TUTOR-PHC Symposium – King City, ON

The annual TUTOR-PHC Symposium recently took place from May 8 – 11 in King City, Ontario, signifying the start of the 2017-2018 program year. TUTOR-PHC or Transdisciplinary Understanding and Training on Research – Primary Health Care is a pan-Canadian, interdisciplinary training program led by Judith Belle Brown, PhD and Amanda Terry, PhD that has been training primary and integrated health care researchers, clinicians and decision-makers since 2003

This one-year national capacity building program starts with a three day on-site symposium held annually in early May. This year at the symposium (May 8 – 11) we had 12 Canadian trainees (BC – 1; Alberta – 1; Manitoba – 1; Nova Scotia – 1; Ontario – 4; Quebec – 4) and two international trainees (UK – 1; Australia – 1) along with the majority of our 24 co-investigators who represent 10 universities in five provinces across Canada.

The three day Symposium consists of participatory and didactic presentations on interdisciplinary process and primary health care methodologies. The trainees are split into interdisciplinary discussion groups and discuss their research projects, as well as begin a mock response to a call for proposals. There are also presentations on grant generation, mixed methods, engaging with policy makers and patient engagement, along with informal networking and team building exercises. The Symposium lays the foundation for future learning that occurs throughout the year, which takes place online, and supplements the trainees formal graduate education.

The goals of the TUTOR-PHC program are to train a cadre of primary health care researchers so they will be able to tackle current and future challenges in primary health care; lead collaborative, interdisciplinary research teams; and increase the number and quality of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research projects and publications across Canada.

Recruitment for the 2018-2019 program year will begin in September.  If you have any questions or are interested in participating in the program or know someone who is, please contact Rob Van Hoorn, Program Coordinator.

For more information about the program, please visit the TUTOR-PHC website.