Research that matters to protecting the health and safety of workers

The Institute for Work & Health (IWH) is a Canadian leader in work injury and disability prevention research. An independent, not-for-profit organization, IWH conducts and shares actionable research to promote, protect and improve the health and safety of working people.

Latest news & findings

A police officer with their back turned faces a group of people walking around.

IWH study examines RTW experiences of Ontario police service members

A recent IWH study examined the experiences of sworn and civilian Ontario police service members returning to their jobs after experiencing an injury or illness. The research team found that their return-to-work (RTW) challenges revolved around five main themes.

Read about the study

Robots lift boxes from a conveyor belt in a factory without human workers

IWH researchers create roadmap for AI research that prioritizes worker health

What are the most urgent research questions on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on worker health and safety? Using expert insights, an IWH team has developed a four-part agenda to guide AI research and spark conversations between workplaces, workers and regulators. Its goal is to ensure worker health and safety are at the forefront of AI policy and adoption in the workplace.

Read about the agenda

A group of physician's sitting in a room, prepared to take notes.

What do physicians need to know to support patients’ RTW?

While primary care physicians play an important role in helping ill and injured workers return to work (RTW), they have a variety of learning needs about how to best navigate the RTW process. That’s according to an IWH study that found that physicians could benefit from additional training in four main areas: administrative tasks, personal beliefs about RTW, specific occupational health issues and available RTW services and tools.

Read about the study

Dr. Arif Jetha

Scientist Dr. Arif Jetha appointed associate scientific director

IWH Scientist Dr. Arif Jetha takes on a new role as associate scientific director, effective September 1. In this role, he will work with the scientific director to ensure the standards of scientific evidence are maintained at IWH and that the scientific objectives set out in the IWH 2023-2027 Strategic Plan are fulfilled. Jetha will also play an active role in providing mentorship to IWH scientific staff, particularly those early in their careers, as well as post-doctoral, doctoral and masters students.

See Jetha's bio page

A young male doctor engaging in an online discussion using his laptop

Telementoring program helps care providers with challenging RTW cases

The first two rounds of the world’s first ECHO program on occupational and environmental medicine (OEM) have wrapped up, and preparation is underway for a third round this fall. We spoke to some of the health-care practitioners who attended the first two rounds to learn how ECHO OEM has helped with their most challenging return-to-work cases.

Read about ECHO OEM participants’ perspectives

IN THE CURRENT ISSUE...

Return-to-work challenges in policing.

The impact of depression on years of employment over a lifetime

A research agenda on artificial intelligence and its impact on worker health and safety

And more....

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Tools and guides

Integrate evidence-based policies and practices into your occupational health and safety, return-to-work and rehabilitation programs. IWH has created a number of tools and guides based on our research findings that can help improve program outcomes.

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Impact case studies

Find out how IWH research is making a difference. Read our impact case studies, in which policy-makers, workplaces and other stakeholders in health, safety and disability prevention tell how IWH research helped improve their policies, programs and practices.

Go to case studies

Research summaries

Whether it’s a policy briefing, a systematic review summary or the highlights of a specific research project, we’ve compiled a number of plain-language summaries to help you understand the research we’re doing, what we have found, and how we found it.

Get the summaries

Events

Learn directly from the researchers themselves about their latest findings in health, safety and disability prevention. We host regular presentations (in person or live stream) through our IWH Speaker Series and our annual Nachemson lecture.

See upcoming events