2022 INDUCTEE Noralou P. Roos, PhD Health Policy, Public Health, Health Promotion & Advocacy, Women in Medicine
April 21, 1942
(Pomona, California)
PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (1968)
2021: Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazer Award
2020: Vanier Medal - Institute of Public Administration of Canada
See All AwardsAwards & Honours:
2021: Manitoba 150 Women Trailblazer Award
2020: Vanier Medal - Institute of Public Administration of Canada
2016: Promoted to Officer in the Order of Canada
2016: Partners in Research Biomedical Science Ambassador Award
2011: Election to Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences
2011: Inaugural Population and Public Health Research Milestone Award, CIHR and CPHA
2011: Nominated for the Seventeenth Annual NIHCM Foundation Health Care Research Award
2009: Elected to the Life Sciences Division, Academy of Science of the Royal Society of Canada
2005: Order of Canada awarded by Governor General
2001-2007: Canada Research Chair in Population Health, Tier 1
1989: “Best Article of the Year” Award, American Association for Health Services Research, for paper co-authored with Jack Wennberg
1988: Woman of the Year Award, YWCA of Manitoba
1988-2002: Canadian Institute for Advanced Research, Associate Award
1973-1998: National Health Research Scientist, (NHRDP)
1972: Sears-Roebuck Foundation Federal Faculty Fellow, National Centre for Health Services Research and Development
1966-1967: Woodrow Wilson Dissertation Fellow
1964 and 1966: NDFL Language Fellow, University of California
1963-1964: Woodrow Wilson Fellow
A trailblazer in using big data systems analysis to understand social determinants of health
Unlocked the potential of big data systems analysis to clarify the social determinants of health helping inform effective policies in support of universal health care
Noralou Roos is a trailblazer in using big data systems analysis to understand social determinants of health promoting effective universal health care policies. The Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, founded by Dr. Roos and her husband Leslie Roos, tracks the health and health systems use of a million Manitobans for more than 50 years, leading to the development of a data repository making it possible to relate a population’s health care system use to its health care needs. Dr. Roos’ model for assemblage and analysis of administrative health care data serves as a global model supporting after-market safety and effectiveness tracking of new pharmaceuticals, actionable policies for optimal allocation of health care resources, notably children’s health care, and the diagnosis and treatment of poverty. Honoured and imitated by institutions and governments worldwide, Dr. Roos’ work, decades ahead of its time, helped to establish comprehensive large-scale data analysis as the pathway to effective population health care management, providing fundamentally new opportunities for understanding key health and health care research and policy issues. Dr. Roos’ EvidenceNetwork.ca broadly disseminated authoritative population health care information to the public, using media to promote informed public understanding of health care issues.
Key Facts
Founded EvidenceNetwork.ca. publishing over 650 original articles and op-eds in all of the major daily broadsheets across the country
In 2003 the Institute of Scientific Information (ISI) noted Dr. Roos’ work as cited in the top half of 1% of published scientists
Founded GetYourBenefits! effort in Manitoba, to encourage physicians and health care providers to diagnose and treat poverty and to help low-income individuals access their benefits
Founding Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy, which receives funding from the provincial Ministry of Health to conduct research that helps inform health policy issues
Professional timeline
Impact on lives today
Providing effective and equitable health care to mass populations is a world challenge, especially urgent for governments supporting universal health care systems. Dr. Roos’ pioneering work in big data systems analysis helps governments generate tools to identify and serve mass healthcare needs. Our individual health and wellbeing require effectively designed policies and institutional alignments responding to the health needs of regional and national populations. The health of all is the health of everyone. Dr. Roos’ systems information analysis remains a model for understanding, sustaining, and improving universal healthcare delivery worldwide.
2025
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Noralou Roos inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame
Ottawa, Ontario
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Becomes Professor Emerita, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba
Health and Medical Education & Training -
Provides input to the Royal Society of Canada for the G7 Science Statement on “Centrality of Digital Health Collaboration to Health Progress”
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Nora Lou Roos founds 'GetYourBenefits!' effort in Manitoba
Public Health, Health Promotion & Advocacy, Women in Medicine, Health Policy -
Noralou Roos co-authors several e-books on health policy in Canada
Public Health, Health Promotion & Advocacy, Health Policy, Women in MedicineAvailable on Apple, Kindle, Google Play and Google Books, these include "Making Evidence Matter in Canadian Health Policy" and "Why We Need More Canadian Health Policy in the Media".
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Is invited to Australia for what becomes a multi-year/city visit to advise on their commitment to expand the use of health administrative data as a research resource
Health Policy -
Leads the Canadian Drug Policy Coalition
Health Policy, Leadership in Organizational DevelopmentThis eventually results in the establishment of the Drug Safety and Effectiveness Network. Health Canada provided $32 million funding for the first 5 years and ongoing funding of $10 million/year. CIHR ran the program for the first several years and in 2022 it was transferred to CADTH (Canada’s Drug and Health Technology Agency)
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Noralou Roos becomes the Founding Director of the Manitoba Centre for Health Policy
Public Health, Health Promotion & Advocacy, Women in MedicineShe served in this capacity until 2004.
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Joins the Faculties of Management and Medicine at the University of Manitoba
The Faculty of Management was renamed the Asper School of Business in 2000. The Faculty of Medicine is now the Max Rady College of Medicine, under Rady Faculty of Health Sciences.
1973
Noralou Roos has singlehandedly done more to develop national capacity for evidence-based health and health care improvement than any other living Canadian.
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