Suze Berkhout

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Dr. Suze Berkhout is an early career clinician investigator and practicing inpatient psychiatrist. She completed a combined MD/PhD at the University of British Columbia. Her program of research in feminist philosophy of science/STS utilizes ethnographic and narrative qualitative methods to explore social and cultural issues impacting access and navigation through health care systems. She focuses on the importance of lived experience in relation to knowledge in/of medicine and mental health. She carries out this work in diverse populations, focusing on treatment resistance in mental health, early psychosis, transplant medicine and Placebo/Nocebo Studies. She is also involved in the development and evaluation of mental health supports to health care workers in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic, bringing a critical humanities lens to this area of work. Dr. Berkhout has received funding from the New Frontiers Research Fund (NFRF), the University of Toronto and the UHN/MSH AMO Innovation Fund. She is a co-investigator on projects funded by CIHR, SSHRC and WCH Innovation Fund.

My program of research innovates methodologies and builds capacity in the critical health humanities to understand how social and cultural dynamics shape health systems access, clinical care trajectories, and the impact of technologies and clinical interventions on patients’ and families’ lived experience. My work looks to understand how social/group identities intersect with the values, norms, ideals and meanings embedded in medical practices, and how they shape engagement with clinical care and emerging medical technologies.

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For a list of Dr. Berkhout's publications, please visit PubMed or Scopus.


Clinician Investigator, UHN Centre For Mental Health
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, University of Toronto
Affiliate Faculty, Institute for the History and Philosophy of Science and Technology, University of Toronto
Researcher, The Wilson Centre