Dr. Nathlie Auger

A physician epidemiologist is somebody who uses their medical background to inform their research questions, which are normally medical or health-related questions. Their clinical, or medical, experience provides them with a unique perspective, allowing them to approach research questions with a deeper understanding of patient care and health outcomes.

What is a Clinical Professor? How does this role interplay with your work as a physician?

Physicians typically work in hospitals or clinics but can also be affiliated with universities, often taking on teaching roles. Those connected to hospitals may hold “clinical” positions at universities and are known as Clinical Professors. Rather than being part of the core faculty, they are affiliated with the university and provide supervision, internship opportunities or other hands-on experiences to students, helping them gain practical experience in the field.

How does your research relate to Quebec’s English-speaking communities?

I am currently involved in research working to identify subgroups of Quebec Anglophones with greater needs, particularly within socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, and examine their health experiences, focusing on maternal child health. Research has found high rates of both gestational diabetes and high blood pressure during pregnancy in certain disadvantaged Anglophone groups in Quebec, so we are currently trying to understand these patterns.

Can you describe what maternal child health is and why it’s so important?

Pregnancy is a unique time when patients regularly see a doctor or health professional, creating an opportunity to improve both parental and child health. Beyond ensuring a healthy pregnancy, this period can also reveal underlying health conditions with long-term implications. The physical stress of pregnancy may trigger medical conditions that not only indicate future health risks but also allow healthcare providers to intervene early.

For example, gestational diabetes occurs only during pregnancy and typically resolves after delivery. However, it creates an unhealthy environment for the fetus and signals an increased risk of developing diabetes later in life.

What is the particular audience for your research?

Health research serves multiple audiences. From a policy perspective, researchers can help Health Ministries monitor and measure population health indicators by analyzing data and providing relevant statistics. In maternal child health, for example, key indicators might include hospital usage and birth outcomes across different groups. Health research can also be a tool for advocacy, where advocates can use findings to drive change and improve health outcomes for vulnerable populations. There is also the academic community, as we aim to advance research and inspire other researchers to pursue work in this field. Finally, getting research to the wider public is also essential if we want it to have a meaningful impact.

In your experience, what have been some effective ways of communicating health research to the public?

Getting research results out to a broader audience can be challenging but is essential. If researchers are unable to disseminate their findings, all the work that went into generating the results stops there, preventing others from seeing or benefiting from them. We do our best to make sure the research material is published in journals, presented, or put in a report, but we then rely on collaboration with organizations who have knowledge mobilization as their mandate, such as QUESCREN, to help us distribute the information to the people who want to hear about it and help move it into the public consciousness.