Michel Shamy
Scientist, Neuroscience Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine (Neurology)
University of Ottawa
Attending Neurologist, Department of Medicine
The Ottawa Hospital
Fellowship Director, Ottawa Stroke Program
Research Interests
1. Acute Stroke imaging and treatment
2. Clinical trial ethics and regulation
3. End of life care
4. History of Medicine
5. Medical Epistemology
Brief Biography
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
Selected Publications
1. Shamy MCF, Pugliese MW, Meisel K, Rodriguez R, Kim AS, Stahnisch FW, Smith EE. How Patient Demographics, Imaging and Physician Beliefs Influence IV tPA Administration: A Survey of Neurologists in Canada and the United States. Stroke 2016;47:2051-57.
2. Shamy MCF, Stahnisch FW, Hill MD. Fallibility: A New Perspective on the Ethics of Clinical Trial Enrollment. International Journal of Stroke 2015;1:2-6.
3. Fedyk M, Shamy MCF. Projectability, Disagreement and Consensus: A Challenge to Clinical Equipoise. Theoretical & Applied Ethics 2014;3:17-34.
4. Shamy MCF, Jaigobin CS. The Complexities of Acute Stroke Decision-Making: A Survey of Neurologists. Neurology 2013;81:1-4.
5. Boyko M, Iancu D, Lesiuk H, Dowlatshahi D, Shamy MCF. Decision-Making and the Limits of Evidence: A Case Report of Acute Stroke in Pregnancy. The Neurohospitalist 2016;6:70-75.
Diseases, conditions and populations of interest
Research and clinical approaches
