Dr. Allan Detsky, C.M., is an expert in complexity. Whether caring for patients in hospital with challenging health issues or streamlining health policy to optimize health-care delivery, he is a leader.
Allan Detsky hadn’t planned on becoming a physician. But when he was pursuing his PhD in economics, he realized the life of an economics professor would be too slow. He was accepted into the prestigious Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, graduating with the elite combination of a Harvard MD alongside an MIT PhD.
This distinctive training powered Dr. Detsky’s rising profile as a clinician-scientist. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, he led the development of province-wide guidelines for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs, helping Ontario become only the second jurisdiction in the world to have such guidelines in place. These were subsequently adapted at the national level, helping maintain the sustainability of Canada’s public health-care system by informing provincial negotiations with pharmaceutical manufacturers. In recognition of his contributions in this area, Dr. Detsky was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2019.
Dr. Detsky’s interests were not confined to health economics, however. As Mount Sinai’s Physician-in-Chief from 1997 to 2009, he spent five to six months each year as an attending physician for patients admitted to the general internal medicine inpatient service. Among his many, wide-ranging contributions to clinical care, he created a process for assessing patients’ risk of experiencing cardiovascular complications during non-heart surgery, as well as a tool for assessing the nutritional status of hospitalized adult patients. Both tools have been used by health professionals around the world.
He is one of the few Canadians to have served on the editorial board of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). He was also a Contributing Writer for JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) from 2007 to 2017, authoring more than 60 commentaries on a wide variety of topics in health care. These essays are widely cited as seminal in the fields of general internal medicine and health economics.
Allan Detsky hadn’t planned on becoming a physician. But when he was pursuing his PhD in economics, he realized the life of an economics professor would be too slow. He was accepted into the prestigious Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, graduating with the elite combination of a Harvard MD alongside an MIT PhD.
This distinctive training powered Dr. Detsky’s rising profile as a clinician-scientist. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, he led the development of province-wide guidelines for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs, helping Ontario become only the second jurisdiction in the world to have such guidelines in place. These were subsequently adapted at the national level, helping maintain the sustainability of Canada’s public health-care system by informing provincial negotiations with pharmaceutical manufacturers. In recognition of his contributions in this area, Dr. Detsky was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2019.
Dr. Detsky’s interests were not confined to health economics, however. As Mount Sinai’s Physician-in-Chief from 1997 to 2009, he spent five to six months each year as an attending physician for patients admitted to the general internal medicine inpatient service. Among his many, wide-ranging contributions to clinical care, he created a process for assessing patients’ risk of experiencing cardiovascular complications during non-heart surgery, as well as a tool for assessing the nutritional status of hospitalized adult patients. Both tools have been used by health professionals around the world.
He is one of the few Canadians to have served on the editorial board of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). He was also a Contributing Writer for JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) from 2007 to 2017, authoring more than 60 commentaries on a wide variety of topics in health care. These essays are widely cited as seminal in the fields of general internal medicine and health economics.
Allan Detsky hadn’t planned on becoming a physician. But when he was pursuing his PhD in economics, he realized the life of an economics professor would be too slow. He was accepted into the prestigious Harvard-MIT Health Sciences and Technology Program, graduating with the elite combination of a Harvard MD alongside an MIT PhD.
This distinctive training powered Dr. Detsky’s rising profile as a clinician-scientist. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, he led the development of province-wide guidelines for evaluating the cost-effectiveness of pharmaceutical drugs, helping Ontario become only the second jurisdiction in the world to have such guidelines in place. These were subsequently adapted at the national level, helping maintain the sustainability of Canada’s public health-care system by informing provincial negotiations with pharmaceutical manufacturers. In recognition of his contributions in this area, Dr. Detsky was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2019.
Dr. Detsky’s interests were not confined to health economics, however. As Mount Sinai’s Physician-in-Chief from 1997 to 2009, he spent five to six months each year as an attending physician for patients admitted to the general internal medicine inpatient service. Among his many, wide-ranging contributions to clinical care, he created a process for assessing patients’ risk of experiencing cardiovascular complications during non-heart surgery, as well as a tool for assessing the nutritional status of hospitalized adult patients. Both tools have been used by health professionals around the world.
He is one of the few Canadians to have served on the editorial board of the prestigious New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM). He was also a Contributing Writer for JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association) from 2007 to 2017, authoring more than 60 commentaries on a wide variety of topics in health care. These essays are widely cited as seminal in the fields of general internal medicine and health economics.
Many things Dr. Detsky taught me remain massively influential in my approach to research, teaching and clinical practice.
Dr. Niteesh Choudhry, Executive Director, Center for Healthcare Delivery Sciences, Harvard Medical School
About Mount Sinai 100 Chairs
In 2023, Mount Sinai Hospital will mark its 100th anniversary. To honour the physicians and scientists who have made breakthrough discoveries and whose achievements have elevated Sinai Health’s reputation for world-class care, we are pleased to introduce our Mount Sinai 100 Chairs. These legacy chairs carry the names of Sinai Health’s most eminent trailblazers and will help recruit and fund the work of a new generation of clinicians and scientists, securing the next century of caring at Sinai Health. We invite you to help us imagine the next 100 years.
About Mount Sinai 100 Chairs
In 2023, Mount Sinai Hospital will mark its 100th anniversary. To honour the physicians and scientists who have made breakthrough discoveries and whose achievements have elevated Sinai Health’s reputation for world-class care, we are pleased to introduce our Mount Sinai 100 Chairs. These legacy chairs carry the names of Sinai Health’s most eminent trailblazers and will help recruit and fund the work of a new generation of clinicians and scientists, securing the next century of caring at Sinai Health. We invite you to help us imagine the next 100 years.
About Mount Sinai 100 Chairs
In 2023, Mount Sinai Hospital will mark its 100th anniversary. To honour the physicians and scientists who have made breakthrough discoveries and whose achievements have elevated Sinai Health’s reputation for world-class care, we are pleased to introduce our Mount Sinai 100 Chairs. These legacy chairs carry the names of Sinai Health’s most eminent trailblazers and will help recruit and fund the work of a new generation of clinicians and scientists, securing the next century of caring at Sinai Health. We invite you to help us imagine the next 100 years.
