[5] He did a rotating internship at North York General Hospital through the University of Toronto from 1989 to 1990, earning him a certificate in Clinical Traineeship in HIV Infection.
[5] In 1992, he consulted for the World Health Organization's Global Programme on AIDS on the cost of HIV prevention strategies in developing countries.
He worked as a research fellow at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) then attended Harvard University for his PhD in Health Policy from 1994 to 1997.
[5] This work with HEALNet was featured at the Fourth International Conference on the Scientific Basis of Health Services in Sydney, Australia in September 2001.
[9] Lavis co-developed the Evidence-Informed Policy Network (EVIPNet) alongside the World Health Organization in the mid-2000s, and he remains co-chair of the global steering group.
[4] He became a visiting adjunct professor at the University of Johannesburg in April 2018, and was promoted to director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Evidence-Informed Policy in December 2018.
[12] Lavis participated as a speaker at the March 2022 Centre of Excellence for Development Impact and Learning (CEDIL) conference.