Dr. Chi-Ling Joanna Sinn, PhD
Research Scientist
Research Scientist, St. Joseph’s Health System Centre for Integrated Care
Affiliate, The Research Institute of St. Joe’s Hamilton
Joanna Sinn is a health services epidemiologist and program evaluator specialising in integrated health systems research, implementation, and evaluation. She conducts collaborative community-based research employing mixed methods, participatory approaches, and broad engagement strategies across the knowledge-to-action cycle.
Dr. Sinn’s research covers a variety of settings where housing and support services are co-located, such as residential care facilities and rooming houses. These settings are often intertwined with other determinants of health, including poverty, employment, social supports, and issues of housing quality and stability. Her approach to research brings system partners together with system data to identify needs, develop new models of care, and evaluate meaningful outcomes. She also frequently draws upon quality improvement principles to translate research outputs into better processes, programs, and policies.
She has received national and provincial awards, including the CIHR-IHSPR Rising Star Award and CIHR Banting and Best Canada Graduate Scholarships, for her research in health services and policy.
Research Interests: Housing with supports, continuing care, home care, congregate settings, health equity, right to housing
Dr. Sinn’s Work in
Integrated Care
“ As a curious person, it turns out that if you ask why enough times, you and the others around you will start seeing what's really important for a system to deliver the care that people need, and what's rather unimportant and effective or even harmful. And the magic happens when you ask questions like ‘why don't we try?,’ ‘So why don't we try to make it easier for people to get the care they need?’ ‘Why don't we try to make it easy to share information between those who deliver and receive care?’ Also, it's impossible to work on integrated care by yourself. ”