Research that matters to protecting the health and safety of workers

The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) is a Canadian leader in work injury and disability prevention research. An independent, not-for-profit organization, IWH conducts and shares actionable research to promote, protect and improve the health and safety of working people.

Latest news & findings

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Sharing results from our recent stakeholder survey

Last spring, we invited subscribers to IWH products to tell us how you use and share IWH research findings and resources. Our deepest thanks go out to all those who took part. A report sharing the results of that stakeholder survey is now available on our website.

Read the report

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What Research Can Do: A look back and forward at COVID-19 research from IWH

As vaccination rates pick up steam across the country, there’s a real sense we are climbing out and emerging into a new normal. It’s with this sense of hope that we look back at our research strategy during the pandemic and consider what it will look like going forward. We also take a look at the findings to come.

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Five things we think OHS practitioners should know: findings from recent IWH research

Five of our most practical research findings from the past year for professionals in occupational health and safety (OHS) are all together in one handout. The 2021 edition of 5 Things We Think You Should Know is now available. Please download and share.

Download the handout

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IWH set to launch telementoring project on occupational medicine for health professionals

Frontline health-care providers play an important role in helping people return to work following a work-related injury or illness. But family doctors and other frontline practitioners may lack familiarity with the workers’ compensation system and return-to-work processes. A new telementoring project is being launched in Ontario to address this skills gap. Project ECHO on Occupational and Environmental Medicine, to be hosted by the Institute for Work & Health (IWH), will launch in the fall. It will be the first such project on occupational medicine, using the innovative hub-and-spoke health-care mentoring model called ECHO—short for Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes—that’s now used around the world.

Find out more

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Unemployment benefits linked to lower mortality rates over 10 years: IWH study

We know that being out of work puts people at risk of short- and long-term health consequences—including higher death rates. A new Institute for Work & Health study looks at whether—and how much—having income support during unemployment can lessen the negative impact.

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IN THE CURRENT ISSUE...

Half of British Columbia workers with a lost-time work injury or illness don’t report it to WorkSafeBC. That’s according to a study that found claim suppression in about four to 13 per cent of lost-time injuries.

Working-age Canadians who live through a major depressive episode go on to experience a loss in earnings that persists for at least a decade.

Study finds no difference in injury risks between large and small firms once the adequacy of OHS policies and procedures is accounted for.

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Tools and guides

Integrate evidence-based policies and practices into your occupational health and safety, return-to-work and rehabilitation programs. IWH has created a number of tools and guides based on our research findings that can help improve program outcomes.

View tools and guides

Impact case studies

Find out how IWH research is making a difference. Read our impact case studies, in which policy-makers, workplaces and other stakeholders in health, safety and disability prevention tell how IWH research helped improve their policies, programs and practices.

Go to case studies

Research summaries

Whether it’s a policy briefing, a systematic review summary or the highlights of a specific research project, we’ve compiled a number of plain-language summaries to help you understand the research we’re doing, what we have found, and how we found it.

Get the summaries

Events

Learn directly from the researchers themselves about their latest findings in health, safety and disability prevention. We host regular presentations (in person or live stream) through our IWH Speaker Series and our annual Nachemson lecture.

See upcoming events