Joanne Goldman PhD
Scientist – The Wilson Centre
Research Scientist – The Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
Assistant Professor – Department of Medicine, Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto
Joanne’s research program involves the use of social science theories and qualitative research methodologies to study quality improvement, patient safety, and interprofessional education and workplace practices. When she began to study interprofessional education, she was struck by misalignments between interprofessional education programs and everyday clinical practices. She therefore was inspired to study interprofessional interactions in internal medicine and intensive care clinical contexts using sociology of professions theory, the findings of which could inform education approaches that reflect the complexity of real life practice. In recent years, Joanne’s research program has expanded to focus on quality improvement and patient safety, again bringing the same interest to study education and workplace practices. In her research on clinical and organizational safety programs, she examines how socio-cultural factors characterize and shape individuals’ and groups’ understandings, behaviours, and interactions in relation to patient safety. This work informs Joanne’s research in quality and safety education as she aims to promote the use of social science and education theory and research in studying and implementing quality and safety education.
Current Fellows and HPER Doctoral Students
Brett A. Diaz
Brett A. Diaz is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for Quality Improvement and Patient Safety (CQuIPS). He completed his PhD in Applied Linguistics at Penn State in 2021, and a postdoctoral fellowship in health professions education research at Unity Health in 2023. His work centres on emotion in social phenomena, social aspects of health policy implementation, and praxis in health professions education. Most recently, he was Lead for Knowledge Mobilization Research and Learning Enrichment at CAMH, where he helped to create equity-based user centred processes and methods, and led research initiatives on improving trustworthiness in evidence-informed resources.
Supervisors: Ayelet Kuper, Joanne Goldman