Faculty Member
Aaron Orkin
- Email Address(es)
- aorkin(at)gmail.com
- Website(s)
- Ornge EFRT, Canadian Red Cross National Medical Advisory Committee,
- Division(s)/Institute(s)
- Clinical Public Health Division
- Position
- Associate Professor
- SGS Status
- Associate Member
- Appointment Status
- Status Only
Research Interests
- Health Human Resources, Task sharing
- First aid, emergency care
- Health equity, harm reduction, social determinants of health
- Knowledge synthesis, trials, observational studies
- Mixed methods
- Philosophy and history of medicine
Aaron Orkin is a physician and scientist whose research asks how communities can organize and deliver essential care where conventional health services fall short. His work brings together emergency medicine, public health, and health systems research to develop, test, and implement approaches that improve access to care and advance health equity.
He is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto, with appointments in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Department of Family and Community Medicine. He practises emergency medicine at St. Joseph’s Health Centre, Unity Health Toronto, and serves as Medical Director of Ornge’s Emergency First Response Team program. He is co-chair of the Canadian Red Cross National Medical Advisory Committee.
A central focus of his research is community-based emergency care. Through longstanding partnerships with First Nations communities and health service organizations, he studies how community members can provide effective emergency care, how health systems can support their work, and how these services affect health outcomes. This program connects research with the development and delivery of emergency services in remote communities, with related collaborations in Arctic and other settings where access to care is limited.
His broader research examines task sharing, first aid, community responses to opioid overdose, and methods for evaluating whether health interventions reduce inequities. He helped develop the concept of clinical population medicine, which integrates clinical care with responsibility for the health of populations. Across these areas, his work follows questions from their origins in clinical practice and community priorities through to intervention design, evaluation, and policy.
Dr. Orkin’s research offers opportunities to address fundamental questions with immediate practical consequences. Who should deliver essential care? What support makes community-led services effective and sustainable? How should success be measured when conventional outcomes overlook what matters to communities? His partnerships with Indigenous organizations, emergency services, and national and international first aid organizations connect these questions to institutions positioned to act on the findings.
He welcomes inquiries from prospective doctoral students who bring intellectual independence, methodological ambition, and a commitment to sustained work with communities. Particular interests include community-based emergency care, health equity, task sharing, and the relationship between clinical services and population health. Students interested in developing original research that can shape services, policy, and the organization of care are encouraged to get in touch.
Dr. Orkin trained in medicine at McMaster University and holds graduate degrees from the University of Oxford and the University of Toronto, including a PhD in clinical epidemiology.