Dr. Ronald Shore
Research Scientist & Assistant Professor of Psychiatry
Queen's Cancer Research Institute
Biography
Dr. Ronald Shore, MPA, PhD is a research scientist at Queen's University. Ron is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychiatry, Queen's Health Sciences and is the (Interim) Assistant Scientific Director at the Canadian Institute of Military and Veteran Health Research (See here).
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Ron is a Co-Principal Investigator with CAN-PACT as an Early Career Investigator. Dr. Shore began health research after founding the Street Health Centre, a community health centre for people facing multiple barriers to health including addictions, mental health and homeless in Kingston, On. Early research focused on injection drug use and needle exchange, hepatitis C and HIV, methadone treatment and the needs of mothers and families involved with Street Health.
Ron completed his PhD on the therapeutic application of psilocybin in 2023 and worked as a Research Scientist at Queen's Health Sciences for four years, designing and working as a facilitator in psychedelic clinical trial studies. Dr. Shore taught Psychedelics, Politics and Harm Reduction at Ottawa University for two years and Introduction to the Study of Drug and Alcohol Problems at Queen's for sixteen years. With his background in teaching, psilocybin and psychedelic trial design, Dr. Shore is the CAN-PACT lead on education and training. Ron is trained in Contemplative End-of-life Care by the Institute of Traditional Medicine and teaches psilocybin within the Michener Institute's Foundations of Psychedelic-assisted Therapy program.
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Personal CAN-PACT Goals
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I would like to contribute to meaningful science which will build the basis in evidence for clinicians, patients and policymakers to be able to make informed decisions related to the care provided to people living with cancer in Canada. My mother died of cancer when I was twenty-years old; a truly amazing person, my mother Patricia (Pat) Shore is the reason I have dedicated my life to health and health care. So CAN-PACT has that extra layer of being special for me. Cancer care already has a presence of integrative oncology, where we recognized the mind-body connection. Studying psilocybin in this context may help us have meaningful conversations around meaning, purpose and spirituality.
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