Grant: SPOR PIHCI Network: Management & Operations Grant

The purpose of this Network grant is to develop a collaborative network of researchers, physicians, community members, and policy-makers that will focus on generating new evidence in primary and integrated health care effectiveness, efficiency and access across the care spectrum. The Saskatchewan team includes individuals from across the province including researchers, physicians, and policy makers who will work together to improve health equity, more specifically in indigenous and rural areas. The focus will be on prevention and how to better provide services to patients across their life spans (early childhood to older adults). The Saskatchewan team hopes to focus on specific signature initiatives that are very strong in this province. The value of having a Saskatchewan Network will allow researchers in different areas to come together to focus on integrating primary health care and social determinants across urban and rural areas, indigenous peoples, as well as provincial and national components. Through our collaboration with not only researchers, but also physicians and policy-makers this will allow the network to identify specific issues facing individuals in Saskatchewan regarding their primary care. The development of the SPOR Saskatchewan network comes at an opportune time given the ambitious and far-reaching systemic changes underway in Saskatchewan health care system, in particular relevant to this application, the Lean Initiative and Primary Health Care reform.