Stephen W. Hwang

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1⁄2 years, Hwang concluded that they were eight times as likely to die as men in the general population. [7] In 2002, Hwang received the New Investigator Award from the Canadian Society of Internal Medicine. [8] He was shortly thereafter appointed departmental division director of General Internal Medicine (GIM) at the University of Toronto. [9] Beyond his research, Hwang also advocated health equity and social justice through publicly available documents[ vague ]. In 2007, Hwang publicly admonished the Conservative Party of Canada for threatening to discontinue Vancouver's supervised injection site. He argued that they were putting "the health of the nation in peril" because they "ignore crucial research findings simply because they run contrary to a rigid policy agenda driven by ideology or fixed beliefs." [10] This sentiment was repeated by Hwang and 84 other scientists in 2008 who argued that Prime Minister Stephen Harper "undermined, suppressed and distorted science for political reasons." [11]

In 2011, Hwang's research team published the findings of their Health and Housing in Transitions Study (HHiTS) which followed homeless and marginally-housed people in Toronto, Vancouver, and Ottawa over a two-year period. The study found that regardless of housing status, participants had extremely poor overall health. [12] In 2013, Hwang was appointed St. Michael's Hospital's inaugural Chair in Homelessness, Housing and Health, considered the first endowed research chair aimed at better understanding the health needs of those experiencing homelessness. [6] One of the first studies he published in this new role found, for the first time, that Canadian physicians favoured patients based on economic status despite Canada's single-payer healthcare system. His research team found that callers to Toronto doctors' offices posing as bank employees were 80 per cent more likely to get an appointment than those presenting as welfare recipients. [13] In 2015, Hwang was appointed director of the Centre for Research on Inner City Health at St. Michael’s Hospital. [6]

As the director of GIM at the University of Toronto, Hwang helped the department become recognized as a sub-specialty of internal medicine with the establishment of a two-year training program. [9] Hwang stepped down from this role in May 2016 and was replaced by ICES scientist, Moira Kapral. [14] In 2018, Hwang received the Robert Sheppard Award for Health Equity and Social Justice for "outstanding contributions in the development and/or implementation of activities, programs or research related to social justice and health equity in faculty development or postgraduate medical education." [15] The following year, Hwang oversaw the merging of the Centre for Urban Health Solutions into the MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael's Hospital. [16] He subsequently received a seven-year Canadian Institutes of Health Research Foundation Grant to continue his interventions research in homelessness, housing, and health. [17] In February 2020, Hwang's work was recognized by the University of Toronto with their President’s Impact Award for "playing a pivotal role in advancing Canadian and international scholarship and advocacy related to homelessness." [18]

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Hwang received funding through the COVID-19 Immunity Task Force to see how the pandemic impacted unhoused people in Toronto. His main research project was entitled "The COVENANT Study: COVID-19 Cohort Study of People Experiencing Homelessness in Toronto." [19] [20] As the pandemic continued into 2022, Hwang encouraged vaccinations for those experiencing homelessness and those in shelters. [21] Hwang was also named the recipient of a Harvard Chan School Alumni Award. [22]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Homelessness in Canada</span>

Homelessness in Canada was not a social problem until the 1980s. The Canadian government housing policies and programs in place throughout the 1970s were based on a concept of shelter as a basic need or requirement for survival and of the obligation of government and society to provide adequate housing for everyone. Public policies shifted away from rehousing in the 1980s in wealthy Western countries like Canada, which led to a de-housing of households that had previously been housed. By 1987, when the United Nations established the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless (IYSH), homelessness had become a serious social problem in Canada. The report of the major 1987 IYSH conference held in Ottawa said that housing was not a high priority for government, and this was a significant contributor to the homelessness problem. While there was a demand for adequate and affordable housing for low income Canadian families, government funding was not available. In the 1980s a "wider segment of the population" began to experience homelessness for the first time – evident through their use of emergency shelters and soup kitchens. Shelters began to experience overcrowding, and demand for services for the homeless was constantly increasing. A series of cuts were made to national housing programs by the federal government through the mid-1980s and in the 1990s. While Canada's economy was robust, the cuts continued and in some cases accelerated in the 1990s, including cuts to the 1973 national affordable housing program. The government solution for homelessness was to create more homeless shelters and to increase emergency services. In the larger metropolitan areas like Toronto the use of homeless shelters increased by 75% from 1988 to 1998. Urban centres such as Montreal, Laval, Vancouver, Edmonton, and Calgary all experienced increasing homelessness.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">University of Toronto Faculty of Medicine</span> Medical school of the University of Toronto

The Temerty Faculty of Medicine is the medical school of the University of Toronto. Founded in 1843, the faculty is based in Downtown Toronto and is one of Canada's oldest institutions of medical studies, being known for the discovery of insulin, stem cells and the site of the first single and double lung transplants in the world.

