Smita Pakhale profile picture

Contact Information

Smita Pakhale, MD, FRCPC, MSc (Epi & Biostat)
613-737-8899 ex.79469
spakhale@ohri.ca

The Ottawa Hospital
501 Smyth Rd, Ottawa, Canada

Eman Mugamai
Research Administrative Assistant
Tel: 613-737-8899 ext 79469
Email: emugamai@ohri.ca


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ORCID logo https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4051-962X

Smita Pakhale

Senior Scientist, Clinical Epidemiology Program
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
Staff Respirologist, Division of Respirology, Department of Medicine
The Ottawa Hospital
Associate Professor, Faculty of Medicine, School of Epidemiology, Public Health and Preventive Medicine
University of Ottawa

Research Interests

  • Health Equity & (bio-psycho-socio-econ-struct) Determinants of Health
  • Community-based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR)
  • Patient/Citizen/Peer Partnership Models
  • Population Health Interventions
  • Urban Poor Health
  • Racialized Minorities, Indigenous Populations and Remote Indigenous Communities
  • Indigenous People's Health and Wellbeing
  • Mental Health Inequities
  • Healthcare Access
  • Substance Use Disorders
  • Food Insecurity
  • Tobacco Dependence Management and Tobacco Inequity
  • Chronic Lung Diseases (Sickle Cell Disease, Asthma, Cystic Fibrosis, COPD)
  • Global Health and Inequity

Brief Biography

Dr. Pakhale joined The Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and The Division of Respirology at the The Ottawa Hospital in 2008. Previous to that Dr. Pakhale completed her medical training at the Government Medical College, Nagpur, India and her Internal Medicine residency at Columbia University, New York, NY, USA, becoming an American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) certified internist.

She went on to complete a Lung Transplantation and Cystic Fibrosis fellowship at the University of Toronto and Respirology and Critical Care Medicine Fellowship at the University of Manitoba. Upon completion of her fellowships at the University of Toronto and the University of Manitoba, she was awarded Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (FRCPC) in Internal Medicine (2005) and Respirology (2006). Most recently, she joined McGill University as a post-doc research fellow and simultaneously completed training in Epidemiology and Biostatistics for which she received an MSc (2008).

Dr. Pakhale has received $25 million in peer reviewed grants as either principle investigator or co-principle investigator. Her focus in research includes community-based participatory action research at the Bridge Engagement Center (the Bridge), as well as research in sickle cell disease, bronchial asthma, cystic fibrosis (CF), COPD and lung transplantation.

She has published over 105 peer-reviewed articles and two book chapters. She was an active member of the Tobacco Action Committee of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) for over a decade since 2011. Her novelty approach in working in partnership with the urban poor population (i.e. people who are homeless and at-risk for homelessness, low-income racialized, including Indigenous people) has been featured on national and international platforms.

Selected Publications

1. Charron, C. B., Hudani, A., Kaur, T., Rose, T., Florence, K., Jama, S., & Pakhalé, S. Assessing community (peer) researcher’s experiences with conducting spirometry and being engaged in the ‘Participatory Research in Ottawa: Management and Point-of-care for Tobacco-dependence’ (PROMPT) project. Research Involvement and Engagement. (2018), 4(1).

2. Pakhale, S, Tina Kaur, Charron, C, Florence, K, Rose, R, Jama, S, Boyd, B, Haddad, J, Alvarez, G, Tyndall, M. Management and Point-of-Care for Tobacco Dependence (PROMPT): a feasibility mixed methods Community Based Participatory Action Research project in Ottawa, Canada. BMJ open 8.1 (2018): e018416.

3. Pakhale, S., , Kaur T, Florence K, Rose T, Boyd R, Haddad J, Pettey D, Muckle W, Tyndall M. The Ottawa Citizen Engagement and Action Model (OCEAM): A Citizen engagement Strategy Operationalized Through The Participatory Research in Ottawa, Management and Point-of-care of Tobacco (PROMPT) Study, A Community Based Participatory Action Research Project in Inner City Ottawa. BioMed Central: Research Involvement and Engagement. 2016, 2:20

4. Pakhalé S, Folan P, Neptune E, Sachs D. Retail Tobacco Sale in the Community. Should Pharmacies Sell Tobacco Products? Ann Am Thorac Soc. 2015 Aug;12(8):1116-7.

5. Leone FT, Carlsen KH, Folan P, Latzka K, Munzer A, Neptune E, Pakhale S, Sachs DP, Samet J, Upson D, White A; ATS Tobacco Action Committee; American Thoracic Society. An Official American Thoracic Society Research Statement: Current Understanding and Future Research Needs in Tobacco Control and Treatment. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. 2015 Aug 1;192(3):e22-41.

6. Pakhale S, Armstrong M, Holly C, Edjoc R, Gaudet E, Aaron S, Tasca G, Cameron W, Balfour L. Assessment of stigma in patients with cystic fibrosis. BMC Pulm Med. 2014 May 1;14:76.

7. Pakhale S, Doucette S, Vandemheen K, Boulet LP, McIvor RA, Fitzgerald JM, Hernandez P, Lemiere C, Sharma S, Field SK, Alvarez GG, Dales RE, Aaron SD. A comparison of obese and nonobese people with asthma: exploring an asthma-obesity interaction. Chest. 2010 Jun;137(6):1316-23

8. Pakhale SS, Hadjiliadis D, Howell DN, Palmer SM, Gutierrez C, Waddell TK, Chaparro C, Davis RD, Keshavjee S, Hutcheon MA, Singer LG. Upper lobe fibrosis: a novel manifestation of chronic allograft dysfunction in lung transplantation. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2005 Sep;24(9):1260-8.

Diseases, conditions and populations of interest





Research and clinical approaches