Stirling Bryan is a health economist with extensive experience of engagement with the health policy and decision-making worlds. He began his career in the United Kingdom with appointments at St Thomas’ Hospital Medical School and then Brunel University, before moving to the University of Birmingham in 1997.

His research track-record reveals a long-standing goal of informing health policy and practice, demonstrated, in part, through an extensive engagement with the National Institute for Health & Care Excellence (NICE). In 2005 he was awarded a Commonwealth Fund Harkness Fellowship and spent one year at Stanford University, researching health technology coverage decision making in US health care organizations.

Stirling immigrated to Canada in 2008, taking on the roles of professor in UBC’s School of Population and Public Health, and director of the Centre for Clinical Epidemiology & Evaluation (C2E2). He provided leadership for C2E2 through until 2018 and remains a senior scientist at the Centre where his research lab and team are located. Over recent years, he has become a strong advocate for, and practitioner of, patient-oriented research, and now partners with patients in all of his research activities.

In 2016, he was appointed scientific director for the BC SUPPORT Unit, a component part of BC’s Academic Health Science Network (BC AHSN) focused on promoting patient-oriented research, and in January 2020 stepped into the leadership role as president for BC AHSN. He was in this role until September 2021, helping to navigate the course through to consolidation of BC AHSN with the Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research.

Stirling is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences, and recently completed his term as chair of the Advisory Board for CIHR’s Institute for Health Services & Policy Research. He currently serves as president elect for the Canadian Association for Health Services & Policy Research, and is co-editor for the Wiley-published journal, Health Economics.

Stirling and his partner have two sons and one dog. Weekends are typically spent enjoying the company of friends and family and experiencing the beauty and wonders of British Columbia through hiking, snowshoeing, and skiing.