The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute (OHRI), formerly Ottawa Health Research Institute, is a non-profit academic health research institute located in the city of Ottawa. It was formed in 2001 following the merger of three Ottawa hospitals. The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute is the research arm of The Ottawa Hospital and affiliated with the University of Ottawa.

Housing First is a policy that offers unconditional, permanent housing as quickly as possible to homeless people, and other supportive services afterward. It was first discussed in the 1990s, and in the following decades became government policy in certain locations within the Western world. There is a substantial base of evidence showing that Housing First is both an effective solution to homelessness and a form of cost savings, as it also reduces the use of public services like hospitals, jails, and emergency shelters. Cities like Helsinki and Vienna in Europe have seen dramatic reductions in homelessness due to the adaptation of Housing First policies, as have the North American cities Columbus, Ohio, Salt Lake City, Utah, and Medicine Hat, Alberta.

Michael Shapcott is Executive Director of the Sorrento Centre, a retreat and conference centre in the Shuswap region of British Columbia, Canada, that offers in-person and on-line events and activities. Previously, he served as Director of National Business and Community Strategy for Prince's Charities Canada.

The Canadian Observatory on Homelessness (COH)—formerly named the Canadian Homelessness Research Network (CHRN)—is a Canadian non-profit, non-partisan research institute that works with researchers, service providers, policy makers, students and people who have experienced homelessness.

Prabhat Jha is an Indian-Canadian epidemiologist currently working in the field of global health.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sonia Anand</span> Canadian medical scientist

Sonia Savitri Anand is a Canadian vascular medicine specialist. She previously held the Eli Lilly Canada - May Cohen Chair in Women's Health and currently holds the Michael DeGroote Heart and Stroke Chair in Population Health and Epidemiology at McMaster University.

Allison Joan McGeer is a Canadian infectious disease specialist in the Sinai Health System, and a professor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathobiology at the University of Toronto. She also appointed at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health and a Senior Clinician Scientist at the Lunenfeld-Tanenbaum Research Institute, and is a partner of the National Collaborating Centre for Infectious Diseases. McGeer has led investigations into the severe acute respiratory syndrome outbreak in Toronto and worked alongside Donald Low. During the COVID-19 pandemic, McGeer has studied how SARS-CoV-2 survives in the air and has served on several provincial committees advising aspects of the Government of Ontario's pandemic response.

Peter Jüni is a Swiss physician, general internist, and epidemiologist based in England.

Naheed Dosani is a palliative care physician based in Ontario, Canada, who founded and leads the Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless (PEACH) program. For his efforts in providing mobile healthcare to individuals with vulnerable housing or are homeless, Dosani has received a Meritorious Service Cross from the Governor General of Canada (2017), and a Canadian Medical Association Award for Young Leaders (2020).

Anna Banerji M.D., O. Ont. is a Toronto infectious disease doctor, tropical disease specialist, pediatrician, public health specialist, academic, and activist. She is the founder and chair of both the North American Refugee Health Conference in Canada and the Indigenous Health Conference, and the co-founder of the Society of Refugee Healthcare Providers. She was awarded the Dr Peter Bryce Henderson for her advocacy for Indigenous children.

James Maskalyk is a Canadian emergency medicine physician, author, and meditation teacher.

Sharon Elizabeth Straus is a professor of geriatric medicine at the University of Toronto, and geriatrician and Squires-Chalmers Chair and physician-in-chief at Unity Health Toronto. Straus was appointed as a member of the Order of Canada in 2021.

Inner City Health Associates (ICHA) is Canada's largest community healthcare organization for unhoused people and is based in Toronto.

Paula Ann Rochon is a Canadian geriatrician. She is the Retired Teachers of Ontario/ERO Chair in Geriatric Medicine at the University of Toronto.

Bisola Ojikutu is an American physician, disease specialist, and researcher. In July 2021, she was appointed as the executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission. Ojikutu is the fifth Commissioner of Public Health for the City of Boston and the first Black person to permanently hold this position. She currently serves on the Cabinet of Mayor Michelle Wu.

