Elaine Hyshka

Elaine Hyshka, BA, MA, PhD is an Associate Professor and Canada Research Chair in Health Systems Innovation at the University of Alberta’s School of Public Health. She also serves as the Scientific Director of the Inner City Health and Wellness Program and Nominated Principal Applicant of the Canadian Research Initiative in Substance Matters Prairie Node. Elaine's research spans both health services and systems and population health pillars, and focuses on advancing a public health approach to substance use. She works closely with people with lived experience of substance use and structural marginalization, service providers, civil society, and all levels of government to identify, evaluate, and scale systems innovations for improving health outcomes and advancing health equity and human rights.

Selected Publications

Brooks, H. L., Vanderschaeghe, S. J., Gehring, N. D., Twan, S., +Taylor, M., & Hyshka, E. (March 2025). Ensuring that people who use drugs are safely and equitably included at meetings and conferences. Journal of Critical Public Health, 2(1), 49-56.

Wilson, P., Colizza, K., & Hyshka, E. (November 2024). Safer supply and political interference in medical practice: Alberta’s Narcotics Transition Services. International Journal of Drug Policy. 133: 104600. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2024.104600.

Cattell, C., Hyshka, E., Leier, B., & Mack C. (April 2024). Capacity, rationality, and the promotion of autonomy: A trauma-informed approach to refusals of care after opioid poisoning. American Journal of Bioethics, 24(5), 48-51.
DOI: 10.1080/15265161.2024.2327285.

Gruben, V., Hyshka, E., Bonn, M., Cox, C., Gagnon, M., Guta, A., Martha, J., Mercredi, J., Munga, A., Oscapella, E., Strike, C., & Virani, H. (February 2024). Urgent and long overdue: legal reform and drug decriminalization in Canada. FACETS, 9, 1-28.
DOI: 10.1139/facets-2022-0080.

Englander, H., Thakrar, A. P., Bagley, S. M., +Rolley, T., Dong, K, & Hyshka, E. (April 2024). Caring for hospitalized adults with opioid use disorder in the era of fentanyl: A review. JAMA Internal Medicine, 184(6), 691-701. DOI:10.1001/jamainternmed.2023.7282.

Salvalaggio, G., Brooks, H,. Caine, V., Gagnon, M., Godley, J., Houston, S., Kennedy, M.C., Kosteniuk, B., Livingston, J., Saah, R., Speed, K., Urbanoski, K., Werb, D., & Hyshka, E. (Dec 2023). Flawed reports can harm: The case of supervised consumption services in Alberta. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 114(6), 928-933. DOI:10.17269/s41997-023-00825-x.

Brooks, H. L., Salvalaggio, G., Pauly, B., Dong, K. A., Bubela, T., +Taylor, M., & Hyshka, E. (May 2022). “I have such a hard time hitting myself, I thought it’d be easier”: Perspectives of hospitalized patients on injecting illegal drugs into vascular access devices. Harm Reduction Journal, 19(54). DOI: 10.1186/s12954-022-00637-1.

Kosteniuk, B. M., Salvalaggio, G. McNeil, R., *Brooks, H. L., Dong, K. A., +Twan, S., +Brouwer, J, & Hyshka, E. (October 2021). “You don’t have to squirrel away in a staircase:” Patient motivations for attending a novel supervised drug consumption service in acute care.  International Journal of Drug Policy, 96:103275. DOI: 10.1016/2021.103275

Brooks, H.L., Husband, C., Taylor, M., Sherrin, A., & Hyshka, E. (October 2020). Supporting the full participation of people who use drugs in policy fora: provision of a temporary, conference-based overdose prevention site. International Journal of Drug Policy, 84: 102878. DOI: 10.1016/j.drugpo.2020.102878.

Hyshka E, Anderson-Baron J, Karekezi K, +Belle-Isle L, +Elliot R, Pauly B, Strike C, Asbridge M, Dell C, McBride K, Hathaway A, Wild TC. Harm reduction in name, but not substance: A comparative analysis of current Canadian provincial and territorial policy frameworks. Harm Reduction Journal. Jul 2017; 14:50. DOI: 10.1186/s12954-017-0177-7.

Hyshka E, Bubela T, Wild TC. Prospects for scaling-up supervised injection facilities in Canada: The role of evidence in legal and political decision-making. Addiction. 2013;108(3):468–476.. DOI: 10.1111/add.12064.

Wild TC, Wolfe J, Hyshka E. Consent and coercion in addiction treatment. In: Carter A, Hall W, Illes J, editors. Addiction Neuroethics. London: Elsevier; 2012.