My research employs both qualitative and quantitative methods to explore factors influencing the effective organization and delivery of health services, and design and evaluate strategies that optimize quality of health care delivery and outcomes, including those directed to individuals, organizations and patients. My research focuses on improving guideline implementation. Guidelines are syntheses of best available evidence that inform health care decision making but continue to be underused. To improve care delivery and associated outcomes it is imperative that we develop better ways to implement guideline. Supported by several operating grants and a New Investigator five year salary award from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, my research develops and evaluates different implementation approaches. For example, We have completed a series of systematic reviews of the literature and qualitative interviews to investigator guideline developer capacity and the role of facilitative intermediaries. In particular, we are focusing on the concept of implementability: enhancing the content of guidelines with non-clinical information such that users more easily adopt the recommendations. We established a conceptual framework of guideline implementability, and within a network of guideline developers, implementers and researchers from nine different countries, will develop and evaluate implementability tools. Additional funded research projects include interviews with researchers, managers, clinicians, and educators to identify their current and desired capacity for knowledge translation research/practice; a systematic review of the literature to characterize and evaluate strategies for involving patients in their own health care; an international consensus meeting to issue recommendations for safely introducing and monitoring the use of innovative surgical devices; a systematic review and national consensus meeting to identify promising interventions for promoting physical activity in primary care; quantitative and qualitative evaluation of cancer diagnostic assessment programs as a model for delivering interprofessional collaborative care; and multiple methods are being used to investigate the factors that influence conduct, reporting and use of qualitative research.

Additional Appointments

Chair, Minimal Risk, University Health Network Research Ethics Board

CIHR New Investigator in Knowledge Translation

Associate Professor,Department of Surgery; Institute of Health Policy, Management & Evaluation; and Institute of Medical Science, University of Toronto

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