Assistant Professor

Sheryl Spithoff

DFCM

MD, MSc

Publications

Location

Women's College Hospital

Address

77 Grenville, Street, Toronto, Ontario Canada M5S 1B2

Research Interests

Addiction Medicine, Administrative Databases, Electronic Medical Records, Disadvantaged Populations, Generic Qualitative, Grounded Theory, Health Policy, Health Services Research, Mixed Methods, Neoliberalism and Health, Pharmaceutical Policy, Primary Care Qualitative Data Analysis, Quantitative Data Analysis, Systematic Reviews

Clinical Interests

Addictions

Accepting

CREMS Students, Summer Students

Qualification

Dr. Sheryl Spithoff is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto, a Clinician Scientist at Women’s College Hospital, and the founder and director of the Health Tech and Society Lab. She also has appointments at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and the Institute of Medical Science at the University of Toronto. Her work examines issues at the intersection of new technologies, commercial interests and health care systems. She holds grants from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada to examine the commercialization of primary care health data and pharmaceutical industry surveillance marketing through clinical decision support and electronic health record systems. She has a school of graduate studies appointment .

Sheryl Spithoff is a family physician at Women’s College Hospital and an assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto. Her research aims to improve the health and wellbeing of people who use substances. She has led research exploring gaps in care as well as designed interventions to address barriers. She recently co-chaired Health Quality Ontario’s Quality Standard committees on Opioid Use Disorder and on Alcohol Use Disorder. She also conducts research exploring the impact of commercial interests on health and the healthcare system.

Research Synopsis

Dr. Spithoff's primary research interests include the primary care management of addictions, access to care for vulnerable populations, and health policy. She also has a research interest in the interactions between the public health care system and private, for-profit organizations.

Appointments

Clinician investigator, Women's College Hospital

Honours and Awards

Name:
Description:

2015 Graduate Research Studies Award, University of Toronto, Department of Community and Family Medicine, Toronto, Ontario.

Grants

PEER-REVIEWED GRANTS

2015 Principal Investigator. SUN:SHARE: A qualitative and quantitative evaluation of a shared-care addiction medicine and primary care model. Women’s College Hospital (Toronto, ON). Innovation Grant. Collaborator(s): Meldon Kahan (co-PI). 30,000 CAD.

2014 Co-Investigator. META-PHI: Mentorship, Education, and Training in Addictions:Community Hospital Integration. ARTIC Grant. PI: Kahan, Meldon. Collaborator(s): Spithoff S, Wilson L, Lamba W. 900,000 CAD.

2013 Co-Investigator. Rapid access to hospital-based addiction services for opioid and alcohol patients: A randomized trial. MOHLTC. University of Toronto. BRIDGES. PI: Kahan, Meldon. Collaborator(s): Srivastava A (Co-PI), Gupta R, Spithoff S, Quastel A. 300,000.

NON-PEER-REVIEWED GRANTS

2015 Co-Investigator. Safer Decisions Save Lives -- Enhanced Clinical Decision Support Systems Designed to Reduce Prescriptions for Opioids (SDSL). Health Canada. Drug Strategy Community Initiatives Fund (DSCIF). Collaborator(s): David U, Hamilton M, Kahan M, Spithoff S, MacLeod H, Owen M, Routledge S. 550,000 CAD. [Grants] Institute for Safe Medication Practices Canada (ISMP Canada). Partner in the Canadian Medication Incident Reporting and Prevention System.