Angela Man-Wei Cheung is a Canadian internal medicine specialist. At the University of Toronto, she is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair, the KY and Betty Ho Chair of Integrative Medicine, and a senior scientist at Toronto General Hospital Research Institute and the Schroeder Arthritis Institute. Cheung also established the University of Toronto Center for Excellence in Skeletal Health Assessment and the Osteoporosis Program at the University Health Network.

Janet Smylie a Métis family medicine physician. She is a Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Advancing Generative Health Services for Indigenous Populations in Canada at St. Michael's Hospital.

References

  1. ↑ "Stephen Wesley Hwang". University of Toronto. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 Mick, Hayley (October 18, 2008). "Toronto's street saviour". The Globe and Mail. Archived from the original on December 3, 2022. Retrieved December 2, 2022.
  3. ↑ "Area trio finalists in scholars contest". San Pedro News Pilot. April 28, 1980. Retrieved December 3, 2022– via newspapers.com.
  4. 1 2 Goar, Carol (July 3, 2015). "A doctor's journey from privilege to compassion". The Toronto Star. Retrieved December 3, 2022.
  5. ↑ "Harbor Area collegians get degrees". San Pedro News Pilot. June 21, 1984. Retrieved December 3, 2022– via newspapers.com.
  6. 1 2 3 Monsebraaten, Laurie (February 1, 2013). "St. Michael's Hospital appoints Dr. Stephen Hwang inaugural chair in homelessness, housing and health". Toronto Star. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  7. ↑ "Toronto homeless live longer than their U.S. counterparts". Red Deer Advocate. April 28, 2000. Retrieved December 4, 2022– via newspapers.com.
  8. ↑ "CSIM New and Senior Investigator Award Recipients" (PDF). Canadian Society of Internal Medicine. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  9. 1 2 "Transitions & Thank Yous". University of Toronto. June 20, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  10. ↑ McKnight, Peter (September 1, 2007). "Conservatives Confuse Science and Moralizing". The Vancouver Sun. Retrieved December 4, 2022– via newspapers.com.
  11. ↑ Munro, Margaret (October 10, 2008). "85 prominent scientists launch second attack on gov't". The Province . Retrieved December 4, 2022– via newspapers.com.
  12. ↑ Hwang, Stephen W.; Aubry, Tim; Palepu, Anita (December 2011). "The health and housing in transition study: a longitudinal study of the health of homeless and vulnerably housed adults in three Canadian cities". International Journal of Public Health . 56 (6): 609–623. doi:10.1007/s00038-011-0283-3. hdl: 1807/72366 . PMID   21858461. S2CID   23850609 . Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  13. ↑ Oldfield, Jim (November 22, 2013). "Why wealth = health: U of T researchers explain". University of Toronto. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  14. ↑ "ICES senior scientist Moira Kapral appointed departmental division director of General Internal Medicine at the University of Toronto". ICES. May 2, 2016. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  15. ↑ "Dr. Stephen Hwang to be awarded Robert Sheppard Award for Health Equity and Social Justice". University of Toronto. March 20, 2018. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  16. ↑ "C-UHS becomes MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions". Unity Health. November 20, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  17. ↑ "Eight researchers at MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions receive more than $18 million in federal funding". St. Michael's Hospital. December 18, 2019. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  18. ↑ "Professor Stephen Hwang receives President's Impact Award". University of Toronto. February 21, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  19. ↑ "CANADA'S COVID-19 IMMUNITY TASK FORCE PARTNERS WITH CIHR TO SUPPORT 22 STUDIES INVESTIGATING COVID-19". COVID-19 Immunity Task Force. September 10, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  20. ↑ Draaisma, Muriel (December 10, 2020). "Toronto researchers to study COVID-19 among people experiencing homelessness". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  21. ↑ Ogilvie, Megan (January 21, 2022). "High-risk Ontarians lagging on third doses of COVID vaccine". Toronto Star. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
  22. ↑ "2022 Harvard Chan School Alumni Awards announced". The Harvard Gazette. September 29, 2022. Retrieved December 4, 2022.
Stephen W. Hwang
Born
Los Angeles, California, USA
Spouse Angela Cheung
Academic background
EducationBSc, Biochemistry, 1984, Harvard University
MD, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
MPH, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
International
National
Academics
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