Dr. Malcolm Maclure was appointed BC Research Chair in Patient Safety in 2009 and held the position until his retirement in June 2025. The position issupported by an endowment from the BC Ministry of Health. Raised in Victoria in the 1960s, he studied biochemistry at Oxford and epidemiology atHarvard in the 1970s. While teaching research methods at Harvard School of Public Health, 1984-1994, he invented the case-crossover study design,now a standard tool of epidemiology that began to be used in the 2000s to investigate triggers of patient-safety incidents. He held the position of AdjunctProfessor of Epidemiology at Harvard from 1994 to 2019. In 1991, on leave from Harvard, he joined the BC Ministry of Health’s Research Branch andbegan applying epidemiologic methods to health services research, particularly randomized trials of prescribing education programs. On leave from theMinistry, he was Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research Distinguished Scholar and Professor in the School of Health Information Science atUniversity of Victoria, 2002-2006. One of his research projects evolved into a Ministry-sponsored program called Education for Quality Improvement ofPatient care (EQIP), co-sponsored by BC Medical Association. His last permanent position in the Ministry of Health was Co-Director of Research andEvidence Development in Pharmaceutical Services Division, 2009-2012, which provided partial support for his position as Chair in Patient Safety. Hereturned to the Ministry part-time in 2018-2020 as the inaugural Research Scholar in Residence. Dr. Maclure joined the Therapeutics Initiative (TI)Executive Committee as evaluator in 1995-97, continued to be informally affiliated with the TI until formally rejoining in 2018, focusing on the TI’s Portraitprogram. In his role as Co-Lead of the Patient Safety and Quality Theme in the UBC Medical Undergraduate Program, 2011-2024, he co-designedlectures with Ms. Carolyn Canfield, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute’s inaugural “Canada Patient Safety Champion” (2014).

Social Media / Lab or Research Website

Website: www.uactive.org/about

Social Media: www.linkedin.com/in/malcolm-maclure-7a440a44

Case-crossover studies. Randomized policy trials. Pharmaceutical safety. Pharmaceutical program impacts. University Sustainability and Climate Action.

Research Theme(s)

Publication Link(s)

PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=maclure%20m&

Safer prescribing

Ex-officio member of Council of Health Quality BC (formerly the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council)

Co-Lead of Patient Safety Theme in Medical Undergraduate Program