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
- Somani R, Muntaner C, Velonis AJ, Smith PM, Hillan EM. Factors contributing to increased workplace violence against nurses during COVID-19 in the healthcare settings of a lower middle-income country: a qualitative study. Asian Nursing Research. 2024;18(2):148-158. doi:10.1016/j.anr.2024.04.008.
- Orchard C, Lin E, Rosella L, Smith PM. Using unsupervised clustering approaches to identify common mental health profiles and associated mental healthcare service use patterns in Ontario, Canada. American Journal of Epidemiology. 2024;193(7):976-986. doi:10.1093/aje/kwae030.
- Mustard C, Orchard C, Dobson KG , Carnide N, Smith PM. The adequacy of workplace accommodation and the incidence of permanent employment separations after a disabling work injury or illness. Scandinavian Journal of Work, Environment & Health. 2024;50(3):208-217. doi:10.5271/sjweh.4149.
- Quinn TD, Lane A, Pettee Gabriel K, Sternfeld B, Jacobs Jr DR, Smith PM. Associations between occupational physical activity and left ventricular structure and function over 25 years in CARDIA. European Journal of Preventive Cardiology. . 2024;31(4):425-433. doi:10.1093/eurjpc/zwad349.
- Smith PM, Liao Q, Shahidi FV, Biswas A, Robson LS, Landsman V, Mustard C. Variation in occupational exposure risk for COVID-19 workers' compensation claims across pandemic waves in Ontario. Occupational & Environmental Medicine. 2024;81(4):171-177. doi:10.1136/oemed-2023-109243.
Speaker Series presentations
- Refining estimates of occupational exposures and risk of workplace COVID-19 transmission. IWH Speaker Series. January 16, 2024.
- Building on the past, looking to the future: Presenting the IWH Strategic Plan, 2023-27. IWH Speaker Series. May 23, 2023.
- Workplace COVID-19 protections and transmission: Findings from population-level data in Canada. IWH Speaker Series. October 19, 2021.
- Differences in the return-to-work process for work-related psychological and musculoskeletal conditions: findings from an Australian cohort. IWH Speaker Series. April 6, 2021.
- More than just COVID-19 prevention: Exploring the links between PPE, safe work protocols and workers' mental health. IWH Speaker Series. November 10, 2020.
Interviews and articles
- Too many injured workers not seeking mental health supports. Canadian HR Reporter. July 20, 2020. Available from: https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/compensation-and-benefits/too-many-injured-workers-not-seeking-mental-health-supports/330907
- Lack of PPE related to healthcare workers’ anxiety, depression: report. Canadian Occupational Safety. June 4, 2020. Available from: https://www.thesafetymag.com/ca/topics/psychological-safety/lack-of-ppe-related-to-healthcare-workers-anxiety-depression-report/224230
- Anxiety levels among health-care workers during COVID-19 linked to inadequate PPE . At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 100, Spring 2020.
- Understanding challenges in hospitals' workplace violence reporting systems. Contact. April 3, 2020. Available from: https://www.csse.org/document/6319/Contact-Spring-2020.pdf
- Poorer post-injury experiences lead to worse RTW outcomes for psychological claimants . At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 99, Winter 2020.