Dr. Hoang had led the modernization of the Public Health Advanced Bacteriology and Mycology Program for over 17 years prior to her current role.  From a patient care perspective, she implemented 16S and ITS sequencing directly from clinical samples to support patient care, introduced province-wide reflex LGV testing for positive rectal chlamydia sample for timely diagnosis of an invasive disease, streamlined testing to focus on the reference function of the PHL. In preparation for the 2010 Olympics, the BCCDC PHL implemented Canada’s first Laboratory Response Network  (CLRN) program.  Dr. Hoang had collaborated with public health locally, provincially and nationally to support many outbreak investigations.  Linda was also the Medical Co-Director for the Provincial Infection Control Network (PICNet) until 2023, during which time she solidified collaborative relationships between PICNet and the BCCDC PHL to improve patient safety through a genomics-based response to healthcare associated infections.

Linda’s appreciation for the importance of “fingerprinting” pathogens of public health potential, led her to steer the PHL to be one of the first provincial public health laboratory in Canada with genomics-based surveillance of foodborne pathogens and multidrug resistant causing outbreaks in healthcare facilities (e.g. CPO’s) as part of routine laboratory work flow.  This foundation allowed the PHL to rapidly ramp up genomics testing capacity to respond to the recent COVID-19 pandemic, with a high throughput state of the art pathogen agnostic genomics hub at the BCCDC Public Health Laboratory as a pandemic legacy.

Linda Hoang, MD, MSc, DTM&H, FRCPC, is a medical microbiologist and medical director of the BCCDC Public Health Laboratory. She completed both her medical school and medical microbiology residency training at UBC. She became a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada in 2006.   She also obtained a diploma in tropical medicine and hygiene from the London School of Hygiene & Epidemiology in the UK.  Dr. Hoang has been based at BCCDC since 2006, however, she has been involved in BCCDC-led projects in Vietnam and BC since 1998.   She is also a clinical professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC.

She enjoys teaching and is the site director for the Medical Microbiology Residency Training Program at the BCCDC Public Health Laboratory.