Evaluative Clinical Sciences

Administrative Assistant: Karen Arbour
Phone: 416-480-6100 ext. 63780
Email: karen.arbour@ices.on.ca

Education:

• MD, 1984, University of Toronto, Canada
• MSHSR, 1989, Stanford University, U.S.
• FRCPC, 1990, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
• FACP, 1993, American College of Physicians, U.S.

Appointments and Affiliations:

• Senior scientist, Evaluative Clinical Sciences, Trauma, Emergency & Critical Care Research Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute
• Staff physician, division of general internal medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre
• Professor, department of medicine, University of Toronto 
• Professor, Institute for Health Policy Management & Evaluation, U of T
• Senior scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
• Canada Research Chair in Medical Decision Sciences

Research Focus:

• Medical decision science

Research Summary:

Medical decision science explores how people reason, formulate judgments and make decisions. The term "medical" is used in the broad sense to include all actions that contribute to health. The term "people" is used in the broad sense to include clinicians, patients and policymakers. This field is not limited to doctors or confined to clinical care. The main rationale for this field is that medical care requires judgment, judgment raises the risk of error and error provides an opportunity for improvement.

Selected Publications:

See current publications list at PubMed.

1. Redelmeier DA, Yarnell CJ, Thiruchelvam D, Tibshirani RJ. Physicians' warnings for unfit drivers and the risk of a road crash. N Engl J Med. 2012;367:1228–36.
2. Redelmeier DA, Vermeulen M. Emergency department visits during an Olympic gold medal broadcast. Open Medicine. 2011;5:112–9.
3. Redelmeier DA, Tibshirani RJ. Driving fatalities on U.S. presidential election days. JAMA. 2008;300:1518–20.
4. Redelmeier DA, Tibshirani RJ, Evans L. Traffic law enforcement and risk of death from motor vehicle crashes: a case crossover study. Lancet. 2003;361:2177–82.
5. Redelmeier DA, Stewart CL. Driving fatalities on Super Bowl Sunday. N Engl J Med. 2003;348:368–9.
6. Redelmeier DA, Singh SM. The survival of academy award winning actors and actresses. Ann Intern Med. 2001;134:955–62.
7. Bell CM, Redelmeier DA. Mortality among patients admitted to hospitals on weekends as compared to weekdays. N Engl J Med. 2001; 345:663–8.

Related News and Stories:

• Research summer student trains eye on medical assistance in dying: His project will evaluate whether health care workers’ opinions on end-of-life care match their actions (June 25, 2019)
• Saluting impact and influence: Researchers elected Fellows of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences (Dec. 6, 2018)
• A matter of perspective: Study illuminates surprising source of collisions (SRI Magazine, 2017)
• Tomorrow's innovators (Aug. 29, 2013)
• This is your SRI (PDF, Nexus Autumn, 2011)
• Car crashes in U.S. more likely on election day (September 16, 2010)
• Medical school admission affected by weather: Study (December 27, 2009)
• Driving fatalities surge on U.S. presidential election days: SRI scientist finds an increased risk of crashes on voting days (September 30, 2008)
• Trauma ties: SRI doc is appointed de Souza Chair in Clinical Trauma Research (January 27, 2008)
• Risk of death during marathons lower than commonly believed (December 21, 2007)
• Clinical epidemiology: Take three—SRI scientist gives cholesterol-reducing drug new life in defence against sepsis: A feature from Sunnybrook Research Institute Research Report 2004–2006

Related Links:

• Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences profile