Friesen International Prize Lecture

The Past, Present and Future of Evidence-Based Medicine Presented by Dr. Gordon Guyatt

Dr. Gordon Guyatt’s presentation will review the origin, evolution, and current challenges of evidence-based medicine. Each event is followed by a 60-minute reception.

CANCELLED
Student Lecture

March 10, 3 - 4 p.m.
ECHA L1-19

We regret to inform you that the student lecture is cancelled due to unexpected travel delays for the guest speaker.

Lecture

All students, staff & faculty across College Health Sciences are welcome to attend.

March 11, 12 - 1 p.m.
Corbett Hall 2-39

RSVP here

 

Lecture description

The term EBM, introduced in 1991, now defines an approach to medical practice. This presentation describes its origin, evolution, and current challenges. It takes a historical approach to the development of EBM’s three principles: optimal clinical care involves access to systematic summaries of the best evidence – systematic reviews and if possible meta-analyses; some evidence is more trustworthy than others, and EBM offers an evidence hierarchy that has evolved over time; evidence-based medicine is that evidence itself is never sufficient for making clinical decisions. Values or preferences affect every clinical choice we make in collaboration with our patients.

About Dr. Gordon Guyatt

Portrait of  Dr. Gordon Guyatt

Dr. Gordon Guyatt is an academic clinical investigator and educator. In 1990, he coined the term "evidence-based medicine" (EBM) to describe a new approach to medical education and practice. Since then, he has been a leading figure in providing educational resources for EBM, a leading innovator in EBM research methods, and made major contributions to clinical trials that have improved patient care.

Dr. Guyatt received his MD from McMaster University in 1977, completed residency training in internal medicine in Toronto and McMaster in 1982 at which time he joined the then Department of Clinical Epidemiology and Biostatistics and the Department of Medicine, becoming a Distinguished McMaster Professor in 2010.

In 1990 Dr. Guyatt became the Director of the Internal Medicine residency training and implemented a training program that established EBM as a new way of teaching and practicing medicine. Dr. Guyatt subsequently led the "Evidence-based Medicine Working Group" in describing the approach to teaching and practice he was pioneering and led a series of over 30 "Users' Guides to the Medical Literature" published in JAMA, a series that has provided the underpinning of all subsequent expositions of evidence-based practice.

Dr. Guyatt has made major contributions in a number of areas of clinical research. In health status measurement, his pioneering work includes articulation of the concepts of responsiveness and interpretability, and the development of a number of widely used instruments for measuring health-related quality of life.

Dr. Guyatt has played a major role in the planning and conduct of a large number of randomized control trials of a wide variety of health interventions. He has made major contributions to clinical trial methodology beyond quality of life measurement, including single-subject randomized trials, trials stopped early for benefit, and the use of composite endpoints.

Dr. Guyatt was one of the first to suggest methodological standards for the conduct of systematic reviews and meta-analyses, and has continued to make major contributions in this area, including seminal work in the conduct and interpretation of subgroup analyses in both individual trials and systematic reviews. He was instrumental in creating the enormously influential GRADE approach to rating certainty of evidence in systematic reviews and moving from evidence to recommendations, an approach that has been adopted in over 110 organizations worldwide.

Dr. Guyatt has published over 1,500 peer-reviewed articles that have been cited over 200,000 times, establishing him as one of world’s 20 most cited living scientists. His work has been recognized by his appointment as an Officer of the Order of Canada, a Canadian Institute of Health Research Researcher of the Year, a member of the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame, and a recipient of the Einstein Foundation Award for promoting the quality of medical research.

The Henry G. Friesen International Prize in Health Research

Established in 2005 by the Friends of Canadian Institutes of Health Research (FCIHR), recognizes exceptional innovation by a visionary health leader of international stature. The $35,000 Friesen Prize is awarded annually. Dr. Gordon Guyatt will deliver public talks in 2024 in conjunction with the Friesen Prize Program. For more information visit the FCIHR website .