Norman R.C. Campbell

Norman R.C. Campbell
Citizenship	Canadian
Occupation	Professor Emeritus
Awards	Order of Canada (2014)
Academic background
Education	MD (1980), Memorial University of Newfoundland

Norman R.C. Campbell is a Professor Emeritus of the University of Calgary, where he served as professor of Medicine, Community Health Sciences and Physiology and Pharmacology. For his contributions as a researcher and public health advocate and for his commitment to improving the well-being of Canadians he became a Member of the Order of Canada in 2014.

Career

A professor of medicine and research chair at the University of Calgary, Norman Campbell has been a champion of the prevention and control of hypertension. He was instrumental in establishing national clinical guidelines that are being used by health care providers to detect, treat and manage high blood pressure, and which are helping to reduce mortality in Canada. He has also worked with governments to help Canadians reduce the amount of sodium in their diets, and consults internationally with the World Health Organization in the area of nutrition and micro-nutrients.

In addition to his work at the University of Calgary, he was also a member of the O'Brien Institute for Public Health and Libin Cardiovascular Institute of Alberta. Dr Campbell continues as a Senior consultant to Resolve To Save Lives (RTSL), a temporary advisor to the World Bank to provide advice for hypertension control in Samoa and Cambodia, a consultant to the Pan American Health Organization Hearts in the Americas Initiative and a consultant to the for hypertension control in Mongolia.

In the past, Dr Campbell has served as:

• President of the World Hypertension League (2013–2015; League of national hypertension and cardiovascular organizations dedicated to global hypertension prevention and control).

• President of Blood Pressure Canada, (1996–1999 and 2006–2010).

• President of the Canadian Hypertension Society (1999–2000).

• Founder and Chair of the annual Canadian hypertension recommendations/control program 2000–2002, 2005–2010 (Canadian Hypertension Education Program).

• President of the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics

• Chair of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization Regional Expert Group on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention through Dietary Salt Reduction (2009-2011).

• Co-Chair of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization Technical Advisory Group on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention through Dietary Salt Reduction (2012-2015). [1]

•Chair of the Pan American Health Organization Regional Expert Group for cardiovascular disease prevention through population-wide dietary salt reduction. [2]

• Chair and Co-chair of the Vascular Risk Reduction program of the Alberta Health Services Strategic Clinical Networks (2012-2016),

• Chair and Co-Chair of the ACTION network of Alberta Health Care Professional and Scientific Organizations to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease (2013-2017)

• Founder and Chair of the ‘TRUE’ international consortium of health and scientific organizations to develop standards for the conduct of clinical research on dietary salt [3].

• Founder and initial Chair ‘Science of salt’ weekly review of the literature on dietary sodium and regular systematic critical appraisals of clinical research relating to the harms of dietary sodium and methods to reduce dietary salt.

• Founder and Chair of the Canadian Hypertension Advisory Committee (2011-2016). Vice chair 2016-2019

• HSF CIHR Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control (2011-2016).

• CHIR Canada Chair in Hypertension Prevention and Control (2006-2011).

• Chair and Co-Chair of the integration committee to form Hypertension Canada from the Canadian Hypertension Society, Blood Pressure Canada and Canadian Hypertension Education Program.

