Meet DLSPH’s New Associate Dean, Public Health Sciences
March 07/2022
By Heidi Singer In the early 90s, Carol Strike was working as an HIV researcher for Health Canada when she met a group of epidemiologists working directly with HIV-positive people to develop research most relevant to the community’s needs. Thirty years ago, the idea of community-based research was still fairly...
Managing Diabetes and Hypertension Remotely in Rural Pakistan
February 22/2022
By Heidi Singer Researchers at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health are working to implement telemedicine for managing diabetes and hypertension in rural Pakistan – care that is urgently needed to replace traditional services disrupted by the COVID pandemic. Amid the chaos and calamity of COVID, the potential for...
“A Perfect Storm”: DLSPH Researchers Fight Vaccine Hesitancy in the Philippines
February 16/2022
By Heidi Singer DLSPH researchers are working with NGOs, religious and other community leaders in the Philippines to build trust in COVID vaccines -- helping to address unique historical and geopolitical factors underpinning a vaccination rate that is among the world’s lowest. “COVID has been a big tragedy in The...
Antipsychotic Use Declining in Nursing Homes in Ontario: U of T Researchers
February 15/2022
By Heidi Singer Residents of Ontario nursing homes are taking fewer antipsychotic medications and benzodiazepines, and more antidepressants and anticonvulsants, according to a study by researchers at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, the Faculty of Medicine, and colleagues. The findings, published Feb. 15 in the peer-reviewed journal JAMDA,...
High Levels of Hazardous Chemicals Found in Canadian Nail Salons
February 14/2022
Researchers at U of T's Dalla Lana School of Public Health, in collaboration with Parkdale Queen West Community Heath Centre and the Healthy Nail Salons Network, have found that nail technicians in discount salons are exposed to several chemicals widely used as plasticizers and flame retardants. The study, published Feb....
Shelly Bolotin to Head Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases
January 28/2022
By Heidi Singer Shelly Bolotin has been fascinated by infectious disease all her life – first the biology of it, and then the profound way social, economic and other human factors drive its spread. “Viruses are smarter than we are -- that blows my mind,” says DLSPH’s Associate Professor of...
A Blueprint for Black Food Sovereignty in Toronto
January 05/2022
By Heidi Singer DLSPH faculty helped make history last month with the launch of North America’s first Black Food Sovereignty Program – an attempt to address food insecurity by creating a Black-run food pipeline from field to table. The Toronto Black Food Sovereignty Plan, the result of a unique partnership between...
Partnering with Faith Communities to Promote Vaccines — What Works?
December 21/2021
Across Canada, public health officials are trying new partnerships and approaches to encourage vaccine confidence. DLSPH researchers hope to learn whether these efforts help. By Heidi Singer DLSPH researchers are beginning to study how Canadian public health officials and religious leaders are collaborating to build vaccine confidence in communities and...
Waking Up to the Reasons Behind Chronic Sleeplessness
November 23/2021
By Françoise Makanda, DLSPH PhD student Kristie Serota started quilting for a research project on insomnia. Quilting helps her question the ‘sleep industrial complex.’ While she radically accepts her bouts of sleeplessness, her professor in the Social and Behavioural Sciences division, insomnia researcher Michael Atkinson, suggests that it might be...
Training the Next Generation of Applied Health Researchers
November 15/2021
New fellowship program places researchers in Ontario Health Teams to improve learning and health outcomes. By Heidi Singer Mulugeta Chala is settling into his new workplace. The newly minted PhD has just moved his family across the province to start a fellowship program in London, Ontario. For the next year,...