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
- Ontario Life After Work Injury Study: Understanding the long-term recovery and labour market outcomes of injured workers in the shadow of COVID-19. Funded by Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. Ongoing.
- Partnership on AI and the Quality of work (PAIQ) . Funded by Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada. Ongoing.
- Toking 9 to 5: Workplace cannabis use and perceptions among Canadian workers. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Trends in the severity of work-related injury in Ontario. Funded by Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD). Ongoing.
- Understanding the injury experience of Ontario small businesses through workers’ compensation claims data. Funded by Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD). Ongoing.
Publications
- Bielecky A, Smith PM. Methods of soliciting self-reported chronic conditions in population surveys: don't ask, don't report. Quality & Quantity. 2014;48:2463-2477. doi:10.1007/s11135-013-9901-x.
- Kosny A, Lifshen M, Smith PM, Saunders R. Prevention is the best medicine. Development of a work and health toolkit for new immigrants using settlement services in Ontario. Perspectives interdisciplinaires sur le travail et la sante. 2014;16(2):42749.
- Smith PM, Bielecky A, Koehoorn M, Beaton DE, Ibrahim S, Mustard C, Saunders R, Scott-Marshall H. Are age-related differences in the consequence of work injury greater when occupational physical demands are high?. American Journal of Industrial Medicine. 2014;57(4):438-444. doi:10.1002/ajim.22303.
- Smith BT, Smith PM, Harper S, Manuel DG, Mustard C. Reducing social inequalities in health: the role of simulation modelling in chronic disease epidemiology to evaluate the impact of population health interventions. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. 2013;68(4):384-389. doi:10.1136/jech-2013-202756.
- Murray E, Franche RL, Ibrahim S, Smith PM, Carnide N, Cote P, Gibson J, Guzman J, Koehoorn M, Mustard C. Pain-related work interference is a key factor in a worker/workplace model of work absence duration due to musculoskeletal conditions in Canadian nurses. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. 2013;23(4):585-596. doi:10.1007/s10926-012-9408-7.
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.
Research summaries
- Workers exposed to common hazards more likely to report their injuries: IWH study. At Work article: Institute for Work & Health, August 2020.
- Understanding challenges in hospitals’ workplace violence reporting systems. At Work article: Institute for Work & Health, August 2020.
- Anxiety levels among health-care workers during COVID-19 linked to inadequate PPE . At Work article: Institute for Work & Health, May 2020.
- Poorer post-injury experiences lead to worse RTW outcomes for psychological claimants . At Work article: Institute for Work & Health, February 2020.
- Claimants’ perceptions of fair treatment linked to lower odds of poor mental health. At Work article: Institute for Work & Health, November 2019.
Media coverage
- Study raises concerns about popular psychosocial work survey. Canadian HR Reporter. June 23, 2022. Available from: https://www.hrreporter.com/focus-areas/people-analytics/study-raises-concerns-about-popular-psychosocial-work-survey/367668
- Host of symptoms, variable recovery times complicate return to work for those with long COVID. CBC Radio - The Current. February 2, 2022. Available from: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-jan-21-2022-1.6322837/host-of-symptoms-variable-recovery-times-complicate-return-to-work-for-those-with-long-covid-1.6333734
- How the City of Toronto is supporting employee mental health in 2022 and beyond. Benefits Canada. January 3, 2022. Available from: https://www.benefitscanada.com/benefits/health-benefits/how-the-city-of-toronto-is-supporting-employee-mental-health-in-2022-and-beyond/
- Analyzing the data behind workplace spread of COVID-19. OHS Canada. December 9, 2021. Available from: https://www.ohscanada.com/features/analyzing-the-data-behind-workplace-spread-of-covid-19/
- Lessons from COVID-19 for the next pandemic: We need better data on workplace transmission. The Conversation. November 9, 2021. Available from: https://theconversation.com/lessons-from-covid-19-for-the-next-pandemic-we-need-better-data-on-workplace-transmission-170023