Having immigrated from England to Canada, in 2003, at the behest of the University of British Columbia; followed by spending four years as the inaugural Health Informatics Research Chair at the University of Alberta in collaboration with Capital Health Dr. Nicola (Nikki) Shaw’s primary academic appointment from 2010 – 2015, was as the ESRI Canada Research Chair with the Health Informatics Institute in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Once that 5-year appointment came to an end she continued her academic career as a full Professor with the Departments of Sociology and Biology, at Algoma University & with the Human Health Sciences Division of the Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM), where she is currently the Family Medicine Research Tutor for Sault Ste Marie based Family Medicine Residents. 

She has over 20 years of experience in applied social research concentrated on developing an understanding of the implementation, use, and sharing of medical records; and program evaluation using health informatics as the lens through which health services are best explained, rationalised and understood. Throughout her research she has retained a focus on clinical governance, using her time as the ESRI Canada Research Chair to explore the use of geographic information systems (GIS) to support the quality of care and quality of life for First Nations Peoples and rural, & remote communities; specifically focusing on chronic diseases (including mental health & cancer) and adverse childhood experiences. She is a research methodologist who often collaborates with other researchers in disparate disciplines as she is an expert in qualitative and blended methodologies. She is always interested in health care provider professionalism, research and medical ethics.

For the 2020-2021 academic year, Dr. Shaw took a 6 month sabbatical and used this time to reestablish her research profile having concentrated on teaching for the past five years (2015-2020). In late 2020 she was successfully awarded funding for her study ‘Digital assistive technologies to support remote working by the disabled: A scoping review’ which is co-funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the Government of Canada’s Future Skills program. Dr. Shaw is very open to collaboration and partnership, in any area related to health, healthcare or health services and would love to hear from anybody interested.