An occupational-medicine physician and international leader in occupational-disease research, Dr. Linn Holness has dedicated her career to investigating and developing practical solutions to improve the worker’s journey through the health and safety and health care systems.
Dr. Holness’ research contributed to the development of Ontario’s 2017 Occupational Disease Action Plan. Years in the making, the action plan made it undeniable that occupational disease is debilitating and costly, yet under-reported and often poorly addressed. This work carries on through the Occupational Illness Prevention Steering Committee.
Dr. Holness is the director and co-founder of the Centre for Research Expertise in Occupational Disease (CREOD). Grounded in partnerships at all levels of both the Ontario health and safety system and the healthcare system, CREOD research has been instrumental in defining the often missed link between work and health.
Identifying workplaces and workers most at risk of work related diseases such as respiratory and skin disease and improving exposure prevention, symptom screening and treatment is a core priority of CREOD.
Dr. Holness is a scientist with MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions in the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael’s Hospital. She was Chief of the St. Michael’s Hospital Department of Occupational and Environmental Health for 30 years. She is an Emerita Professor in the University of Toronto’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and Department of Medicine