About Quality and Innovation
Our program exists to make primary care in Canada – and the world – even better than it is.
High quality primary care means providing care that:
- Is timely and available when you need it,
- meets the specific needs, preferences, and values of patients,
- is based on the best research evidence,
- is safe and does not accidentally harm someone,
- is efficient and does not waste scarce healthcare resources,
- helps everyone achieve excellent health regardless of their background or circumstances
Ultimately, we aim to improve the health outcomes and patient experience for those we serve while maintaining costs and ensuring provider wellness.
To read more about our work, download our recent annual report and explore the sections below.
Our vision and strategic plan
Our work focuses on strengthening the “building blocks” of high-performing primary care. First, engaging our leadership to support faculty to dedicate time for QI and build capacity among faculty, learners, and community clinicians to lead QI. Second, building an infrastructure to collect, report, and learn from practice data. Third, supporting our teams to function effectively to deliver front-line care. We strive to involve patients as partners in this work, disseminate our work in scholarly and lay forums, and collaborate with government and other stakeholders to have our work influence policy and practice.
Our strategic plan highlights opportunities for:
- Leadership — Building capacity in the current and future primary care workforce to improve quality of care.
- Evidence — Using and generating evidence on how to improve patient experience, improve health outcomes, and reduce cost in primary care.
- Dialogue — Working in partnership with government, clinicians, and patients to influence policy and practice provincially, nationally, and internationally.
Below is a visual of our workplan:
What is primary care?
Every day, more than 150,000 Ontarians visit a family doctor. Some visit because they feel unwell. Others come for a preventive checkup. Many more come because they have a health condition like diabetes, high blood pressure or depression.
Family doctors listen, examine, diagnose, counsel, write prescriptions, order tests and, in some cases, refer to specialist colleagues for advice. They play a key role co-ordinating care between different health professionals and social services.
It’s not surprising that countries with strong primary care have better health outcomes and spend less on health care.
Who we are
Program Team
Dr. Tara Kiran, MD, MSc, CCFP, FCFP
Tara Kiran is the Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation and Vice-Chair Quality and Innovation at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto. Much of her research has focused on evaluating the impact of Ontario’s primary care reforms on quality of care. She has also developed a passion for quality improvement research including initiatives to improve cancer screening rates, measure and reduce care disparities, and support physicians to learn from data. She practices family medicine at the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team where she led the quality improvement program from 2011 to 2018. She is an Associate Scientist in the Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Adjunct Scientist at ICES. She is also currently an Embedded Clinician Researcher with Health Quality Ontario where she leads a program of research to improve the experience of care for patients transitioning from hospital to home.
Ms. Patricia O’Brien, RN MScCH
Trish O’Brien is the Manager, Quality and Innovation Improvement Program at the Department of Family & Community Medicine, University of Toronto. Trish has been a registered nurse for over thirty years with clinical and research experience in nephrology. Trish caught the quality improvement bug working in nephrology and brought that experience to primary care - first with the Quality Improvement and Innovation Partnership (QIIP) and subsequently with Health Quality Ontario (HQO). Trish has worked in the community, hospital and private industry sectors, and completed certification in quality improvement as an Improvement Advisor (IHI) and in LEAN/Six Sigma (Black Belt), in addition to holding a Master of Science in Community Health degree.
Ms. Marisa Schwartz, Program Assistant
Quality Improvement Program Directors
Each of our 14 family medicine teaching sites has a QI Program Director who leads the practice and teaching of quality improvement. The Quality and Innovation leadership team meet together with the QI Program Directors eight times a year to discuss how to best advance Quality and Innovation in our department and beyond.
| Academic Site | Name |
| Markham Stouffville Hospital | Dr. Gina Yip |
| Michael Garron Health Centre |
Dr. Sam Tirkos Dr. Tia Pham |
| Mount Sinai Hospital | Dr. Sabrina Kolker |
| North York General Hospital |
Dr. Joanne Laine-Gossin Dr. Tiffany Florindo |
| Royal Victoria Hospital |
Dr. Brent Elsey Dr. Melissa Witty |
| Southlake Regional Health Centre | Dr. Navsheer Toor |
| St. Joseph's Health Centre | Dr. Linda Weber |
| St. Michael's Hospital |
Dr. Noor Ramji |
| Sunnybrook Health Centre |
Dr. Debbie Elman |
| The Scarborough Hospital |
Dr. Susanna Fung |
| Toronto Western Hospital |
Dr. Rory O'Sullivan Dr. Carly Schenker |
| Trillium Health Partners |
Dr. Frances Cousins (Summerville) Dr. Ali Damji (Credit Valley) |
| Women’s College Hospital |
Dr. Susie Kim |
Annual reports
Current report:
Past reports:
Contact us
For all general inquiries, questions, feedback, or program inquiries contact:
| name | title | phone number and email | room # | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Faculty | |||||
|
Dr. Tara Kiran, MD, MSc, CCFP, FCFP |
Fidani Chair, Improvement and Innovation & Vice Chair, Quality Improvement |
tara.kiran@utoronto.ca |
339 3rd floor |
||
| Administration | |||||
| Trish O'Brien | Program Manager | patricia.obrien@utoronto.ca |
340 3rd floor |
||
| Marisa Schwartz | Program Assistant | dfcm.quality@utoronto.ca |
342 3rd floor |