Past events
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IWH Speaker Series
Evaluation of a safe resident handling program in U.S. nursing homes
Alicia Kurowski, University of Massachusetts Lowell
How effective are safe resident handling programs? In a 10-year research project, a team at the Center for Promotion of Health in the New England Workplace (CPH-NEW) set out to measure the impact of one such program that was implemented across 200 nursing home centres. In this plenary, project manager Alicia Kurowski shares the team’s findings on outcomes such as ergonomic exposures, self-reported back pain, injury rates, return-to-work outcomes and return on investment.
IWH Speaker Series
Designing disability income support policy for mental illness
Ashley McAllister, Karolinska Institute
The features of mental illnesses pose challenges when designing disability income support (DIS) programs, yet there is limited evidence about the process. In this plenary, Dr. Ashley McAllister shares the results of a study in Australia and Ontario, which interviewed policy designers of DIS programs about the challenges related to mental illnesses. She outlines five main challenges and considers the ramifications of ignoring them—including distrust among policy designers of physicians' evidence to support DIS applications.
IWH Speaker Series
Understanding effective worker health and safety representation
The right of worker representation has been a central tenet of occupational health and safety for over 40 years. While evidence shows that it improves health and safety at work, few attempts have been made to show how. In this plenary, a team of academics and labour representatives known as LOARC (short for Labour/OHCOW/Academic Research Collaboration) share their work examining what worker representatives actually do to achieve change. How much does it matter whether worker representatives adopt a more legal/technical approach or a more knowledge activist approach? Findings on effective worker health and safety representation styles are discussed.
IWH Speaker Series
The biopsychosocial model: Time for a new back pain revolution?
Maurits Van Tulder, VU University Amsterdam
The management of low-back pain has changed from a passive approach calling for bed rest, traction and massage to a more active approach, one focused on staying active, exercise and multidisclipnary rehabilitation. This is in line with the change from a biomedical to a biopsychosocial model for understanding low-back pain over the last 20 years. However, the burden of low-back pain is still high, and the evidence for the biopsychosocial approach is still small. In this plenary, Dr. Maurits Van Tulder discusses the need for a new revolution in low-back pain research and the obligation researchers have to contribute to improving clinical practice.
IWH Speaker Series
New World Health Organization (WHO) guidelines on rehabilitation in health systems
Andrea Furlan, Institute for Work & Health
In February of this year, the World Health Organization (WHO) released a report titled Rehabilitation in health systems, which includes nine recommendations to improve rehabilitation services around the world. The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) played a key role in the development of these recommendations, being one of three research organizations contracted by WHO to canvas the evidence on the best ways to strengthen and expand the availability of quality rehabilitation services. While the report primarily targets low- and middle-income countries, as noted by Dr. Andrea Furlan, lead researcher of the IWH evidence-gathering team contracted by WHO, “the recommendations resonate in Canada as well, given that rehabilitation plays an important role in keeping people in an aging population independent for longer, and helping people with chronic and acute injuries participate in school and work.” At this plenary, Dr. Furlan and Emma Irvin (also on the IWH research team) discuss the WHO’s recommendations for improving rehabilitation services globally, as well as the evidence behind them.
IWH Speaker Series
Evaluating the impact of mandatory awareness training in Ontario
Peter Smith, Institute for Work & Health
In this presentation, Dr. Peter Smith shares the results of a study that examined differences in the level of self-reported occupational health and safety (OHS) awareness and empowerment among employed workers in Ontario before and after the introduction of the mandatory OHS training. He also discusses the implications of the results for future province-wide initiatives focusing on the primary prevention of work-related injuries and illnesses.
IWH Speaker Series
Doctors and workers’ compensation: how system design shapes doctors’ roles
Katherine Lippel, University of Ottawa
How are the roles of doctors in the workers’ compensation system different in Quebec and Ontario? In this plenary, Professor Katherine Lippel shares findings from a qualitative and comparative regulatory study, conducted in both provinces, to examine the impact of regulatory contexts on the roles and practices of doctors and other players in the system.
IWH Speaker Series
Have we learned enough for workplace Parkinson's disease prevention?
Anne Harris, Syme Fellow, Institute for Work & Health; Ryerson University
We currently don't fully understand why some people develop Parkinson's disease as they age while others do not. Since genetic inheritance accounts for a very small proportion of cases, researchers have been interested in environmental causes, including workplace exposures. In this plenary, epidemiologist Dr. Anne Harris talks about the evidence for or against several candidate risk factors, including pesticides, head injury, and whole body vibration.
IWH Speaker Series
Health-care providers and their role in return to work
Agnieszka Kosny, Institute for Work & Health
Research around the world has shown that health-care providers have a key role in the return-to-work (RTW) process. However, pressure on consultation time, administrative challenges and limited knowledge about a patient’s workplace can thwart meaningful engagement. In a two-year study conducted in four Canadian provinces, Dr. Agnieszka Kosny focused on the experiences of health-care providers within the workers’ compensation system and their role in the RTW process. She shares her findings in this plenary.
IWH Speaker Series
Life course concepts in the work experiences of people with arthritis
Arif Jetha, Institute for Work & Health
Arthritis is one of the most common causes of work disability in Canada. Among those with arthritis, three in five are in their working years (ages 18 to 65 years). Yet, little research has looked into the work experiences of young and middle-aged adults with arthritis. In this plenary, Dr. Arif Jetha shares his research examining the impact of important life transitions on the work experiences of young, middle-aged and older adults with arthritis.
