289-768-9990 304 Victoria Ave N, Hamilton
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The thread

A standard, handed on.

Two lines run through this site. One is the set of rules the world has written for research on people since 1947. The other is a line of physicians from this corner of Ontario who learned medicine beside their patients and teach it the same way. The two meet in every trial run at 304 Victoria Avenue North.

  • The rules of research
  • The practice, one line of physicians

  1. 1857The practice

    A rector's son arrives in Dundas

    William Osler's family moves to Dundas, now part of Hamilton, when his father becomes rector of St. James' Church. The boy grows up at 30 South Street West, a house that still stands.1,2

    A two-storey brick house with a central gable, an arched upper window, and a columned doorway, with a family standing on the front walk
    The Osler homeOsler’s boyhood home in Dundas, Ontario, around 1900. The house, at 30 South Street West, still stands.

  2. 1889The practice

    Osler builds the residency

    At the new Johns Hopkins Hospital, Osler and his colleagues build the residency: young doctors learning medicine on the wards, beside experienced ones. It is how physicians have been trained since.3

  3. 1947The rules

    The Nuremberg Code

    After the Doctors' Trial, the judges set out ten principles for research on people. The first reads: the voluntary consent of the human subject is absolutely essential.4

  4. 1964The rules

    The Declaration of Helsinki

    The World Medical Association adopts its statement of ethical principles for medical research involving people: written by physicians, for physicians, and revised ever since.5

  5. 1969The practice

    McMaster opens its medical school

    McMaster's first medical students start a programme built around small groups working through real clinical problems, a way of teaching medicine that schools around the world went on to adopt.6

  6. 1979The rules

    The Belmont Report

    Three principles for research involving people that ethics review works from today: respect for persons, beneficence, and justice.7

  7. 1980The practice

    Richard Tytus graduates from McMaster

    With a pharmacy degree already behind him, he earns his MD at McMaster and stays in Hamilton to practise family medicine. He practises here today.15

  8. 1991The practice

    Evidence-based medicine gets its name

    At McMaster, Gordon Guyatt names the idea that clinical decisions should rest on the best available evidence. Well-run trials are where that evidence comes from.8

  9. 1995The practice

    Hamilton Medical Research Group

    Dr. Tytus founds a research site in his own community, so that patients here can reach investigational treatments without driving to Toronto for them.15

  10. 1996Where the lines meet

    One standard for every trial

    Regulators and industry from Europe, Japan, and the United States agree on a single international guideline for Good Clinical Practice, and Health Canada adopts it the following year. The site was a year old. From here the two lines run as one: every trial at the site is run to GCP.9,10

  11. 1996The practice

    He starts teaching where he trained

    Dr. Tytus joins McMaster's Department of Family Medicine as an Assistant Clinical Professor (Adjunct). He has held the appointment for thirty years.15

  12. 1998The rules

    Canada's Tri-Council Policy Statement

    Canada's three federal research agencies publish a single, shared policy on the ethical conduct of research involving humans.11

  13. 2012The practice

    One of Ontario's Family Physicians of the Year

    The Ontario College of Family Physicians honours seven family doctors a year. In 2012 one of them is Dr. Tytus, who by then has run trials from his own practice for seventeen years.15,14

  14. 2025The rules

    Good Clinical Practice, rewritten

    ICH finalizes E6(R3), the first complete rewrite of GCP in almost thirty years: quality designed in from the start, oversight in proportion to risk, and room for the digital tools trials now run on. Health Canada puts it into effect in April 2026.12,13

  15. 2026March 30The practice

    The site starts running on Lodestar

    An operations system the site built for itself begins running the site's trial operations, every working day. The software keeps the record. The people keep the responsibility.

    How the site is run

  16. April 27The practice

    Roche Phase III initiation visit completed

    Roche and its CRO complete the initiation visit at 304 Victoria Avenue North: protocol training, systems access, and a review of the facility.

    Read the update

  17. May 7The practice

    Screening opens and fills within 72 hours

    Roche activates the site on May 4. Screening opens the next day, and every screening slot for May is filled within 72 hours.

    Read the milestone

  18. June 10The practice

    First participant randomized in a Roche Phase III study

    The first participant is randomized in the Roche Phase III study, the first trial run in the site's newly expanded research suites.

    Read the milestone

  19. Next

    Handed on

    Osler's residency is still how medicine is learned: beside someone who holds the standard. Dr. Tytus has taught at McMaster for thirty years. Physicians in training now learn clinical research the same way, at this site, beside him.

Sources

Check any of this independently

Every outside date on this page links to a record HMRG does not control. The site’s own milestones link to their announcements, and Dr. Tytus’s dates to his biography, where each one has an independent check.

  1. Osler's boyhood in Dundas Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Osler, Sir William”
  2. 30 South Street West, Dundas City of Hamilton By-law 25-224 (December 2025), designating the Osler House a property of cultural heritage value
  3. Osler and the residency Johns Hopkins Medicine, Osler Medical Residency: history
  4. The Nuremberg Code (1947) United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Holocaust Encyclopedia
  5. Declaration of Helsinki (1964) World Medical Association, original 1964 text
  6. McMaster's first medical class (1969) McMaster Faculty of Health Sciences, #MacMed50
  7. The Belmont Report (1979) U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office for Human Research Protections
  8. “Evidence-based medicine” (1991) Guyatt G. Evidence-based medicine. ACP Journal Club 1991;114:A-16
  9. ICH E6 Good Clinical Practice (1996) International Council for Harmonisation, Efficacy Guidelines (E6)
  10. Health Canada adopts ICH E6 (1997) Health Canada, Good Clinical Practice: Consolidated Guideline (ICH E6)
  11. Tri-Council Policy Statement (1998) Government of Canada Publications, TCPS (1998)
  12. ICH E6(R3) (2025) International Council for Harmonisation, Efficacy Guidelines (E6(R3), Step 4, January 6, 2025)
  13. Health Canada implements E6(R3) (2026) Health Canada, notice to stakeholders
  14. OCFP Family Physicians of the Year CHCH News, “Hamilton doctor receives recognition” (the award goes to seven Ontario family doctors a year)
  15. Dr. Richard Tytus Biography and credentials, each with an independent check

Photograph of the Osler home: William Osler Photo Collection, Osler Library of the History of Medicine, McGill University. Via the U.S. National Library of Medicine (public domain). Catalogue record

The people holding it today

Seven investigators and a clinical operations team run every trial at the site.

Meet the team Dr. Tytus’s biography