Susan Law

Biography

  Dr. Susan Law is an adjunct professor in the Department. She is based in Toronto at the Trillium Institute for Better Health as Director of Research and Scientist. Her main research program involves qualitative research on personal experiences of illness and she leads the Canadian Health Experiences initiative as part of an international collaboration (see: www.healthexperiences.ca). Other activities include collaboration with McGill investigators and others in areas such as Indigenous health, health services research, knowledge translation, and patient engagement. Susan has a masters in health administration from the University of Toronto and a PhD from the University of London (London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine). Her thesis was about priority-setting in the context of the internal market reforms in the UK, with case studies on stroke care. Dr. Law has worked as a health services manager in both Canada and the UK, and as a manager of research funding programs. She has held positions as VP Academic Affairs at St. Mary’s Hospital and VP Research at the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation (now CFHI). Her research career began in the UK based at the University of Oxford where she participated in qualitative studies of the role of evidence in changing clinical practice. In Canada, she has been a senior scientist with Quebec health technology assessment agency (as the Agence d’évaluation des technologies et des modes d'intervention en santé (AETMIS) in Montreal) where she completed studies related to high-tech home care. She is currently working on several projects involving experiences of perinatal mental health, end of life, and medical cannabis, and is leading experience-based co-design initiatives within different healthcare institutions. She is also involved in a CIHR-funded participatory research project on health planning with Indigenous communities in northern Quebec. She is supervising graduate students in global health, Indigenous health, and experiences of illness.    

Research Interest

 qualitative research, patient experiences, patient engagement, knowledge transfer and exchange, priority-setting, quality improvement