IWH Speaker Series
Return to work not a single event: applying new methods and data to understand RTW
Christopher McLeod, Institute for Work & Health
Returning to work after a work injury can be a complex process involving multiple episodes of time-loss. In this plenary, Dr. Christopher McLeod looks at newly available detailed calendar data on RTW among injured workers with accepted time-loss claims in British Columbia. He outlines how this data can be used to identify distinct clusters of RTW trajectories and highlights key demographic, clinical and work characteristics that may be associated with shorter and/or longer and more complex trajectories. He also explores the relevance of these data and methods in identifying effective interventions that can improve RTW outcomes.
IWH Speaker Series
Managing safety and operations: The effect of joint management system practices on safety and operational outcomes
Lynda Robson, Institute for Work & Health
Can best practices in manufacturing and occupational safety be complementary or even synergistic? Or is there necessarily a trade-off between the two? What practices are important for achieving high performance in both manufacturing operations and safety? Dr. Lynda Robson presents results from an inter-disciplinary mixed-method research project. She highlights the “joint management system practices” associated with positive effects on both operational outcomes (e.g. product quality) and safety outcomes.
IWH Speaker Series
What are physicians told about their role in return to work?
Agnieszka Kosny, Institute for Work & Health
Physicians have an important role in the return to work (RTW) process, but research shows that they sometimes struggle to manage RTW consultations and help patients return to work after an injury. As part of a broader exploration into the role played by doctors in RTW, an IWH team led by Dr. Agnieszka Kosny sought to examine resources, policies and guidelines that have been developed for physicians by workers’ compensation boards, governments and other organizations across Canada. In this plenary, Kosny highlights resource gaps that may hinder physicians’ understanding of their roles and responsibilities in the workers' compensation system and RTW process, and which may ultimately delay workers’ RTW after injury.
IWH Speaker Series
Whole-body vibration: What can we do to reduce this known health risk?
Jim Dickey, Western University
Whole-body vibration (WBV) is a significant health risk for four to seven per cent of the workforce, primarily operators of heavy mobile vehicles. Negative health outcomes are associated with excessive vibration exposure, including lower-back pain, spinal degeneration, gastro-intestinal tract problems, sleep problems, headaches, neck problems, autonomic nervous system dysfunction, hearing loss, and nausea. In this plenary, Dr. Jim Dickey describes two approaches that have been successfully used to evaluate seating in heavy mobile machinery. He also shares why optimized seating should be considered for some workplaces.
Alf Nachemson Memorial Lecture
A celebration of Wolfgang Zimmermann and the work of NIDMAR
With presentations by Joachim Breuer, Andrew King, The Honourable Wayne G. Wouters and Wolfgang Zimmerman
The Institute for Work & Health’s 2016 Nachemson lecture celebrates the important work of Wolfgang Zimmermann and the organization he leads. Three people who have worked closely with Zimmermann will talk about his important contribution both in Canada and beyond to improving the circumstances of people with disabilities in the working world.
IWH Speaker Series
Sleep dysfunction in mild traumatic brain injury: relevance to work disability prevention
Tatyana Mollayeva, Rehabilitation Sciences Institute, University of Toronto
Sleep disturbance is a common problem experienced by those with mild traumatic brain injuries (TBI). While the disruption subsides relatively quickly for some, up to half of those with mild TBI report chronic sleep disturbances—which in turn can seriously impair day-to-day function and return to work. In this plenary, Dr. Tatyana Mollayeva discusses the relationship between sleep and relevant clinical and non-clinical factors as well as outcomes in a sample of Ontario workers with mild TBI. She also presents known risks for sleep dysfunction in mild TBI and the implications for work disability prevention.
IWH Speaker Series
The health of truck drivers: Moving forward with a program of applied health research
Philip Bigelow, University of Waterloo
Studies conducted in the U.S. and other countries have shown that truck drivers are at increased risk for such medical conditions as cardiovascular disorders, sleep apnea, diabetes and obesity. Drivers have multiple risk factors associated with these conditions such as high rates of smoking, poor diet and low levels of physical activity. In this plenary, Dr. Philip Bigelow discusses a two-phase program of research that examines the prevalence of driving-related chronic diseases and risk factors among Canadian truck drivers, and proposes an intervention to improve their health and wellness.
IWH Speaker Series
Measuring OHS vulnerability among new immigrants
Morgan Lay, Institute for Work & Health
While previous research has identified that recent immigrants are at increased risk of work injury and illness, little is known about the specific mechanisms that lead to this elevated risk. In this plenary, Institute for Work & Health (IWH) research associate Morgan Lay presents preliminary results from a recent IWH collaboration with settlement agencies to better understand the workplace and social contexts that lead to increased risk of work injury among new immigrants.
IWH Speaker Series
Integrating ergonomics into production system design processes for reduced risk and improved quality: Lessons from the field
Patrick Neumann, Ryerson University
While integrating ergonomics into the process of designing production systems has been seen as the so-called Holy Grail for injury prevention, it has not proven to be easy. In this plenary Dr. Patrick Neumann presents lessons from an "action research" project at Blackberry, aimed at learning how to achieve such integration into the engineering design process. He provides a conceptual framework for considering this process of change, as well as practical methods and tools that were applied in the case to gain buy-in from key stakeholders.
IWH Speaker Series
Measuring precarity and its impact on health
Wayne Lewchuk, McMaster University
How do researchers measure the impact of precarious work on health indicators, including physical and mental health? How do they tease out the interaction between poverty, precarious employment and health outcomes? In this plenary, Dr. Wayne Lewchuk talks about the survey data collected by the Poverty and Employment Precarity in Southern Ontario (PEPSO) research group in 2011 and 2014. He compares the Employment Precarity Index developed by this group with the data collected by Statistics Canada on temporary employment, and highlights in particular how crude measures of precarity can lead to misleading conclusions regarding the impact of insecure employment on health outcomes.