Dr. Doug Cochrane has served as the chair of the BC Patient Safety & Quality Council (BCPSQC) and as the provincial patient safety and quality officer from 2008 to 2019. In 2017 he was appointed as chair of the Board of Directors of the Interior Health Authority.

As Interior Health board chair, Doug has served as co-chair, Partnership Accord Leadership Table (PALT), a joint committee of Interior Health and the First Nations of the Interior region committed to improving health and wellness outcomes for First Nations people of the region. PALT takes action through partnership and shared decision making in the areas of cultural safety and humility, quality improvement, and equity in the context of holistic wellness worldview. Doug also serves as co-chair, Metis Nation BC – Interior Leadership Table.

Doug retired from clinical practice in 2017 after a three-decade career as a paediatric neurosurgeon at BC Children’s Hospital and Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children in Vancouver and the Hospital for Sick Children (Sick Kids) in Toronto. During that time, he served in leadership roles supporting BC Children’s Hospital, the Children’s and Women’s Health Centre, the Provincial Health Services Authority and Sick Kids. He also chaired the BC Patient Safety Task Force from its inception in 2003 to the creation of the BCPSQC and was a past chair of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute. Prior to consolidation creating Michael Smith Health Research BC, Doug served on the Board of BC Academic Health Sciences Network.

Currently Doug serves on the Boards of Michael Smith Health Research BC, Canuck Place Children’s Hospice, and co-chairs the BC Medical Quality Initiative.

A committed teacher and mentor, Doug was appointed professor emeritus by the University of British Columbia’s Department of Surgery in 2016. He continues to serve as faculty for the BCPSQC Quality Academy and Clinician Quality Academy programs, as well as the Sauder Physician Leadership program at the University of British Columbia.