About the Author

James A. McEwen received the B.A.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering (biomedical) from the University of British Columbia in 1971 and 1975 respectively. He is a Registered Professional Engineer, a Certified Clinical Engineer, a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers, and a member of the Canadian Medical and Biomedical Engineering Society. Early in his career he received the Outstanding Young Canadian Biomedical Engineer Award from the Canadian Medical and Biological Engineering Society, and in 2006 was elected Fellow of the Society.

He founded and served as Director of the Biomedical Engineering Department at the Vancouver Hospital & Health Sciences Centre from 1975-1990. He is presently Adjunct Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, and Adjunct Professor of Orthopaedics, Faculty of Medicine, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia. He is also Adjunct Professor in the School of Engineering Science at Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, British Columbia.

He invented and developed the first automatic tourniquet systems for surgery. He has been awarded over 100 patents in the United States and other countries for tourniquet-related technologies, and has numerous tourniquet-related patent applications pending in the U.S. and elsewhere. He is the author or co-author of a number of papers on the subject of surgical tourniquets. The A.T.S. series of automated surgical tourniquet systems and products manufactured and sold by Zimmer are made and sold under patent licenses from his research and development companies. He also created Delfi Medical Innovations Inc., a supplier of specialty tourniquet-related products. Over 20,000 of the automatic surgical tourniquet systems he invented are now in daily use in a wide range of surgical procedures in 40 countries around the world. Globally, it is estimated that the automatic surgical tourniquets which he has invented and developed are now used in more than 17,000 surgical procedures daily. As a result of the success and widespread impact on the public of his surgical tourniquet-related inventions, in 1997 McEwen received the $100,000 Principal Award for Innovation in Canada from the Ernest C. Manning Foundation.

McEwen has a number of other patents and patent applications for medical devices other than tourniquets in fields including anesthesia, ophthalmology, laboratory medicine, surgery, orthopedics and improved measurement of patient outcomes.

He was one of the founders, and remains a director, of the MDDC Medical Device Development Centre, a successful not-for-profit center associated with a number of medical device companies, hospitals, universities, and similar entities, for facilitating the collaborative development and evaluation of new medical technology. He has been an angel investor in a number of new medical technology companies. His main interests are in the development and evaluation of need-oriented medical technology in order to improve the quality of diagnosis and treatment, and control the costs of health care. He is a member of the Industry Advisory Committees for the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering and the Faculty of Applied Science at the University of British Columbia, and chairs the Industry Advisory Committee for the Faculty of Applied Science at Simon Fraser University. He is also a Vice President and Director of the ALS Society of British Columbia, and is a Director of the Medical Technology Industry Association of British Columbia. He is currently a Trustee, and Chairman of the BC Chapter, of the Ernest C. Manning Foundation for Innovation.