early years," said Dr. Surry.

With her support the health unit is now able to ensure a 24-hour fail safe on call system and focus on some of the escalating demands related to communicable disease and environmental health investigations as well as the expansion of sexual health and healthy babies healthy children programs.

In addition to assisting the Medical Officer of Health and chief executive officer for the health unit, Dr. Surry works in pediatrics at Soldiers' Memorial Hospital in Orillia part-time.

As a community physician, Dr. Surry also devotes some of her energies to helping the health unit develop stronger links with local physicians, important partners in the delivery of public health programs.

Dr. Colin Lee

Dr. Colin Lee is a Royal College certified community medicine specialist who has been with the health unit since 2003. He is currently an Associate Medical Officer of Health helping to meet the growing demands of providing public health services and programs to the residents of Simcoe and Muskoka.

Dr. Lee’s primary responsibilities are in the Clinical Service Programs, including communicable disease control, vaccine-preventable diseases and sexual health. He is also a certified emergency medicine physician who practiced at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Barrie from 2003 to 2008 and he continues to work at an urgent care clinic.

He currently also works part-time with the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion as a public health physician in the Infectious Diseases Prevention and Control unit.

This dual-career in public health and clinical medicine provides invaluable opportunities to strengthen links between local doctors and the health unit, and to enhance clinical protocols that impact on public health.

He has a long-standing interest in infectious diseases and is currently appointed to the Provincial Infectious Diseases Advisory Committee (PIDAC) which advises the Chief Medical Officer of Health of Ontario on infectious disease issues. His interest in public health extends beyond Simcoe Muskoka borders, as he provides public health consultancies in malaria, HIV/AIDS and public health policy to developing countries. He has worked and continues to work in a number of countries in Africa and Asia, including India, South Africa, Kenya, Mali, Burkina Faso, Bénin.

Dr. Lee is a graduate of the University of Toronto, McGill University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in England. As well as community and emergency medicine, he is also trained in family medicine and provides locum coverage periodically in central Ontario.