Blair Bigham MD, MSc, DTMH, FRCPC

Blair Bigham is an award-winning journalist, scientist, and physician who trained in emergency and critical care medicine at McMaster and Stanford Universities. He is interested in public trust during emergencies of all scales, and how scientists, physicians, and politicians influence individual health choices.

Before joining the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, he was a Global Journalism Fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, an Education Scholar at Stanford School of Medicine, and an Associate Scientist at St Michael’s Hospital.

His academic focus explores the intersection of medicine, the media, and society. He studies how health advocacy, science journalism, and medical education shape individual behaviours, organizational leadership and public policy. Blair’s work has appeared in newspapers, magazines, newscasts and medical journals. He is co-host of the CMAJ Podcast and Director of Research, Education, and Innovation at healthydebate.ca. He is an investigative reporter and scientific consultant at the Investigative Journalism Bureau.

As a physician and advocate, he witnesses the relationship between wealth and health daily, and collaboratively shares the untold stories of patients, healthcare providers, and the systems that help or fail them. His 20 years of work in governance roles allow him insight into the challenges health leaders face to improve systems, and he works strategically and collaboratively to improve systems, complimenting his work in advocacy and science.