Faculty: Neurosurgery

Doug Cochrane

Professor
Active Staff, BC Children's Hospital

Vancouver
Hospital Authority: Provincial Health Services Authority

Administrative Office address:
K3-216 ACB
BC's Children's Hospital
4480 Oak Street
Vancouver, BC V6H 3V4

Fax: 604.875.3109

Email: dcochrane@cw.bc.ca

Special Interests

• Disorders of the developing brain
• Image-guided pediatric neurosurgery
• Spinal dysraphic states

A Canadian born in Cambridge Ontario, Dr. Cochrane is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Faculty of Medicine' Cody Gold medalist, 1975. Following medical service in Angola, he pursued postgraduate neurosurgical training at the University of Calgary (1981) returning to the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children for subspecialty pediatric neurosurgery training (1981). Dr. Cochrane returned to Southern Alberta and practiced adult and pediatric Neurosurgery in Calgary until 1986 when he moved to Vancouver to join the Division of Pediatric Neurosurgery at British Columbia's Children's Hospital and the Division of Neurosurgery at the University of British Columbia. In 1996 Dr. Cochrane was certified by the American Board of Pediatric Neurological Surgery (recertification 2005).

In addition to clinical neurosurgical practice, Dr Cochrane held the position of the Head of the Department of Surgery and the Section of Surgery at British Columbia's Children's Hospital from 1981 to 2001, the Vice President of Medical Affairs and Quality at Children's and Women's Health Center of British Columbia 2000 to 2002 and is now the Vice President of Medical Affairs and Quality for the Provincial Health Services Authority of British Columbia. He is currently the Chair of the British Columbia Patient Safety Task Force and the Vice-Chair of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute.

Dr. Cochrane's scholarly interests are varied and include technology assessment and evaluation in the areas of telemedicine and intraoperative visualization and localization. He has been instrumental in obtaining funding for intra-operative localizing systems in BC and Canadian Foundation for Innovation grants supporting high field strength MRI at UBC hospital and fetal surgery at C&W. As part of the Brain mapping group at C&W, he directed successful funding efforts and institutional prioritization for the introduction of functional magnetic resonance imaging for children in Western Canada.

Over the years, Dr. Cochrane has used system analysis to evaluate aspects of medical care operations. This activity began with the evaluation of patient flows through the surgical suite so that patient care capacity was maximized. A similar analysis and tool set was applied to the cost evaluation of the treatment of hydrocephalus, resulting in a publication, which has formed the basis of other cost of treatment analyses. The analysis of service provision within Canadian pediatric neurosurgery has been a consistent interest over many years. The surgeon and "system" affecting the duration of shunt function were first investigated in 1994 based on all surgical experience in English Canada. An updated analysis has recently been completed. Analyses of the variation in the provision of pediatric surgical services was performed in 1999 for the treatment of hydrocephalus, brain tumors and spina bifida.

Dr. Cochrane has maintained an academic interest in medical errors and system failure. He is particularly interested in the systematic errors that occur within the Operating Room environment and has developed a workable methodology for monitoring surgical quality for the Division and other surgical services. Forthright review of clinical experience, outcome and morbidity have been published for the surgery of brain tumors, caesarian section for the delivery of the fetus with myelomeningocele, cord untethering in myelomeningocele and lipomyelomeningocele.

In his role as Chair of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council, Dr Cochrane has been responsible for the development and implementation of the Council's strategic plan and for the BC Patient Safety and Learning System, a provincial adverse event and near miss reporting and learning system that forms a keystone for safety and quality change in the BC's health care system. As the Provincial Patient Safety and Quality Officer, Dr Cochrane reports to the Minister of Health and provides leadership to the Health Authorities in the development of policies, standards and reviews and is responsible with the Health Authorities for Safer Healthcare Now! in BC. In addition, he serves as the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, on the Halifax Symposium organizing committee and on the Quality and Safety Organizations of Western Canada.

Dr. Cochrane has special expertise in the management of pineal region tumors, spinal dysraphism and the fetus with congenital neurological malformations.

Dr. Cochrane is a full professor with tenure in the Faculty of Medicine, UBC (1996) and has published over 90 peer reviewed article and chapters.