James McEwen OC OBC (born June 10, 1948) is a Canadian biomedical engineer and the inventor of the microprocessor-controlled automatic tourniquet system, which is now standard for 15,000-20,000 procedures daily in operating rooms worldwide.[1][2] Their widespread adoption and use has significantly improved surgical safety, quality and economy.[3][2] McEwen is President of Western Clinical Engineering Ltd., a biomedical engineering research and development company and he is a director of Delfi Medical Innovations Inc., a company he founded to commercialize some results of that research and development.[4][5][1][6] He is also an adjunct professor in the School of Biomedical Engineering, in the Department of Orthopaedics and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of British Columbia.[7][8][5]
In 2020, to recognize his invention of automatic tourniquets for surgery and other applications he was inducted to the U.S. National Inventors Hall of Fame,[9][6] joining others including Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, the Wright brothers, Banting and Best, Nikola Tesla and Steve Jobs.[10] The National Inventors Hall of Fame, in partnership with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, 'honors the visionaries whose patented inventions have changed our world'.[11] Inductees 'must hold a U.S. patent for an invention that is groundbreaking or a significant advancement in their field' and their 'inventions have been put into widespread use and have improved societal well-being, provided economic benefits to the country and advanced scientific understanding'.[11]
He currently resides in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.[12][13]