Associate professor
College of Rehabilitation Sciences
Department of Department of Physical Therapy
Room R131 - 771 McDermot Ave.
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0T6
Phone: 204-789-3564
Fax: 204-789-3927
patty.thille@umanitoba.ca
Patty Thille, PhD, MA, BSc (PT)
Research groups
Primary Health Care Cluster (coordinator)
Research summary
Dr. Patty Thille uses social scientific theories and qualitative methodologies to study how we deliver health services and educate health professionals. A core emphasis of her work is addressing inequities - avoidable disparities in health that exist due to stigmatization and discriminatory practices and policies. Her focus is on primary care, rehabilitative practice, and chronic disease management. Her programs of research address:
- Stigmatization in health care (emphasis: weight stigma)
- The management of chronic conditions in primary care and rehabilitation settings (emphasis: clinical support for self-management)
- Clinical practice change (emphasis: reflexivity and other transformative approaches to address inequities reproduced in health care)
She aims to do work that is relevant to both sociological and primary care audiences.
Biography
Dr. Patty Thille is a research-intensive associate professor in the department of physical therapy at the College of Rehabilitation Sciences, Rady Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Manitoba.
Dr. Thille is a physiotherapist, sociologist, and feminist who has many questions about why we do what we do in health care. After training and working as a clinician in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, she pursued further training in the social sciences. Her MA and PhD used a range of qualitative methods to help highlight how weight stigma is embedded in health care. Her graduate work was funded by SSHRC (MA), CIHR (PhD), and the Killam Trusts (PhD). She continues this work, now using community-engaged methods and intersectional approaches to study how to disrupt stigmatizing and discriminatory practices.
Prior to joining the University of Manitoba, she held the Currie Fellowship (2015-2017) for post-doctoral work at the Wilson Centre, University of Toronto, followed by a brief fellowship at the Bloorview Research Institute.
She has published in leading journals such as Social Science & Medicine, the CMAJ, and Advances in Health Sciences Education.
Education
Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology, University of Calgary (2015)
Master of Arts in the Tri-University Women's Studies Programme, Halifax (2004)
Bachelor of Arts, University of Saskatchewan (2001)
Bachelor of Science in Physical Therapy, University of Saskatchewan (1998)
Awards
Outstanding Doctoral Student Award, Canadian Sociological Association for PhD (2015)
Governor General’s Gold Medal, Senate Medal of Distinction for MA (2004)
Dr. Patty Thille In the news
Contact us
College of Rehabilitation Sciences
R106 - 771 McDermot Avenue
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, MB R3E 0T6 Canada
204-789-3897
204-789-3927