Dr. Claire Bombardier

Dr. Claire Bombardier is a professor of medicine and a widely published clinical researcher and rheumatologist. She is currently a senior scientist at the Toronto General Research Institute and a rheumatologist at Mount Sinai Hospital. She is a former senior scientist/clinical research coordinator at the Institute for Work & Health (1990-2014). She’s also the former co-editor at Cochrane Back and Neck (1995-2013), where she still serves on the group’s editorial board as a founding editor emeritus.

Bombardier previously served as director of rheumatology at the University of Toronto, co-scientific director at the Canadian Arthritis Network, Pfizer Research Chair in Rheumatology and Canada Research Chair in knowledge transfer for musculoskeletal care. She is an international expert for quality improvement research, and has led the development of guidelines for the safe pharmacologic treatment of rheumatoid arthritis patients in Canada and abroad. For example, in 2005, she founded the Ontario Best Practice Research Initiative to monitor the safety and efficacy of treatments for people with rheumatoid arthritis. 

Bombardier has published more than 395 scholarly articles and, in October 2022, was ranked by Research.com as the 15th top female scientist in Canada and 487th in the world. She has been widely recognized for her contributions and achievements in the field of rheumatology. In 2020, she received the Canadian Rheumatology Association Master Award. In March 2019, she was the inaugural recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from The Arthritis Society. In 2016, she was the recipient of the American College of Rheumatology (ACR) Distinguished Clinician Scholar Award and, in 2013, the prestigious ACR Master Designation Award for outstanding contributions in the field of rheumatology.

Bombardier's professional interests include the improvement of clinical effectiveness, optimum use of technology and drugs, clinical economics, and performance measurement/program evaluation.