The Institute for Work & Health is committed to building capacity in the work and health research ecosystem. It does this by strengthening research methods, identifying new or underutilized data sources, developing the next generation of researchers and enhancing the capacity of stakeholders to use research.
Strengthening research methods
IWH’s research expertise cuts across disciplines. Our research teams typically include scientists from a number of disciplines, such as epidemiology, statistics, economics, psychology, organizational behaviour, sociology, and clinical fields such as ergonomics, psychology, rehabilitation, orthopedics, physiatry and more.
IWH’s emphasis on multidisciplinary research bridges the gap that often exists among different disciplines. By bringing ideas and perspectives from across disciplines, IWH’s research teams find alternative ways of looking at issues to help identify new, innovative and real-world solutions to work and health problems.
IWH’s research expertise also spans a wide range of scientific methods, both quantitative and qualitative. Our scientists have contributed to advances and innovations in the analysis of routinely collected administrative data, data linkages, systematic reviews and other evidence syntheses, the measurement of functional limitations, the psychometric properties of survey instruments, among others.
When IWH scientists advance research methods in their respective field, the whole field benefits as the new methods get taken up by other scientists and researchers to answer a wide range of questions.
Building data capacity
Building the capacity of Ontario’s and Canada’s work and health research ecosystem to collect, access, link and analyze data in order to evaluate the impact of health and safety activities across provincial and national labour markets, is a strategic focus for IWH. Facilitating access to comprehensive, reliable and timely data, in combination with the development of new or improved analytical methods are pivotal to evaluating the impact of activities to improve the working conditions and health of workers in Ontario.
IWH aims to play a leading role in building data capacity through developing new data linkages, expanding the collection of primary data in the areas of work exposures and health outcomes, and leveraging and using new administrative data from sources not originally collected for research purposes. Where data gaps are present, IWH seeks to work with partners and invest resources to address these gaps.
Developing next generation of researchers
The Institute strengthens the work and health research ecosystem by supporting and developing graduate and post-doctoral students. IWH supports early-career researchers through its training awards programs.
IWH further contributes to the development of research capacity in work and health through the teaching work of its scientists. All IWH scientists are affiliated with one or more Ontario universities; they teach courses on research methods and supervise graduate students.
Enhancing stakeholders’ capacity to use research
The Institute considers enhancing stakeholders’ capacity to use research a key component of its knowledge transfer and exchange approach.
We offer a popular series called What Researchers Mean By…, which explains in lay-friendly language the research terms used by social scientists to report their research findings.
We offer research presentations through our IWH Speaker Series, at which stakeholders can directly learn from, and ask questions of, our scientists.
We offer a Systematic Review Workshop to teach stakeholders and students how to conduct and share systematic reviews.
We engage stakeholders in the research process. Stakeholders who participate actively in research become familiar with the research stages and methods (if not the details of how to conduct research). This builds their confidence in the research and improves their understanding of its implications and applications.