Dr. Peter Smith
Dr. Peter Smith is president and senior scientist at the Institute for Work & Health (IWH) in Toronto, and a professor in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. Prior to moving into the president's role in January 2022, Smith was IWH's scientific co-director.
Smith has a master's in public health from the University of New South Wales, Australia, and a PhD from the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. He is a former recipient of a New Investigator Award (2008-2013) from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR),a Discovery Early Career Researcher Award from the Australian Research Council (2012-2014), and a five-year CIHR Research Chair in Gender, Work and Health (2014-2018).
Smith has extensive experience conducting research related to work injury and its consequences using large population-based surveys and administrative workers' compensation data. His key research interests include: gender and sex differences in the relationship between work and health; labour market inequalities and their health-related outcomes; labour market experiences of newcomers, older workers, younger workers and other vulnerable labour force subgroups; chronic illnesses and work injury; and trends in working conditions over time.
“I don’t understand how people can think about health without thinking about work. Between our early 20s and our 60s – and later for some people – we spend most of our waking hours at work. It makes sense, then, that aspects of work must have an impact on different aspects of our health, both positively and negatively. That drives me to better understand what good work and bad work look like from a health and return-to-work perspective.” – Dr. Peter Smith
Projects
- Creating safe workplaces for newcomers. Funded by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC). Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Developing approaches to measuring the dimensions of gender and their relationship to health outcomes. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Evaluating the effectiveness of distance learning in delivering Ontario's JHSC certification training. Funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour, Training and Skills Development. Ongoing.
- Evaluating the implementation and effectiveness of Ontario’s working-at-heights training standard. Funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour. Ongoing.
- Examining sex/gender differences in exposures to workplace-acquired communicable disease: a systematic review. Funded by WorkSafeBC. Ongoing.
Publications
- Orchard C, Lin E, Rosella L, Smith PM. Using a causal decomposition approach to estimate the contribution of employment to differences in mental health profiles between men and women. SSM - Population Health. 2024;28:101718. doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2024.101718.
- Daza JF, Chesney TR, Morales JF, Xue Y, Lee S, Amado LA, Pivetta B, Mbadjeu Hondjeu AR, Jolley R, Diep C, Alibhai SMH, Smith PM. Clinical tools to assess functional capacity during risk assessment before elective noncardiac surgery : a scoping review. Annals of Internal Medicine. 2024 epub ahead of print. doi:10.7326/ANNALS-24-00413.
- Dobson KG , Chien YC, Carnide N, Furlan AD, Smith PM, Mustard C. Uncovering mental health profiles of workers with a physically disabling injury or illness using the complete state mental health framework. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. 2024 epub ahead of print. doi:10.1007/s10926-024-10254-3.
- Daza JF, Mitani AA, Alibhai SMH, Smith PM, Kennedy ED, Shulman MA, Myles PS. Joint models inform the longitudinal assessment of patient-reported outcomes in clinical trials: a simulation study and secondary analysis of the restrictive vs. liberal fluid therapy for major abdominal surgery (RELIEF) randomized controlled trial. Journal of Clinical Epidemiology. 2024;176:111553. doi:10.1016/j.jclinepi.2024.111553.
- Gilbert-Ouimet M, Zahiriharsini A, Blanchette C, Talbot D, Trudel X, Milot A, Brisson C, Smith PM. Developing a gender measure and examining its association with cardiovascular diseases incidence: a 28-year prospective cohort study. BMC Medicine. 2024;22(1):498. doi:10.1186/s12916-024-03706-3.
Speaker Series presentations
- Reporting and consequences of workplace violence in six Ontario hospitals. IWH Speaker Series. May 22, 2018.
- Towards a better understanding of differences in the risk of workplace violence for men and women in Canada. IWH Speaker Series. March 27, 2018.
- Evaluating the impact of mandatory awareness training in Ontario. IWH Speaker Series. April 11, 2017.
- Understanding return to work in MSD claims versus psychological injuries, for younger workers versus older workers. IWH Speaker Series. September 29, 2015.
- Developing a measure of OHS vulnerability. IWH Speaker Series. January 20, 2015.
Interviews and articles
- Work-related mental illnesses cost more than physical injuries do. Talent Canada. May 11, 2021. Available from: https://www.talentcanada.ca/work-related-mental-illnesses-cost-more-than-physical-injuries/
- What research can do: Workplace COVID outbreaks reported by Ontario public health account for one in 20 cases in working-age adults. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 103, Winter 2021.
- Ontario locks down on Boxing Day, but essential workers still work. Without protections like paid sick leave, it just won’t work. Inside Halton. December 23, 2020. Available from: https://www.insidehalton.com/opinion-story/10296074-ontario-locks-down-on-boxing-day-but-essential-workers-still-work-without-protections-like-paid-sick-leave-it-just-won-t-work/
- Study links inadequate PPE, COVID-19 infection controls to worker mental health issues. Safety + Health. December 14, 2020. Available from: https://www.safetyandhealthmagazine.com/articles/20630-study-links-inadequate-ppe-covid-19-infection-controls-to-worker-mental-health-issues
- Unsafe workplaces during COVID-19 taking huge toll on workers’ mental health. Toronto Star. December 14, 2020. Available from: https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2020/12/14/unsafe-workplaces-during-covid-19-taking-huge-toll-on-workers-mental-health.html