Charles Wright, MD
Consultant in Medical and Academic and Medical Affairs, Ontario
Appropriateness/Need for Medical Care
416-824-5407 | [email protected]
Dr. Wright, the 2002 recipient of the Emmett Hall Memorial Foundation Award for research and service to the Canadian health care system, is now consultant in medical affairs, program planning and evaluation. His earlier career was in clinical and academic surgery as Professor of Surgery, University of Saskatchewan, then 12 years as medical VP and director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology and Evaluation at the University of British Columbia and the Vancouver Coastal Health Research Institute, Vancouver. He has published over 100 papers in various aspects of surgery, medical administration and the health care system. In the 1980s Dr. Wright chaired the Saskatchewan Medical Care Insurance Commission.
As consultant he has worked with multiple health system agencies in Canada and abroad, including hospitals, regional authorities, ministries of health and consulting companies. Dr. Wright was Scientific Officer of the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation 1997-2006, and chair of the examination test committee of the Medical Council of Canada 1996-2006. Currently he is a member of the Ontario Health Technology Advisory Committee, the board quality of care committees at Cancer Care Ontario and the University Health Network in Toronto. He was recently appointed a Councilor with the Health Council of Canada.
Download a new hi-res photo of Charles Wright
Commentaries by Dr. Charles Wright:
When is it ok for doctors to let someone die? // Quand est-il acceptable pour un médecin de laisser une personne mourir?
Screening mammography // La mammographie de dépistage
When health services harm more than help
Reducing the harm caused by screening mammography // Réduire les torts causés par les mammographies de dépistage
Podcasts with Dr. Charles Wright:
Is CPR overused? When is it ok for doctors to let someone die?, with Charles Wright
Posters by Dr. Charles Wright:
“Harm as a consequence of necessary treatment can be accepted, but exposing healthy people to harm from treatment that they should not have had in the first place is unacceptable.”
Read the commentary: When health services harm more than help
“Overdiagnosis is a serious problem in screening for cancer, especially of the prostate, breast and thyroid. This has been a very hard lesson to learn in view of the high hopes and the resources that we have invested in screening programs as the way to reduce mortality from cancer.”
Read the commentary: When health services harm more than help
“There is an urgent need for patients to be given more accurate and accessible information about the risks and benefits of health interventions, especially in screening programs involving normal healthy people with no signs or symptoms of disease.”
Read the commentary: When health services harm more than help
“It is now clear that the benefits of screening mammography have been greatly exaggerated and the serious adverse effects all but ignored in the enthusiasm to support breast screening programs. It’s time for these programs to be reconsidered.”
Read the commentary: Screening mammography
This free ebook is a compilation of the EvidenceNetwork.ca commentaries published in major newspapers in 2015, written by experts in the health policy field.
