Rohan D’Souza has been appointed Vice Chair of the Hamilton Integrated Research Ethics Board (HiREB), effective April 1, 2026.

D’Souza is an associate professor in the Departments of Obstetrics & Gynaecology and Health Research Methods, Evidence, and Impact at McMaster. He holds a Tier 2 Canada Research Chair in Maternal Health and leads the FLOURISH Group, a family-centred clinical research group focused on improving pregnancy and post-pregnancy outcomes. His clinical and research interests include reducing severe maternal morbidity, optimizing pregnancy outcomes for individuals with medical disorders, incorporating the values and preferences of pregnant individuals into clinical decision-making, and standardizing outcome reporting in obstetric studies.

“This is an important responsibility, and one I am very pleased to take on,” said D’Souza. “The work of research ethics begins before a study opens and well before any findings are published. It shapes the standard of the work at the point where questions, methods, responsibility, and participant welfare first meet.”

HiREB safeguards the rights, safety, and well-being of research participants and reviews research involving McMaster University, St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton, and Hamilton Health Sciences before that research can begin. It is responsible for ensuring that projects involving human participants meet current ethical standards, satisfy acceptable ethical and scientific requirements, and have the facilities and resources needed to proceed. The board also advises on the ethical, scientific, and technical aspects of research planning.

For a researcher whose work has centred on some of the most consequential questions in maternal health, the appointment carries a clear institutional weight. D’Souza’s research has focused not only on improving outcomes, but on how evidence is defined, produced, and applied in areas of care where decisions are rarely abstract and never trivial. That makes this appointment more than an added leadership role. It places him within one of the key structures through which research is examined before it reaches participants, clinics, or care pathways.

“At its best, ethical review does not slow good research down. It sharpens it,” said D’Souza. “It asks whether the study is ready, whether the protections are real, and whether the work is worthy of the people who make it possible. That is serious work, and I am honoured to be part of it.”