Investigator, Applied Health Research Center
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto
Assistant Professor (Status)
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto
Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Lead
Diabetologia, Springer Nature, United Kingdom
Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute
209 Victoria Street, 3rd floor
Toronto, ON M5B 1T8
Cheryl.Pritlove@unityhealth.to
Websites
DLSPH Profile
Diabetologia Profile
Biosketch
Cheryl Pritlove is a critical qualitative methodologist and health services researcher whose work is grounded in Feminist Political Economy, Intersectionality, and other anti-oppressive frameworks. Her research bridges the disciplines of health, social science, political science, and the visual arts to examine the lived experiences of health and illness, with particular attention to how structural and systemic forces shape access to care, health outcomes, and overall quality of life – especially for underserved populations.
Cheryl’s program of research spans a range of content areas, with a primary focus on diabetes and cancer. She employs a diverse methodological repertoire, including community-engaged and action-oriented approaches, mixed methods (e.g., in-depth interviews, document analysis, concept mapping, design thinking, environmental scans, scoping reviews), and arts-based methods (e.g., patient-produced photography, comics, film). Her work employs narrative and creative forms of expression to illuminate the invisible dimensions of illness, challenge dominant paradigms in healthcare, and catalyze more inclusive and equity-informed practices, policies, and systems.
A core area of her expertise lies in patient-oriented research, gender and health, and diverse interest-holder engagement. Through critical policy analysis and action-oriented knowledge translation – such as art exhibits and graphic narratives – she aims to co-develop innovative, actionable, and sustainable solutions that confront structural inequities, improve care, and drive systemic change. Most recently, she is exploring the use of Equity-Driven Design Thinking to develop processes and resources that support meaningful collaborative governance to drive equity-centered health system transformation.
Cheryl’s work has been published in leading academic journals, including a first-authored article in The Lancet, and has garnered international recognition for its impact on advancing health equity. She has been invited to share her research at prestigious institutions such as Harvard University and at global summits focused on equity in health research and practice. Her work has contributed to tangible policy reforms that have improved access to care at the provincial level, and has been recognized with several honours, including Springer Nature’s Must Read Articles: Change the World One Article at a Time.
Cheryl also serves as the Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Lead at Diabetologia, an international diabetes journal, where she is embedding structural competency, reflexivity, and anti-oppressive practices into the academic publishing process. In this role, she is advancing policy and practice changes that promote thoughtful representation of social identities, researcher positionality, and structural and environmental context in health research.
Qualitative Teaching
CHL5138: Critical Qualitative Health Research Theory and Methods
Research Interests
- Collaborative Governance
- Health System Transformation
- Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
- Patient and Community Engagement
- Gender and Health
- Person-centered Care
- Social and Structural Determinants of Health
- Social Inequity, Marginalized Populations, and Health Outcomes
- Intersectionality
- Feminist Political Economy
- Qualitative Research Methods and Art-based Approaches (photography and comics)
- Critical Ethnography
Sample Publications
Pritlove, C., Juando-Prats, C., Ala-leppilampi, K. & Parsons, J. (2019). The good, the bad, and the ugly of implicit bias. The Lancet, 393(10171), p. 502-504.
Pritlove, C. & Dias, L.V. (2022). “You really need a whole community”: a qualitative study of mothers’ need for and experiences with childcare support during cancer treatment and recovery. Supportive Care in Cancer. Https://doi.org/10.1007/s00520-022-07399-3
Pritlove, C., Angus, J., Dale, C., Seto-Neilson., Kraimer, M. (2021). Binary blues: Exploring beyond dichotomized gender comparisons with a theory-driven approach. Qualitative Research. doi.org/10.1177/14687941211049323
Pritlove, C., Jassi, M., Burns, B., McCurdy. (2021). The work of managing multiple myeloma and its implications for treatment-related decision making: A qualitative study of patient and caregiver experiences. BMC Cancer, 21(793), 1-12
Lopez, C.J., Pritlove, C., Jones, JM., Alibhai, SMH., Sabiston, E…Santa-Mina, D. (2021). “This is my home-based exercise”: exploring environmental influences on home-based exercise participation in oncology. Supportive Care in Cancer, 29 (6), 3245-3255
For a full list publications, visit: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed?term=Cheryl+Pritlove
