Elizabeth Lin, PhD, is a research scientist in the Health Systems Research and Consulting Unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. She earned a PhD in System Science and Psychiatry and has extensive experience in epidemiologic surveys and clinical trials. Her research interests include health services research using administrative data, psychiatric epidemiology (with specific interests in disability and service utilization), the use of structured interviews and self-report instruments in psychiatric diagnoses, needs assessment, and general and living systems theory.

Her work has centered on the use of administrative databases to inform mental health service delivery, policy and planning. In addition, she has used epidemiologic data such as the Mental Health Supplement to the Ontario Health Survey to examine mental health services use from a general population perspective. Other activities have included a collaborative project with U.S. researchers to compare service use in Ontario and the U.S., the development of an Ontario mental health resource database to assess the impact of available resources on utilization, and a survey of Canadian psychiatrists to determine practice profiles.