B.C. hires expert to help optimize use of medications

VICTORIA – The Ministry of Health has announced that Dr. Malcolm Maclure (pictured) has been hired as a consultant on research and evidence development for the Ministry. Dr. Maclure is Professor and BC Chair of Patient Safety in the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology and Therapeutics at UBC.

Over the past 20 years, Dr. Maclure has contributed to improvements in health data privacy protection, such as using “camouflaged sampling” and protocols for creating anonymous “prescribing portraits.”

These techniques remove personal information from the data sets. Researchers use this data to look at how anonymous patients respond to medication use. The data is then analyzed and the results and recommendations can be used by physicians to help improve their prescribing practices.

The health ministry is pleased to announce that Dr. Maclure will be working with the Ministry on projects which will provide doctors with confidential information about their prescribing and how to optimize use of medications.

Dr. Maclure is renowned for his expertise in use of data for evidence-based evaluation, and is engaged by the Ministry as a Consultant on Research and Evidence Development, in addition to being fully eligible to access data in accordance with the current Ministry protocols, policies and procedures for data access.