During his tenure as President of Blood Pressure Canada and the Canadian Hypertension Society, Dr Campbell led several strategic planning sessions and initiated the annual Canadian Hypertension Recommendations - Control program in 2000 developing the annually updated evidence-based recommendations process, a separate implementation process, and a monitoring and evaluation process. The program was associated with more than 5-fold increase in control of hypertension in Canada (13% to 68%; 1985-1992 to 2012-13). In Blood Pressure Canada, Dr Campbell led the development in 2006 of a national advocacy and education program for dietary sodium reduction and a national public education program for hypertension. Dr Campbell as President of the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology (2002-2004) led the organization in two strategic planning sessions, hosting an international meeting to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the organization and creating the annual Canadian Therapeutic Congress with the meeting of three national pharmacology and therapeutics organizations. In 2010-2011, Dr Campbell chaired the development of a Pan Canadian Framework for hypertension prevention and control, in 2014-15, the 5-year update of the Framework and was also on the 1999 Canadian hypertension strategic planning committee. Dr Campbell was on the steering committee and co-chaired the Risk Factor committee for the Canadian Heart Health Strategy 2007-9 and was on the executive of the Health Canada Intersectoral Sodium Reduction Committee and a member of its four subcommittees (2007-2010). Dr Campbell chaired the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization Regional Expert Group on Cardiovascular Disease Prevention through Dietary Salt Reduction that had the task of making policy recommendations to reduce dietary sodium in the America’s (2009-2011) and co-chaired the technical advisory group (TAG) of the Pan American Health Organization / World Health Organization Region effort on the same topic 2012-2015. The number of countries in the America’s with national salt reduction programs increased from 3 to over 20 during this time frame with several countries developing world leading interventions. In 2010-2011, Dr. Campbell was a member of the WHO Nutrition Guidance Expert Advisory Group (micronutrient subcommittee). In addition, Dr Campbell chaired and then co-chaired the committee to integrate the Canadian Hypertension Society, Blood Pressure Canada and the Canadian Hypertension Education Program into Hypertension Canada in 2009-2010. Dr Campbell is a past chair of the Alberta, Ministers Expert Committee on Drugs and Therapeutics (2002-2004) and is a former Head (1994-2000) and Chief of General Medicine (1994-1999) at the University of Calgary and the Calgary Health Region. During Dr Campbells tenure as president, the World Hypertension League increased the number of member associations by 40, developed regional offices, official relations with the Journal of Clinical Hypertension, global recognition awards for prevention and control of hypertension, a needs assessment of national hypertension organizations, global fact sheets and calls to action on hypertension and on dietary salt, a fact sheet and call to action on hypertension in Africa, a training module for blood pressure screening programs, multiple position statements relating to dietary salt, standards for assessment of blood pressure, launched a new website and oversaw the development of a process for weekly updated systematic literature reviews on how to reduce dietary salt and the health impacts of reducing dietary salt with a periodic critical appraisals of the literature on both salt topics. More recently Dr Campbell lead the development of global calls to action on dietary salt (supported by 74 national and international organizations) and on hypertension control (supported by 40 national and international organizations).

He is well known for his work with sodium reduction around the world. He has over 550 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has received several recognitions for his efforts.

Campbell obtained an MD degree from Memorial University of Newfoundland where he also completed his Internal Medicine residency. He has provided more than 500 invited national and international presentations.

Recognitions and awards

• 1995 - Piafsky Young Investigator Award in 1995 from the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology
• 1996 - Distinguished Achievement Award for Education and Research from the University of Calgary Faculty of Medicine
• 2001 - Olser Award from the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine
• 2005 - Distinguished Service Award from the Canadian Society for Clinical Pharmacology
• 2005 - Senior Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine
• 2007 - Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Leadership Award in Heart Healthy Policy
• 2009 - Canadian Hypertension Society Distinguished Service Award
• 2013 - Guenter Award for International Health in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Calgary
• 2013 - JG Fodor award for prevention and control of hypertension from Hypertension Canada
• 2014 - Appointed to the Order of Canada for his contributions as a researcher and public health advocate
• 2014 - Appointed to the Fellowship in the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (resigned in 2020)
• 2014 - Dr. Howard N. Segall Award of Merit, Canadian Cardiovascular Society
• 2015 - Frederic Newton Gisborne Starr Award, the Canadian Medical Association’s highest honour for physicians
• 2015 - Medal for Distinguished Service from the Alberta Medical Association
• 2015 - HRF Medal of Honour
• 2015 - The University of Calgary named Dr Campbell a Peaks Scholar.
• 2019 - Memorial University of Newfoundland awarded Dr. Campbell the degree of Doctor of Science, honoris causa.
• 2020 - Senior Investigator Award from Hypertension Canada