Joseph Shaw

Joseph R. Shaw, MD MSc FRCPC DRCPSC is a hematologist and thrombosis medicine specialist in the Department of Medicine at The Ottawa Hospital. He is a Clinician Scientist at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Ottawa. He holds the Department of Medicine Early Career Investigator Chair and is the Director of the Research+ Program in the Department of Medicine.

Dr. Shaw is currently Chair of the CanVECTOR National Thrombosis Seminars Committee and Co-Chair of the ISTH SSC on Perioperative and Critical Care Hemostasis and Thrombosis. He is also Associate Editor for Coagulation and Anticoagulant Drugs at European Heart Journal – Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy.

He completed his undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at McGill University, for which he was awarded the Major Hiram Mills Medal. He then completed his M.D., Internal Medicine, and Hematology training at the University of Ottawa. He completed Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons AFC training in Adult Thrombosis Medicine through the Thrombosis Unit at The Ottawa Hospital and a Master of Science in Epidemiology at the University of Ottawa.

His thesis, “Utility of Thrombin Generation Assays Towards Measuring the Anticoagulant Effects of Direct Oral Anticoagulants and Anticoagulation Reversal,” focused on the use of thrombin generation assays to quantify anticoagulant effects and reversal.

Dr. Shaw’s research program is centered on leveraging thrombin generation as a global pharmacodynamic marker of anticoagulation. He applies thrombin generation assays and related biomarkers to clinically consequential questions related to anticoagulation therapy, including anticoagulation-associated bleeding, breakthrough thrombosis during anticoagulant therapy, perioperative anticoagulation management in high-risk populations, direct oral anticoagulant measurement and interpretation, and anticoagulation reversal for major bleeding or urgent surgery.

His work aims to define how laboratory measures of coagulation phenotype can improve decisions about anticoagulant interruption, reversal, and resumption, and how they can contextualize bleeding and thrombosis events that occur during anticoagulant therapy. His studies focus on perioperative anticoagulation management in high-risk populations, including patients with mechanical heart valves, active cancer, chronic kidney disease, and antiphospholipid antibody syndrome; DOAC levels and perioperative bleeding; anticoagulant-associated bleeding and breakthrough thrombosis; and pharmacologic reversal strategies for anticoagulation-associated major bleeding or urgent surgery.

He is Co-Principal Investigator of PAUSE-2, a CIHR-funded multicentre randomized controlled trial evaluating perioperative direct oral anticoagulant management in patients undergoing high-bleed-risk surgery or neuraxial procedures. He is Principal Investigator of ACE-HIGH, a CIHR-funded multicentre prospective management cohort study evaluating perioperative anticoagulation management in patients with active cancer undergoing cancer-related surgery or invasive procedures.

He is also Principal Investigator of GAUGE, a prospective cohort study evaluating the effects of prothrombin complex concentrates on thrombin generation in patients with direct factor Xa inhibitor-associated major bleeding or urgent surgery.

His research on biomarker-enhanced VTE risk stratification in patients with cancer was awarded the Canadian Hematology Society’s John H. Crookston Award in 2019, and his publication on the perioperative management of anticoagulation among patients with cancer-associated VTE was recognized with the Journal of Thrombosis and Haemostasis Editors Award in 2020. 

In 2024, he was awarded the Canadian Hematology Society's Early Career Award.