Dr. Laupacis is a General Internist, and since October 2006 he has been the Executive Director of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute at St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto.  He is also a Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Health Policy Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto, and Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

Dr. Laupacis received his medical degree from Queen's University.  He did his internship at Dalhousie, residency in internal medicine at the University of Western Ontario, and received his Masters degree in Design, Measurement and Evaluation from McMaster University.

He has worked at the University of Western Ontario (1986 - 1991); and the University of Ottawa (1991 - 2000) where he was the first Director of the Ottawa Hospital Clinical Epidemiology Unit.  From 2000-2006 he was the President and CEO of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, one of Canada's largest health services research institutes.

Dr. Laupacis' initial research interests were in the design and execution of multi-centre clinical trials, evaluating methods of presenting the results of clinical trials to patients and clinicians, and health care technology assessment.  Contributions that Dr. Laupacis has made to the literature include a) articulation of the number needed to treat (with David Sackett), b) studies of anti-thrombotic therapy to prevent stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation (with numerous collaborators), c) evaluation of the role of erythropoietin in patients with end stage renal failure (with Paul Keown and others), and d) the development of decision aids for patients and physicians (with Annette O'Connor and colleagues at Ottawa).  More recently, he has become involved in the areas of pharmacoeconomics, drug policy, the use of diagnostic tests, and citizen engagement in priority setting.

He was the first recipient of a Fellowship of the International Society of Technology Assessment in Health Care (ISTAHC), and later served on its Board and as Treasurer.  Dr. Laupacis has published over 240 articles in peer-reviewed journals, and is a member of the Canadian Academy of Health Sciences.  As his hair has greyed, he has served on an increasing number of committees.  He was the first Chair of the Canadian Expert Drug Advisory Committee (CEDAC) and is Vice-Chair of Health Canada's Science Advisory Board.  In 2005, Dr. Laupacis chaired a public inquiry into the effectiveness and safety of Cox-2 inhibitors - the first such public inquiry sponsored by Health Canada.