Wade Thompson received his BScPhm (2013) and PharmD (2017) from University of Waterloo. He has practiced as a clinical pharmacist in long-term care, interdisciplinary primary care clinics (Family Health Teams), and geriatric outpatient clinics.
In Wade’s clinical work, he routinely encounters older persons taking many medications, some of which are unnecessary or even causing harm. His clinical and research work aims to address this issue and ensure that older persons are only taking medications that are necessary, effective, safe, and consistent with their healthcare goals and treatment preferences. This often means stopping medications when they are no longer a good fit (termed “deprescribing”).

Wade’s research program focuses on developing and evaluating different strategies for deprescribing in clinical practice. This involves knowledge synthesis and knowledge translation, as well as implementation science approaches to deprescribing. He has particular interest in shared decision-making and communication around deprescribing, and strategies that incorporate patient values and preferences into deprescribing decisions. Wade employs various methods in his research including qualitative research, surveys, systematic reviews, guideline development, and clinical trials. He is an investigator with the deprescribing.org initiative and maintains active collaborations with researchers in Denmark, Australia, United States, Ireland, and United Kingdom. Wade’s work had been published in leading medical and geriatrics journals including BMJ, JAMA Network Open, Age and Ageing, and Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.
Wade completed an MSc in clinical epidemiology at the University of Ottawa (2017) working as part of the deprescribing.org team developing evidence-based guidelines, clinical decision support tools, and patient engagement materials related to deprescribing. He completed a PhD at the University of Southern Denmark (2021) where he was part of a team that examined use and deprescribing of preventive medications among frail older persons. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at Women’s College Hospital and ICES in Toronto as part of a team studying an implementation science approach to optimizing cardiovascular care.

Appointments