Research and Knowledge Exchange
AFHTO supports research that strengthens team-based primary care and reflects the realities of our members’ work. We strive to connect evidence, innovation, and real-world primary care.
Research and Knowledge Exchange
AFHTO supports research that strengthens team-based primary care and reflects the realities of our members’ work. We strive to connect evidence, innovation, and real-world primary care.
Leading and Supporting Research
Grounded in the lived experience of primary care teams, our work generates actionable insights, strengthens decision-making, and supports the development of tools and approaches that improve care delivery across the health system.
Research Partnerships
AFHTO welcomes partnerships with researchers and organizations to advance the primary care research agenda. As a member-based thought leader, we bring frontline insight from team-based primary care to strengthen research across the full lifecycle—from question design and methodology to feasibility, implementation, and impact—ensuring findings are relevant, practical, and positioned to drive real system change.
Identify member priorities
We gather insights from teams to highlight the most relevant and high-impact research needs. We work to provide research to our members in ways that best facilitate uptake.
Connect researchers with teams
We match researchers with primary care teams and healthcare professionals interested in partnering on studies or pilots.
Provide Letters of Support
We provide informed letters of support for research proposals that align with member priorities and advance high-quality, team-based primary care—strengthening applications through a sector-wide perspective and real-world relevance.
Broker and share knowledge
We help translate and disseminate research through webinars, summaries, and innovative knowledge products, ensuring evidence reaches the people on the ground who need it most.
If you have any questions about how AFHTO can partner on your research, please reach out! While AFHTO is keen to support primary care research, timelines matter, please reach out early enough to allow us to consider the opportunity and prepare the information you require.
Our Collaborations
We collaborate with academic institutions, policymakers, health system partners, and primary care teams to co-design and support applied research that reflects real-world practice.
This year marked the final year of our three-year research partnership with the Ontario College of Family Physicians and the Section on General and Family Practice to collectively advance the primary care team research agenda. Under Dr. Monica Aggarwal’s leadership, the collaboration delivered significant outputs, including two major publications solidifying the evidence base for strengthening primary care systems in Canada. Download them today!
