Learning Series

2026 Learning Series

Winter

    • January 28, 2026 | A Pan-Canadian Evaluation Framework for Measuring Team-Based Primary Care | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • February 25, 2026 | Goal Oriented Care – Building Data Analytics Capacity for Patients and their Primary Care Providers to Engage in Proactive Care | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • March 31, 2026 | Advancing Integrated Community-Based Primary Health Care | Hosted by IFIC in partnership with CPCRC | Watch the recording

Spring

Fall: Laying the Foundations for Learning Health Systems in Primary Care

A three-part webinar series, organized by Réseau-1 Québec, will explore key foundations for learning health systems in primary care across Canada. As primary care systems face increasingly complex challenges, learning health systems offer a promising approach to improve the quality of care and services and advance health system performance and equity. In this series, primary care experts from different provinces will present and discuss lessons learned, challenges encountered, and strategies that have supported progress in diverse provincial contexts.

Across the three webinars, experts will share perspectives on:

    • Systems for measuring quality and performance in primary care;
    • Supporting continuous quality improvement through provincial initiatives and capacity-building efforts, and;
    • Creating the conditions that enable innovation in primary care.

Together, these sessions will provide participants with insights into how provinces are building the infrastructure and culture needed to support learning and improvement in primary care.

    • November 10, 2026 | Supporting Continuous Quality Improvement in Primary Care | Learn more or register
    • December 8, 2026 | Creating Enabling Conditions for Innovation in Primary Care | Register

Trainee Learning Series

CPCRN is proud to host four Learning Sessions, specifically designed for trainees, by trainees, in partnership with TUTOR-PHC. This new learning series aims to enhance trainees’ knowledge and engagement in primary care research in Canada. Generally, each session will feature an expert on a selected topic, followed by trainees sharing their experiences with the topic. This “meet the expert” style learning series will give trainees an opportunity to actively discuss and engage with leaders in the field.

Francophone Learning Series

The Francophone arm of the CPCRN was created to promote French-language research and collaboration within Canada and internationally with the Groupe Francophone international en Soins Primaires. Part of their mandate includes hosting webinars in French to facilitate exchange and learning amongst our Francophone community. These sessions will be in French with English closed captions available via Zoom.

Past Learning Series

CPCRN Learning Series 2025

Learning Series 1: Integration of Care

Integration of care remains elusive for many. Yet, growing evidence suggests high-functioning primary health care teams are associated with a low level of provider burnout, improved professional satisfaction, and an ability to effectively distribute tasks and focus clinician’s time on patient’s more complex and person needs. Patients who experience more integrated care are more likely to receive chronic disease prevention and health promotion and have better pain control and medication adherence. This learning series explores different methods for examining integration of care and innovations in delivering better integrated care.

Canadian Primary Care Research Consortium Update

    • March 25, 2025 | Canadian Primary Care Research Consortium: Strengthening the impact of research and innovation for people and communities |
      Watch the recording or view the slides

Learning Series 2: Advancing Indigenous Health: Considerations for Equity-based Research, Community Voice and Data Sovereignty to Support Service

All Canadians have been encouraged to walk together with Indigenous brothers and sisters on the path of reconciliation. Many of the Calls to Action require continued learning and capacity transfer, that is, listening to truths and understanding what Indigenous peoples would like to see happen and how they would like to be engaged or involved in advancing meaningful healing and wellness journeys. This series of presentations will explore key considerations for advancing Indigenous health through equity-based research, community, data sovereignty and service reorientation. Inspired by experts’ experiences in building up a system of research and care that addresses the needs of Indigenous peoples, attendees will gain insights into strategies that promote Indigenous leadership, meaningful partnerships, and considered research methods to promote equity-based research to inform equity-based health care and services.

Learning Series 3: Rural Team-Based Primary Care – A Case Study from PEI Exploring Implementation and Transformation

As a small and predominantly rural province, Prince Edward Island brings the voice of “small-town Canada” to the national stage. Rural Canada faces unique challenges with dispersed services, less reliable internet and cellular service, greater impacts of seasonality (weather, employment, tourism), lower levels of formal education, and higher proportions of older population. In Prince Edward Island, the government’s Primary Care Roadmap has created a shared language and vision for team-based care across the province. The Learning Series details evidence-informed strategies and tools designed to track implementation of the Patient Medical Home model for delivery of primary care. By using the results from our scoping study, we will enable teams to assess and guide their own performance within a learning health system.

CPCRN Learning Series 2024

View our 2024 Summary Report.

Learning Series 1: Creating Shared Solutions to Common Problems in Practice Based Research and Learning Networks

While more than one-third of all healthcare visits are made to primary care, much of the evidence primary care depends upon is derived from research based in subspecialty care, hospital settings or single-disease cohorts. Primary care practice based research and learning networks (PBRLNs), where research is conducted in the community, has famously turned our understanding of disease and treatment on its head; important knowledge from this research has been generated regarding brown recluse bites, depression, upper respiratory infections, heart failure, unstable angina, and radiologic examinations of headaches, among many other topics, by studying the epidemiology of symptoms, conditions, and treatments in the settings where illness often first presents. Indeed, PBRLNs has its roots in community-based participatory research. Many PBRLNs include active engagement of community members and patients in the design, implementation, analysis, and dissemination of their research. This Learning Series seeks to create shared solutions to common problems such as recruitment, privacy and confidentiality, data governance, data quality/fitness for purpose and how their outcomes can be used to learn from.

