HSPRN: Health System Performance Research Network

Under the direction of HPME, the Health System Performance Research Network (HSPRN) brings researchers, policy-makers, and other stakeholders together to improve system-level performance and accountability measurement. For example, HPME’s G. Ross Baker, Walter Wodchis, Geoff Anderson, and Louise Lemieux-Charles are collaborating with the Change Foundation, the South-West Local Health Integration Network (LHIN), and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC) to examine how best to ensure quality and safety when patients are moved from one health care setting to another.

HSPRN investigators come from a wide variety of academic, policy, and health care organizations, including the University of Waterloo, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, LHINs, and Community Care Access Centres (CCACs). Provider representatives are also included. Academically, researchers from primary health care, community care, care of children, rehabilitation, mental health, and acute care collaborate to understand the integration and transition challenges faced by the recipients of care and their families. Use of information and its flow is another area of research interest.

One of HSPRN’s goals is to develop collaborative relationships with policy-makers, health care providers, consultants, and academics who have an interest in system-level health care performance and who have a desire to learn from and contribute to this community. These interactions nurture new knowledge and innovative thinking about system performance. Participants in HSPRN seminars have come from many places, including the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, LHINs, CCACs, Cancer Care Ontario, the Saskatchewan and Ontario Health Quality Councils, the Ontario Medical Association, the Ontario Hospital Association, and the Ontario Agency for Health Protection and Promotion.