Ross Upshur, BA (Hons.), MA, MD, MSc, CCFP, FRCPC

Professor

Positions: Head, Division of Clinical Public Health, Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Scientific Director, Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation
Assistant Director, Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System
SGS Status: Full Member
Primary Graduate Appointment: Dalla Lana School of Public Health
Program: Collaborative Specialization in Bioethics
Available to Supervise CSB Students: Yes

Research Interests
  • evidence in health care
  • complexity and aging
  • philosophy of medicine
  • bioethics, public health and global health ethics particularly infectious diseases
  • preventive medicine
  • clinical reasoning
  • time series analysis of health services data
  • primary care research
  • health information privacy
Current Research Projects

www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/faculty-profile/upshur-e-g/

Education & Training History
  • 1997 MSc University of Toronto Epidemiology Thesis: Measuring the Impact of Influenza on Hospitalizations of the Elderly in Ontario
  • 1986 MD McMaster University
  • 1983 MA Queen’s University Philosophy Thesis: Prejudice and Understanding: A Study of Hans-Georg Gadamer’s Philosophical Hermeneutics
  • 1982 BA University of Winnipeg Philosophy (with Honours)
  • Medical Licensure and Memberships
  • 2005 Member, College of Family Physicians of Canada
  • 1997 Fellow, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada 1986 Registration to practice medicine in the Province of Ontario
    1986 Licentiate of the Medical Council of Canada Post Graduate Medical Training
  • 1993-97 Residency Program in Community Medicine, University of Toronto Chief Resident (June 1996 – January 1997)
  • 1991 Geriatric Traineeship, McMaster University
  • 1986-87 General Comprehensive Internship, Toronto Western Hospital
Honours & Awards

www.dlsph.utoronto.ca/faculty-profile/upshur-e-g/

Other Affiliations
  • Fellow, Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada
  • Member, College of Family Physicians of Canada
  • Member, Joint Centre for Bioethics
  • Affliliate, Institiute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology
  • Member, Centre for the Environment
  • Adjunct Scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences
  • Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Geography and Geology, McMaster University
About Dr. Upshur

Dr. Ross Upshur is currently the Head of the Division of Clinical Public Health at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, Scientific Director, Bridgepoint Collaboratory for Research and Innovation and Assistant Director of the Lunenfeld Tanenbaum Research Institute, Sinai Health System. At the University of Toronto, he is a Professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Family and Community Medicine, affiliate member of the Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology and Adjunct Senior Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

In 2015, Dr. Upshur was named one of the Top 20 Pioneers in Family Medicine Research and Family Medicine Researcher of the Year, by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Dr. Upshur is the former Director of the University of Toronto Joint Centre for Bioethics (2006-2011) and was Canada Research Chair in Primary Care Research (2005-2015). He is a member of The Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada and the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Dr. Upshur’s research focuses on the intersection of primary care and public health. His current interests include managing complex chronic disease in aging adults, clinical measurement, the concept of evidence in health care, philosophy of medicine including medical epistemology and the integration of ethics and clinical reasoning, public health ethics, global health ethics, empirical approaches in bioethics, primary care research methods, time series applications in health services research, communicable disease and environmental epidemiology. He has held numerous peer reviewed grants. He has over 350 publications including more than 200 peer reviewed publications spanning these domains. He has served on ethics committees for the Public Health Agency of Canada, the World Health Organization and Doctors without Borders.