Lesley Gotlib Conn

Faculty Member

Research Interests

Dr. Gotlib Conn is a medical anthropologist whose research applies anthropological theory and methods to the study of healthcare culture. Over the last decade, her academic research has been focused on understanding the cultural and social contexts for healthcare improvements in the areas of interprofessional collaboration, communication and teamwork. With expertise in ethnography, she has examined healthcare team communication in several clinical domains: general internal medicine, primary care, pediatrics, surgery and critical care. Her most recent focus is the improvement of inter-specialty team communication in surgery and critical care. Through the use of ethnography, she has furthered our understanding of the role that specialty-specific power and knowledge play in negotiating high quality and safe patient care in the ICU. In addition, Dr. Gotlib Conn is working to strengthen advances in the care of severely injured patients by examining how trauma centers use performance data to effect change in care processes and improve patient outcomes. Currently, she is identifying opportunities for improvement in discharge and care transitions processes for trauma patients.

Professional Interests

  • Ethnography and Qualitative Research in Healthcare
  • Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
  • Knowledge Translation and Implementation Research
  • Communication and Teamwork
  • Trauma, Surgery and Critical Care
  • Health Professions Education Research

Impact

Lesley Gotlib Conn PhD is Associate Scientist in Evaluative Clinical Sciences – Tory Trauma Research Program at Sunnybrook Research Institute. She holds an Adjunct Professor appointment in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Toronto and at the Institute of Health Policy, Management, and Evaluation. She is an Associate (Restricted) Member of the School of Graduate Studies at the University of Toronto.

Other Affiliations