Alan Forster profile picture

Contact Information

Alan Forster, MD, FRCPC, MSc
613-798-5555 ex 12777
aforster@ohri.ca

Ottawa Hospital, Civic Campus
1053 Carling Avenue, Box 100
Executive Suites, Rm AM48
Ottawa, ON K1Y 4E9

ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2942-2891

Alan Forster

Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
VP, Innovation and Quality
Ottawa Hospital
Full Professor, Medicine
University of Ottawa
Vice Chair, Quality and Clinical Services, Medicine
University of Ottawa
Vice Chair, Quality and Clinical Services, Medicine
University of Ottawa

Research Interests

Brief Biography

Alan J. Forster MD, FRCPC, MSc is a general internist; Vice President, Innovation and Quality at the Ottawa Hospital; Vice Chair Quality and Clinical Services, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa. He is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Ottawa and Senior Scientist in the Clinical Epidemiology Program at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute.

His research focuses on patient safety and quality improvement. He is also leading in the development of a hospital data warehouse, which will serve as a supporting infrastructure for a research program in patient safety and quality of care.

He has received several prestigious awards recognizing his work within the field of health services research, including a Career Scientist Award with the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and an Early Research Award and Ontario Research Fund grant from the Ontario Government’s Ministry of Research and Innovation.

He provides ongoing scientific advice regarding the measurement of quality of care to national and international organizations, such as the Canadian Institute for Health Information, eHealth Ontario, Health Quality Ontario and the World Health Organization.

Selected Publications

  1. Forster AJ, Oake N, Roth V, Suh KN, Majewski J, Leeder C, van Walraven C. Patient-level factors associated with methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus carriage at hospital admission: A systematic review. Am J Infect Control 2013 Mar;41(3):214-20 [Epub 2012 Sep 20] 
  2. Forster AJ, Oake N, Auger C, Ali M, Buckeridge D, Equale T, van Walraven C, Tamblyn R. Using information technology to improve the monitoring of outpatient prescribing. JAMA Intern Med. 2013 Mar 11;173(5):382-4. [Epub 2013 Feb 4:1-2] 
  3. van Walraven C, Wong J, Hawken S, Forster AJ. Comparing methods to calculate hospital-specific rates of early death or urgent readmission. CMAJ. 2012 Oct 16; 184(15):E810-7. [Epub 2012 Oct 9]. 
  4. Calder LA, Forster AJ, Stiell IG, Carr LK, Brehaut JC, Perry JJ, Vaillancourt C, Croskerry P. Experiential and rational decision making: a survey to determine how emergency physicians make clinical decisions. Emerg Med J. 2012;29(10):811–816. [Epub 2011 Nov 7] 
  5. van Walraven C, Austin PC, Forster AJ. Urgent readmission rates can be used to infer differences in avoidable readmission rates between hospitals. J Clin Epidemiol. 2012 Oct;65(10):1124-30. [Epub 2012 Jul 17]
  6. Forster AJ, Worthington JR, Hawken S, Bourke M, Rubens F, Shojania K, van Walraven C. Using prospective clinical surveillance to identify adverse events in hospital. BMJ Qua Saf 2011 Sep;20(9):756-63 [Epub 2011 March 1]
  7. Forster AJ, Turnbull J, McGuire S, Ho ML, Worthington JR. Improving patient safety and physician accountability using the hospital credentialing process. Open Medicine. 2011:5(2):e79-e86. 


     

Diseases, conditions and populations of interest





Research and clinical approaches