Douglas McNair
As a Software Engineering Fellow at RSI, Dr. McNair brings unparalleled expertise in machine learning, Bayesian modeling, and decision-support systems. He supports RSI’s most advanced projects by designing and validating AI/ML architectures that meet both regulatory standards and ethical imperatives, including fairness, transparency, and distributive justice. His domain expertise spans from clinical prediction models to the risk analytics of high-reliability systems, with a particular focus on ensuring data quality and model interpretability.
Pre-RSI
Dr. Douglas McNair is a seasoned leader in clinical informatics, medical device development, and regulatory affairs, with more than four decades of multidisciplinary experience at the intersection of medicine, software engineering, and data science. From 1977 to 1986, he served as a faculty member at Baylor College of Medicine, contributing to both the Departments of Medicine and Pathology. During that time, he co-directed the Biostatistics and Design & Analysis Unit of the National Research & Demonstration Center for Atherosclerosis, under the mentorship of Drs. Tony Gotto and Michael DeBakey.
Dr. McNair later held executive R&D and Medical Affairs roles in several early-stage pharmaceutical and biomedical firms, including VP of Clinical Development at ABIOMED, where he led investigational planning and clinical trials for the AbioCor® artificial heart and implantable cardiac assist devices. His work contributed to the successful PMA and HDE regulatory approvals in both North America and Europe.
Publications associated with Douglas McNair
Association of treatments for acute appendicitis with pregnancy outcomes in the United States from 2000 to 2016: Results from a multi-level analysis.
Systemic quinolones and risk of acute liver failure III: A nested case-control study using a US electronic health records database.
Risk of Adverse Cardiovascular Events Following a Myocardial Infarction in Patients Receiving Combined Clopidogrel and Proton Pump Inhibitor Treatment: A Nested Case-Control Study.
Trends in concomitant clopidogrel and proton pump inhibitor treatment among ACS inpatients, 2000-2016.
External validation and comparison of two variants of the Elixhauser comorbidity measures for all-cause mortality.
Associations between Anticholinergic Burden and Adverse Health Outcomes in Parkinson Disease.
Off-label use of cancer therapies in women diagnosed with breast cancer in the United States.
Statistical methods for active pharmacovigilance, with applications to diabetes drugs.
Detection of prion protein in urine-derived injectable fertility products by a targeted proteomic approach.
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Outside RSI
Dr. McNair spent over three decades with Cerner Corporation, where he served in pivotal roles including VP of Knowledge Systems, Software Engineering Fellow, and General Manager of the Kansas City and Detroit branches. He co-invented and co-developed Discern Expert®, a near-real-time decision-support engine deployed in more than 1,000 EHR systems worldwide. He also founded and led Cerner’s Regulatory Affairs department for 10 years, overseeing product submissions and compliance.
He holds more than 100 patents in the fields of mathematical modeling, AI, and health finance, and has published extensively on the ethical and technical challenges of machine learning in healthcare. Dr. McNair is a contributing author to the National Academy of Medicine’s forthcoming book on AI & ML in Healthcare, and editor of a multi-author volume on Bayesian Network Mathematical Methods.
