Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Dr. Barber obtained his MD from the University of Alberta in 1975 and his Canadian Fellowship in Dermatology in 1981. In 1981 as the Chief Resident in Dermatology at Harvard Medical School he qualified as a Diplomate of the American Academy of Dermatology.
CLINICAL EXPERIENCE
Dr. Barber has been in clinical practice at The Dermatology Centre (Calgary) for over 24 years and currently holds a position as Associate Clinical Professor of Dermatology at the University of Calgary. Dr. Barber serves as member of many medical advisory boards related to his specialty. He has presented professional papers to both national and international medical audiences.
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE. Dr. Barber has participated in over 35 clinical research trials as the Principal InvestigatorHis major area of interest is the drug therapy of psoriasis and eczema. MEDICAL COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT Dr. Barber is the Chair of the Research Ethics Review Committee of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta. He has held this position for 4 years. This committee reviews all biomedical human research that is conducted in Alberta outside of Alberta’s Universities. Dr. Barber has been appointed by the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta to serve as one of 9 members on the Board of Trustees for the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research. The foundation supports researchers in 15 different faculties at the three Alberta universities covering the full spectrum of health research activities from biomedical and clinical research to health services, population and community based research.
Dr. Barber has served his profession in many ways outside of his clinical responsibilities. He was president of his national professional organization, the Canadian Dermatology Association (CDA) in 2003 and president of the Alberta Society of Dermatology (1994 -1996). His additional commitments to the CDA have focused on maintaining the academic excellence of the CDA annual conference, having served as the chair of the medical education committee and as a member of the organizing committee. He is currently the Director of Corporate Relations for the Canadian Dermatology Association.
THE COMMUNITY AT LARGE Dr. Barber served his community as the youth hockey coordinator for his community from 1995 to 2000 and as an elected member of the board of directors for the Minor Hockey Association of Calgary from 2000 to 2004. This organization oversees a hockey program for 21,000 Calgary players aged 4 to 20 years. In this capacity, in addition to the operative responsibilities, his main accomplishment was the development and implementation of a program to “control” parental behavior “at the rink”. This program was adopted provincially and serves as the basis for a national program. Dr. Barber chaired a CDA committee which developed a sun awareness program that was distributed nationally to every grade school in Canada and a similar CD ROM program which was distributed nationally to junior high schools.