Michel Shamy

I am a neurologist and researcher based at the University of Ottawa, the Ottawa Hospital and the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute. My research applies techniques from history and philosophy to study what doctors do, and why they do it. I believe that efforts to improve clinical practice will be most effective if they are informed by an understanding of the practices we are trying to change, and of how they developed. This is the perspective that research in the history and philosophy of medicine can add.

As a stroke neurologist, I focus on controversies and challenges encountered in the practice of neurology, though my methods and conclusions are applicable across clinical medicine. My current research program focuses on three major areas:
1. Physicians’ decision-making in the treatment of patients with acute stroke
2. Ethical and epistemic controversies surrounding randomized clinical trials
3. Ethical complexities in end-of-life decision-making