Dr. Francois Belanger

Vice President, Quality & Chief Medical Officer

Dr. Belanger is the Vice President, Quality and Chief Medical Officer for Alberta Health Services (AHS) and member of the executive leadership team. His current role is to help oversee the integration and coordination of a complex health delivery model for the province through nine accountability functions: Office of the Chief Medical Officer and Medical Affairs, Quality & Healthcare Improvement, Clinical Informatics and Clinical Information Systems, Patient Relations, Health Information Management, Strategic Clinical Networks, Provincial Clinical Services, Alberta Surgical Initiative, Virtual Health and maintaining effective partnerships with academic institutions and other quality and physician led organizations.

A key mandate of the Quality and CMO position is to maintain a strong emphasis on the importance of quality and patient safety, engagement, leadership development and relationships between the medical staff and the health care system.

Prior to assuming this role, Dr. Belanger was the Interim Vice President Quality and Chief Medical Officer AHS, Vice President and Medical Director Central and Southern Alberta AHS, and the Medical Director Calgary Zone AHS. He has also held several medical leadership positions in AHS and the former Calgary Health Region. These include Senior Vice-President and Zone Medical Director for the Calgary Zone (AHS); Acting Executive Vice-President and Chief Medical Officer of AHS; Zone Medical Director, Calgary Zone, (AHS); and the Calgary Health Region/University of Calgary interim and deputy department head of Pediatrics. He continues to practice as a Pediatric Emergency Physician at the Alberta Children's Hospital in Calgary.

Originally from Ottawa, Dr. Belanger obtained his medical degree from the University of Ottawa. He completed his internship in Regina Saskatchewan, and his post-graduate work in Pediatrics was done at the University of Alberta and McGill University. He completed his fellowship in Pediatric Emergency Medicine at McGill University in 1991. Dr. Belanger continues to be active in resident education, maintaining his status as a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary.

Dr. Belanger has assumed active roles in national organizations. He was the President of the Canadian Association of Emergency Physicians (CAEP) from 2002 to 2004 and chaired the Specialty Committee, Paediatric Emergency Medicine, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada from 2006 to 2012.

Dr. Belanger is a patient-focused senior health executive who is recognized for his commitment in building quality and safety cultures and realizing whole system performance and transformation. He is a collaborator-builder noted for his “bottom up” approach, and developing strong ties with patients, clinicians, academic medicine, and other community stakeholders for meeting patient needs, and accomplishing high level organizational goals. He is an enthusiastic strategic and operational medical leader who moves teams towards implementing creative solutions and attaining greater system functioning and patient outcomes.

Dr. Belanger lives in downtown Calgary, Alberta. He is an avid cyclist and likes to travel and spend time with his family.