Dr. Archna Gupta joins Upstream Lab as a Research Scientist

Dr. Archna Gupta brings her expertise in global and public health to the Upstream Lab, joining as a Research Scientist effective November 1, 2023.

With a keen interest in the intersection of primary care and public health, Dr. Gupta brings a wealth of experience from a global health perspective – recognizing that there is value in cross-context learning and the collaborative approach to finding solutions, regardless of where we live or work.

“One of my primary areas of interest is looking at problems from a global health perspective, understanding whether there are solutions that we can come up with collaboratively to address issues in multiple contexts,” Dr. Gupta said in an interview. “Another interest is how do we improve access to primary care, and not just care, but good quality care,” she added.

In her new role at Upstream Lab, Dr. Gupta aims to lead projects that will advance the understanding of the best approaches to serve patients who face structural marginalization and meet the expanding healthcare needs of local and global populations.

Dr. Gupta learned about Upstream Lab after authoring a paper about the disconnect between primary care and public health during the COVID-19 pandemic. The issues she described in the Canadian Family Physician blog post sparked a conversation with the lab’s founder and director, Dr. Andrew Pinto, and their discussion revealed a strong alignment between her research interests and the lab’s mission to address the social determinants of health and tackle complex issues from an upstream perspective.

Dr. Gupta became a Postdoctoral Fellow at Upstream Lab in 2021, leading various primary care and health equity projects. Her research includes improving social protection for domestic women workers in Peru, which will inform the interventions in Canada against precarious employment of healthcare workers. She also received an award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) to collaborate with interdisciplinary professionals worldwide in identifying research priorities to strengthen the healthcare workforce. Additionally, she is part of a project that builds on previous national work to determine the best methods for collecting social needs data from vulnerable populations in primary care.

Dr. Gupta is a practicing family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. She earned her PhD in Health Services Research from the Institute of Health, Policy, Management, and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. Her dissertation focused on the implementation of family medicine in India and its role in strengthening primary care and primary health care.

We are excited to welcome Dr. Archna Gupta and look forward to continuing our collaboration on impactful projects that address issues related to the social determinants of health in Canada and around the world.