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
- Accommodating and Communicating about Episodic Disabilities (ACED): A partnership to deliver workplace resources to sustain employment of people with chronic, episodic conditions. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research and Social Sciences & Humanities Research Council of Canada Signature Initiative. Ongoing.
- Artificial intelligence and occupational injury and illness in Ontario: implications for prevention and recovery. Funded by Workplace Safety and Insurance Board. Ongoing.
- Assessing the psychosocial work environment in British Columbia to inform prevention activities . Funded by Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development (MLITSD), WorkSafeBC. Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Cannabis and workplace fatalities: establishing a baseline in Ontario. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research. Ongoing. (PI on the project)
- Correcting for participation bias in non-probability samples using multiple reference samples. Funded by Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Ongoing. (PI on the project)
Publications
- St Cyr K, Smith PM, Kurdyak P, Cramm H, Aiken AB, Mahar A. A retrospective cohort analysis of mental health-related emergency department visits among veterans and non-veterans residing in Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 2024;69(5):347-357. doi:10.1177/07067437231223328.
- Robson LS, Landsman V, Smith PM, Mustard C. Evaluation of the Ontario mandatory working-at-heights training requirement in construction, 2012 - 2019. American Journal of Public Health. 2024;114(1):38-41. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2023.307440.
- Jessiman-Perreault G, Gignac MA, Thompson A, Smith PM. Understanding the unmet accommodation needs of people working with mental or cognitive conditions: the importance of gender, gendered work, and employment factors. Journal of Occupational Rehabilitation. 2024;34(1):251-264. doi:10.1007/s10926-023-10132-4.
- Quinn TD, Lane A, Pettee Gabriel K, Sternfeld B, Jacobs Jr DR, Smith PM. Thirteen-year associations of occupational and leisure-time physical activity with cardiorespiratory fitness in CARDIA. Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise. 2023;55(11):2025-2034. doi:10.1249/MSS.0000000000003237.
- Jetha A, Bonaccio S, Shamaee A, Banks CG, Bultmann U, Smith PM, Tompa E, Tucker LB, Norman C, Gignac MA. Divided in a digital economy: understanding disability employment inequities stemming from the application of advanced workplace technologies. SSM - Qualitative Research in Health. 2023;3:100293. doi:10.1016/j.ssmqr.2023.100293.
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
- Q&A: New IWH president talks about his role, how he got here, and plans for the years ahead. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 107, Winter 2022.
- 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/
- In most sectors, workplaces saw lower COVID transmission rates than in the community. At Work: Institute for Work & Health; No. 106, Fall 2021.
- 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