Iain Chalmers
Doctor of Science (HonDSc)
Year conferred: 2008
Iain Chalmers is a health services researcher, and one of the founders of the Cochrane Collaboration (www.cochrane.org), an international organisation that aims to help people make well-informed decisions about healthcare by preparing and maintaining systematic reviews of relevant research evidence. After qualifying in the mid 1960s, Iain practised as a clinician in the UK and the Gaza Strip for seven years before turning to health services research full time, pursuing a particular interest in assessing the effects of health care. He directed the National Perinatal Epidemiology Unit between 1978 and 1992, and was appointed in that year to direct the UK Cochrane Centre. The following year, the Centre convened the international meeting at which the Cochrane Collaboration was inaugurated. Iain was knighted in 2000 for services to healthcare.
He is editor of the James Lind Library (www.jameslindlibrary.org), a web-based resource established to explain and illustrate - for the public and for professionals - the evolution of fair tests of treatments in health care.
