Dana Turcotte, BSc (Pharm), PhD

Research summary

Current projects:

Truth and Reconciliation in Pharmacy Education: A national study examining how Canadian pharmacy programs have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Calls to Action and identifying priorities for continued change.

SHARE-OAT: A multiphase, patient-oriented study examining how opioid agonist therapy is delivered in primary care and how services can better support access, autonomy, quality and patient experience.

Patient Experiences with Opioid Tapering: A qualitative study exploring how people with chronic pain experience a multidisciplinary opioid tapering program and optional Acceptance and Commitment Therapy workshop.

Opioid Deprescribing in Primary Care: Research examining how patients and healthcare providers understand, negotiate and carry out opioid deprescribing in everyday primary care practice.

Métis Perspectives on Pain and Opioid Care: A community-engaged project using forum theatre to explore patient–clinician interactions related to chronic pain and opioid use, in partnership with Métis citizens.

Patient Engagement in Pharmacy Research: A scoping review examining how patients are engaged as research partners in pharmacy practice research and identifying opportunities to strengthen meaningful engagement.

Research theme

Population therapeutics and health outcomes research

Keywords

• Chronic pain
• Community-engaged research
• Cultural safety
• Harm reduction
• Health equity
• Opioid stewardship
• Opioid use disorder
• Pharmacy education
• Pharmacy practice
• Primary care
• Social accountability

Dr. Dana Turcotte is an associate professor in the College of Pharmacy, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, and a primary care pharmacist at ACCESS River East. She teaches and coordinates courses in the PharmD program’s clinical therapeutics stream and provides experiential education to pharmacy interns during their primary care rotations. 

Her research focuses on opioid stewardship, harm reduction, chronic pain, opioid use disorder and improving access to opioid agonist therapy in primary care. Through patient-oriented and community-engaged approaches, she collaborates with people with lived and living experience, healthcare providers and community partners to examine how stigma and health-system barriers shape care and to develop more equitable, compassionate and accessible services.

Education