Charles Weijer
Charles Weijer, MD, PhD
Professor
Office: Stevenson Hall, Western
E-mail: cweijer@uwo.ca
Bio & Research Activities
Dr. Charles Weijer is a bioethicist and an internationally recognized expert in research ethics. His publications on the duty of care in clinical research, the ethical analysis of study benefits and harms, and empowering communities in research have been broadly influential.
From 2008 to 2013, Dr. Weijer co-led a collaboration that produced the first international ethics guidelines for cluster randomized trials. From 2014 to 2018 he collaborated with Dr. Adrian M. Owen on a project exploring the ethics of functional neuroimaging after severe brain injury. Dr. Weijer led the writing team for the World Health Organization’s guidance on “Ethical Considerations for Health Policy and Systems Research,” published in 2019. In 2020, he served on the WHO Working Group for Guidance on Human Challenge Studies in COVID-19.
Dr. Weijer’s current work explores the ethics of cluster randomized trials with a focus on the ethical challenges raised by stepped wedge and crossover designs, research in low-resource settings, and pragmatism. He leads a team of 31 ethicists, biostatisticians, trialists, and patient partners from Africa, Europe, North America, and South America who will update ethical guidance for cluster randomized trials.
Dr Weijer is currently working with Dr. Marat Slessarev and an interdisciplinary team to explore the ethics of esearch involving imminently dying patients, and ethical issues in organ donation, including the use of normothermic regional perfusion.
Dr. Weijer held the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Bioethics from 2005 to 2019. In 2014, he received Western’s Hellmuth Prize for Achievement in Research, and, in 2016, he was elected to the Royal Society of Canada.
Research interests: research ethics, organ donation ethics
Link to PubMed search for Charles Weijer
