Primary Care Research Unit
The Primary Care Research Unit (PCRU) was established in 1985 and is one of the oldest primary care research units in Canada. The PCRU is a collaborative hub of clinician researchers and associates who make significant contributions to primary care research in Canada by developing and evaluating innovative models of care delivery and developing valid and reliable primary care outcome measures.
The primary mission of the PCRU is to advance the discipline of family medicine through research and education scholarship, to provide a supportive environment to promote collaboration across disciplines, and to nurture growth in research skills. The PCRU supports the academic research activities of the faculty in all five divisions of the Department of Family and Community Medicine at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre.
Our goals
- Conduct ethically, methodologically and fiscally sound research
- Disseminate research findings in an appropriate forum
Our services
- Assistance with research and scholarly project proposals (research question formulation, systematic literature searching, methodology consultations)
- Data analysis and interpretation
- Assistance with formatting manuscripts for journal publication, power point presentations, and poster preparation of research and scholarship activities
- Assistance with research and scholarship funding applications and related CV preparations
- Assistance with Family Medicine resident projects
Research themes
- Wait times in primary care
- Sex and gender differences in neurodegeneration and aging
- Effectiveness of electronic medical records (EMR)
- Computer assisted cognitive testing
- Patient outcomes in palliative care
- Cognitive effects of breast cancer drugs for older women
- Guidelines for cancer care
- Development of effective medical education curricula
- Models of practice for aging and complex treatments
- Computer technology teaching innovation
