Dr. Gilles Delage

Dr. Gilles Delage is an internationally recognized specialist in transfusion medicine and the prevention of infections transmissible by transfusion. A medical microbiologist by training, for 20 years he served as vice-president of medical microbiology affairs at Héma-Québec, the agency responsible for blood services in Québec. He retired in April 2021. A lifelong advocate of effective risk management in public health, Dr. Delage chaired the Canadian Standards Association technical committee that developed Canada’s first standard for blood and blood products, along with two subsequent updates.

“That’s something I’m very proud of,” says Dr. Delage. “Our role as scientists is to properly evaluate risk and make recommendations based on the evidence. Our way of evaluating risk today is much better than it was when I started out in 2000.”

Dr. Delage’s research has also contributed to Canadian Blood Services’ work toward sexual behaviour-based donor screening criteria.