Louise Bouchard, PhD

Biography

Professor Bouchard is an interdisciplinary researcher in the field of health who was affiliated with the Institute of Population Health at the University of Ottawa and the Institut de recherche du Savoir Montfort. She developed a pioneering research program on the health of Canada’s official language minorities. With her colleague Anne Leis, she obtained a major research capacity development grant from the CIHR and set up the Réseau interdisciplinaire de recherche sur la santé des francophones (RISF) (CIHR 2006-2011) for a study on the socio-environmental, cultural and structural factors that contribute to disparities in health among Francophones in minority situations (Étude des facteurs socio-environnementaux, culturels et structurels qui influent sur les disparités de santé chez les francophones en situation minoritaire). In 2009, she obtained a substantial research fund from the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (OMHLTC) for the development of the Réseau de recherche appliquée sur la santé des francophones de l’Ontario (www.RRASFO.ca). These two experiences leading scientific research programs helped to propel interdisciplinary and cross-sectoral research, in a largely unexplored field, the health of Canada’s official language minorities. A supplement of the 2013 Canadian Journal of Public Health, coordinated by L. Bouchard and A. Leis, compiled 18 research articles, including nine articles written or co-written by Professor Bouchard. A volume of the journal REFLETS (2012) also focused on health inequalities in Francophone communities in minority situations in Canada. In addition to acting as a coordinator, Professor Bouchard authored three articles. She also published a book entitled Minorités de langue officielle du Canada, égales devant la santé? (2011), which presents all of the research conducted on this question.

In 2011, Professor Bouchard was co-chair of the 4th Conférence internationale sur les programmes locaux et régionaux de santé, which brought together the architects of change and players actively involved in improving health. Held in Ottawa, this conference was an opportunity to highlight 25 years of the Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion with the frontline players: Ilona Kickbusch, David McQueen and Irving Rootman. The conference proceedings were published in Global Health Promotion (2014). Professor Bouchard coordinated the issue and was the author of three articles.

In 2014, through an MHLTC research fund, she developed a prototype to observe the health of minorities (www.obs-santéminorites.ca), an extremely useful collaborative platform for research and knowledge transfer in order to better understand official language minorities.

Since 2006, Professor Bouchard has received over $3.5 million in research funds as a researcher or principal co-research, which led to eight monographs, seven book chapters, 30 scientific articles, 56 peer-reviewed seminars, 19 technical reports, 37 conferences as a guest speaker, two mandates as a network scientific director, one prototype for observation and research on the health of official language minorities.

Professor Bouchard’s work has shed light on the impact of the minority situation as a determining factor of health through the use of various approaches: social epidemiology, conceptual mapping of representations, network analysis and a geographic information system.

Research Interest

• Sociology of health, illness and medecines
• Sociology of knowedge, sciences and technologies
• Social determinants of health
• Social inequalities in health
• Health and official language minorities
• Social and health systems, structures and social dynamics
• Multi-method research