Dalla Lana School of Public Health

Faculty Member

Richard Edwards Ph.D.

Research Interests

• effective patient engagement
• person-centred research and care
• healthy public policy, social determinants of health
• community/hospital linkages
• health status measurement and community health needs assessment
• risk assessment and communication
• theory of health
• philosophical perspectives on causality and evidence

Education & Training History

EDUCATION:

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) 1996

Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario.  Thesis: “Conditions for a Science of Health Promotion: Theory and Research on the Health of Persons.”

Master of Environmental Studies (M.E.S.) 1986

Faculty of Environmental Studies, York University.  Area of Concentration: Social and Political Factors in Health.  Thesis: “Ideology of Science, Industrialization and Medical Professionalization in Ontario, 1880-1920.”

Bachelor of Independent Studies (B.I.S.) 1982

Integrated Studies Program, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario. Major: Health and the Environment.

Other Affiliations

Board Member and Governance Committee Chair, Parkdale Activity Recreation Centre (PARC), Toronto

Patient Member, Village Family Health Team Quality Improvement Committee

Past-President, Ontario Public Health Association

Primary Teaching Responsibilities

N/A

Professional Summary & Appointments

Undergraduate teaching in social determinants of health, health policy, managerial epidemiology, research methods.

Past Director of Patient, Family & Community Engagement, St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Toronto

Current Research Projects

• health and community services quality improvement
• patient engagement methods, patient-centred research
• risk assessment and communication

Representative Publications

Edwards, Richard.  Integration: Recognizing the Possibilities. Module 4 in the series, The Health Planner’s Toolkit. Health System Intelligence Project (HSIP), Health Results Team for Information Management (HRT-IM), Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.  August 2007.

Edwards, Richard.  Assessing Need. Module 2 in the series, The Health Planner’s Toolkit. Health System Intelligence Project (HSIP), Health Results Team for Information Management (HRT-IM), Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, June 2006.

• The Health Planner’s Toolkit series is available at http://www.health.gov.on.ca/transformation/providers/information/im_resources.html#health

Edwards, Richard.  Health Impact Assessment of the City of Toronto Official Plan. Submitted to the Toronto District Health Council, May 2004.

Edwards, Richard.  Health Promotion Evaluation: Recommendations for Policymakers in the Americas.  Paper produced for the PAHO Working Group on Healthy Municipality Evaluation.  Submitted January, 2003.

Edwards, Richard.  Proceedings of the Second International Conference on the Effectiveness of Health Promotion.  Submitted to the Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, November 2001.

Jackson, Suzanne, Edwards, Richard, Kahan, Barbara, and Goodstadt, Michael.  Identification and Assessment of Key Syntheses of Evidence of Effectiveness in Health Promotion/Population Health.  Submitted to Health Canada, June 2001.

Edwards, Richard.  Better Beginnings Now-CAP-C Database Analysis.  Submitted to Linda Silver, Project Manager, Better Beginnings Now, North York, Ontario, May 2001.

Edwards, Richard.  PRIORITIES 2000: Developments in Alcohol Policy in Ontario.  Submitted to the Alcohol Policy Network, Ontario Public Health Association, July 2000.

Edwards, Richard.  Economic Evaluation of Informal Caregiver Supports and Replacement Value of Informal Care.  Submitted to the Family Caregivers’ Support Network, Self-Help Resource Centre of Greater Toronto, April 1999.

Jackson, Suzanne, Edwards, Rick, Goodstadt, Michael, and Rootman, Irving. Report of the International Health Promotion Indicators Project. Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto. Submitted to WHO(Europe), November 1997.

Love, Rhonda, Jackson, Lois, Edwards, Richard, and Pederson, Ann. Gender and Its Relationship to Other Determinants of Health. Background paper for the Fifth National Health Promotion Research Conference, Gender and Health: from Research to Policy, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, July 4-5, 1997.

Eakin J, Robertson A, Poland B, Coburn D, and Edwards R. “Towards a critical social science perspective on health promotion research.” Health Promotion International 1997; 11:157-165.

Edwards, Rick. Building Healthy Public Policy. Paper HP-10-0401, Evaluation Series in Health Promotion, ParticipACTION/Centre for Health Promotion, University of Toronto, 1996.