    • Session 1: January 23, 2024 | Learning Health Systems: Readiness Tool | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 2: January 30, 2024 | Practice Based Research and Learning: Lessons Learned about Engagement from the PaRIS OECD Project | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 3: February 27, 2024 | The Role of Primary Care Practice-Based Research and Learning Networks in Pragmatic Clinical Trials: Improving Patient and Community Health through Enhancing Primary Care Science | Watch the recording or view the slides (Presentation 1 or Presentation 2)
    • Session 4: March 26, 2024 | Essential Learning Health System Structures in Primary Care: What Are They and How Did You Implement Them? | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 5: April 23, 2024 | Evolving Practiced-Based Research and Learning Networks (PBRLNs) into Learning Health Systems Through Co-Design with All Stakeholders | Watch the recording or view the slides

Learning Series 2: Promising Policies for Advancing Access to Primary Care

Canada is facing a primary care access crisis across all provinces and territories. Survey data suggest that 1 in 5 people living in Canada do not have access to a regular source of primary care and members of the public identify accessibility as a challenge across jurisdictions. Policymakers across the country have taken various approaches to connect people to needed primary care, to support patients in navigating primary care services, and to meet the immediate needs of unattached patients waiting for a regular place of care. This learning series will bring together researchers and policymakers from multiple jurisdictions to learn from research evidence alongside cross-jurisdictional policy experience, with the goal of identifying promising strategies and addressing shared challenges in advancing access to primary care in Canada.

Learning Series 3: Integration of Care

Integration of care remains elusive for many. Yet, growing evidence suggests high-functioning primary health care teams are associated with a low level of provider burnout, improved professional satisfaction, and an ability to effectively distribute tasks and focus clinician’s time on patient’s more complex and personal needs. Patients who experience more integrated care are more likely to receive chronic disease prevention and health promotion and have better pain control and medication adherence. This learning series explores different methods for examining integration of care and innovations in delivering better integrated care.

 

CPCRN Learning Series 2023

View our 2023 Summary Report.

Watch the session recordings on YouTube!

    • Session 1: February 28, 2023 | The Canadian Primary Care Research Network: what do we do & how do we want to do it? | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 2: March 28, 2023 | Readiness for the implementation of a learning health system | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 3: May 2, 2023 | Meaningful equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts in the CPCRN Network | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 4: June 20, 2023 | Assessing the Scalability of the ACHRU Community Partnership Program: An Intervention for Older Adults with Diabetes and Multiple Chronic Conditions | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 5: November 28, 2023 | Indigenous Health Data Governance Toolkit | Watch the recording, view the slides, or read the Toolkit
PIHCI Network Learning Series 2020-2022

The PIHCI Network Coordinating Office presented a series of online seminars hosted by provincial and territorial PIHCI Networks acting as hosts. The format included an expert presentation, followed by a panel discussion (including at least one patient partner), and an open Q&A. A report with evaluation results from the Learning Series events is available here.

    • Session 1: October 27, 2020 | Supporting an Innovation Platform for Indigenous Primary Health Care in Alberta: The Indigenous Primary Health Care and Policy Research Network | Watch the recording
    • Session 2: January 26, 2021 | Frailty and Older Adults Primary Health Care in Canada | Watch the recording
    • Session 3: February 23, 2021 | Integrated Care in Canada | Watch the recording or view associated documentation: BC Rural & First Nations Health and Wellness Summit Summary Report (Shared by Nelly Oelke)
    • Session 4: March 23, 2021 | End of Life in Primary Care | Watch the recording
    • Session 5: April 27, 2021 | PREMs & PROMs in Primary Health Care | Watch the recording
    • Session 6: June 22, 2021 | Innovators. Leaders. Influencers. PIHCIN Patient Advisory Council’s Perspectives on Engagement and Research Priorities | Watch the recording
    • Session 7: July 27, 2021 | Long Haul COVID-19 & Primary Care: Research Priority Setting. | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Special Session: March 22, 2022 | Implementing Case Management in Primary Care: Findings and reflections from a multi-province SPOR Study | Watch the recording or view the slides
PIHCI Network Summer Learning Series 2020

The PIHCI Network Coordinating Office launched the first PIHCIN Summer Learning Series during the summer of 2020. Seven different sessions were given, each hosted by a different provincial or territorial PICHI Network. The format included an expert presentation, followed by a panel discussion (including at least one patient partner) with open Q&A. Topics ranged from the current state of primary care research to early COVID-19 research results.

    • Session 1: The State of Art for Primary Care Research, was hosted by the Saskatchewan PIHCI network | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 2: Preparing for the Post-COVID World Using Primary Care Data, was hosted by the Nova Scotia network | Watch the recording.
    • Session 3: Making the Invisible Visible: The Power of Patient and Community Partnerships, was hosted by the PIHCIN Patient Advisory Council | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 4: Quick COVID-19 Primary Care Surveys: Clinician and Patient Experiences in the Pandemic, was hosted by the BC network | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 5: BETTER Prevention and Screening for Chronic Disease: Outcomes and Dissemination of a Novel Program in Primary Care, was hosted by the the Newfoundland & Labrador network | Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 6: Big Data in Primary Care, was hosted by the the Alberta network. Watch the recording or view the slides
    • Session 7: The Impact of COVID-19 on Primary Care: Research and Practice Innovations in Quebec, was hosted by the the Quebec network | Watch the recording or view the slides