Daniel McIsaac

Daniel McIsaac

MD, MPH, FRCPC

Scientist, Acute Care Research

Ottawa Hospital Research Institute

Professor & Vice Chair (Research and Innovation)

Department of Anesthesiology & Pain Medicine, University of Ottawa

Tier 1 Chair in Innovative Perioperative Care

University of Ottawa

Scientist

ICES

Anesthesiologist

The Ottawa Hospital

Research Groups

Bio

Dan McIsaac is an anesthesiologist and CIHR-funded scientist whose research focuses on improving outcomes for people undergoing surgery. His work integrates clinical trials, knowledge synthesis, patient engagement, and data science to design and evaluate interventions that enhance perioperative care and recovery.

Dr. McIsaac's research programs focus on optimizing prehabilitation and proactive rehabilitation, improving surgical care for older adults living with frailty, evaluating health system performance, and advancing the use of patient-reported outcomes in clinical care and policy. Working closely with patients, clinicians, and health system partners, Dr. McIsaac’s research aims to generate evidence that improves recovery after surgery and supports learning health systems.

Research Goals and Interests

  • Clinical trials
  • Perioperative outcomes research
  • Health services research and data science
  • Prehabilitation
  • Care of older people with frailty
  • Knowledge synthesis
  • Anesthesiology and perioperative medicine

AIMS Research Group

Dan's research focuses on improving the care and outcomes of older people who require surgery using innovative approaches. These include data science, patient-oriented research and clinical trials. 

 

Trainee projects and accomplishments

May 2019: AIMS trainees sweep uOttawa Anesthesia research awards
Group of individuals in a professional environment
L-R: Colin McCartney (Department Head), Simon Feng (1st place), Emma Harris (2nd place), Gavin Hamilton (3rd place), Mark Neuman (Visiting professor, Penn), Greg Bryson (Vice Chair Research).

 

May 2019: Six AIMS trainees present at uOttawa Gary Johnson Research Day
Group of individuals in a professional environment

L-R: Kendra Derry (R4-Day of surgery cancellations), Emma Harris (R3-Frailty to improve prognostic accuracy), Simon Feng (R2-Attributable cost of preop anemia), Alexandra Fottinger (R3-Patient centered outcomes and frailty in cardiac surgery), Gavin Hamilton (R5-Nerve blocks for shoulder surgery), Kathryne DesAutels (MS1-Self-reported preop frailty).
 

May 2017: Five trainees present at uOttawa Gary Johnson Research Day
Group of individuals in a professional environment

L-R: David MacDonald (Fellow: Frailty and capacity assessment in older patients), Dima Pelipeychenko (R1: Shared Decision Making in older surgical patients), Gavin Hamilton (R3: Comparative assessment of different frailty assessments before surgery), Tim Jen (R2: Systematic review of interventions for frail surgical patients), Matt Vierula (MS4: Systematic review of ACB for knee surgery)?

 

March 2017: Abhi Patel presents at uOttawa undergrad research day

Person standing beside a poster??

 

The impact of age and frailty on surgery-induced inflammatory response: a systematic review protocol??

November 2016: Matt Vierula presents at American Society of Regional Anesthesia Conference

Person standing beside a poster

 

Hospital-level practice variation in neuraxial anesthesia use for hip fracture surgery ?independently predicts 30-day mortality: a population-based cohort study

Does adductor canal block improve functional outcomes after knee surgery? A systematic review

November 2016: Nikhile Mookerji presents at OHRI Research Day

Person standing beside a poster?

A systematic review of perioperative interventions to improve the outcomes of frail elderly patients having surgery

June 2016: Karim Abdulla wins Canadian Anesthesiologist's Society Resident Research Competition

Karim's abstract

one person presenting an certificate/award to another person CAS President Susan O'Leary presents Karim Abdulla with a certificate recognizing his victory in the CAS Resident Research Competition

 

 

June 2016: uOttawa residents are 2 of 6 finalists in the CAS Resident Research Competition

More info here
Two people in a suit
Gavin Hamilton and Karim Abdulla at CAS 2016 in Vancouver

 

May 2016: Trainees present at uOttawa Anesthesiology Research Day

group picture of four people in a professional setting Left to right G Hamilton (Systematic review of the impact of postoperative delirium on mortality); K Abdulla (Association of delayed emergency surgery with mortality); E Cole (Scoping Review of regional anesthesia in enhanced recovery protocols); S Ben Zeev (Impact of PVB on short terms outcomes after breast cancer surgery).

 

March 2016: UROP project presented at uOttawa undergrad Research Day


Person standing beside a poster
J Di Michele (Systematic review of the impact of postoperative delirium on mortality)

 

December 2016: Evan Cole, MD co-author in BJA special edition for PGA 2015


Link: Regional and ERA-BJA 2015


 

October 2015: Karim Abdulla, MD presents at TOH Patient Safety Conference


Patient safety impact of delayed emergency noncardiac surgery
 

June 2015: Gavin Hamilton, MD chosen as Frailty Project Highly Qualified Personnel by a Canadian Frailty Network


CFN Catalyst Grant: Accuracy and acceptability of frailty instruments to identify patients at high risk of death or disability after surgery (PI D McIsaac)

 

June 2015: Kathryn Wheeler presents at Canadian Anesthesiologists Society Conference


Impact of TAP blocks on postoperative length of stay


News


Publications

Standards for reporting research methods, interventions, and Outcomes in Surgical Prehabilitation studies (SOS-Prehab)

2026-03-04 Go to publication

Frailty and perioperative outcomes: SNAP-3 as a call to action

2025-08-01 Go to publication

Advanced Hemodynamic Monitoring: Are We Asking the Right Questions?

2025-04-01 Go to publication

Evaluation of point-of-care haemoglobin measurement accuracy in surgery (PREMISE) and implications for transfusion practice: a prospective cohort study

2025-02-01 Go to publication

Relative efficacy of prehabilitation interventions and their components: systematic review with network and component network meta-analyses of randomised controlled trials

2025-01-22 Go to publication

Related Research at The Ottawa Hospital