Dr. Kathryn Dong

Dr. Kathryn Dong is the Social Accountability Lead for the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and the Alberta Health Services Chair in Emergency Medicine Research.

In addition to her training in emergency and addiction medicine, she also completed a Masters in Population Health at the University of Alberta. Her clinical work is as an inpatient addiction medicine physician at the Royal Alexandra Hospital.

While working as an emergency physician, Dr. Dong could see that the health care system was not able to meet the needs of many of the patients that she was seeing, particularly those that used substances and/or experienced structural marginalization. This led her to partner with community members, the Royal Alexandra Hospital, and the Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation to co-design the Addiction Recovery and Community Health (ARCH) team. The ARCH team is a multidisciplinary consult service that includes addiction medicine physicians, nurse practitioners, social workers, nurses, peer support workers and counselors. The team provides holistic care and supports patients to meet their goals around substance use, overall health, and the social determinants of health.

Vision for Social Accountability

Social accountability has been at the heart of Dr. Dong’s work for most of her career. She believes that it is only by listening and establishing meaningful relationships with the communities that we serve that we can truly understand how we can be of service. In her role as Social Accountability Lead, she is excited to create more ways that community members can provide input into the priorities and activities within the faculty.

Hobbies + Interests

When not at work, Dr. Dong can be found spending time with her three boys in the mountains, knitting, or learning how to weave.