# The Alliance is committed to continuous learning that can advance our collective vision of the best possible health and wellbeing for everyone living in Ontario.

Our research program interacts with the Model of Health and Wellbeing in two ways: The model informs our research questions and methods, and the knowledge generated by our research provides insights into how best to operationalize the model and adapt it to local contexts. Research helps us to understand the populations we serve; to recognize emerging health challenges, such as loneliness and isolation; and to evaluate new and ongoing programs and services so we know what’s working and where there are opportunities for improvement.

Research also helps us to tell our story. We know our members’ work is immensely valuable to the communities and individuals they serve. In order to ensure that our partners and stakeholders recognize this, we need clear data. This includes quantitative data – numbers – that demonstrate this value at a system and population level, as well as qualitative data – stories – that show how our work impacts individual patients, caregivers, and providers. Sharing our knowledge through conferences, presentations and publication in peer-reviewed journals helps us reach as many people as possible.

Research at the Alliance is a pillar of our EPIC Learning Health System. EPIC stands for Equity, Performance, Improvement, and Change.  

Our research program is led by Dr. Jennifer Rayner, our Director of Research and policy. Like our members' work, Alliance research is collaborative and crosses sector lines. We work with over 50 research partners from academia, primary care, and public health.  

The EPIC Learning Health System

The Alliance and our members have always been committed to research, evaluation, and quality improvement. A Learning Health System (LHS) brings these elements together in a different way. It gathers information from practice and research and feeds it back to teams in ways that are meaningful and useable to them. This in turn leads to practice change that improves care. 

Our journey of becoming a Learning Health System has been underway for more than five years, and it has been a focus of the Alliance’s work since 2019. On October 29, 2020, our Executive Leaders’ Network approved making an intentional shift to become a Learning Health System (LHS).  Formally adopting this shift as a strategy was not the end of the journey but the beginning of a new phase.

To learn more about Alliance research, collaborate with us, or request data for your academic or community-based research, please email LHS@AllianceON.org.

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Dr. Jennifer Rayner

Jennifer Rayner is the Director of Research and Policy at the Alliance for Healthier Communities, where she supports 100+ community-based primary health care organizations in Ontario. She is an applied health services researcher with interests in primary health care, interprofessional teams, health equity, and learning health systems.  

Jennifer is also a scientist with ICES, co-lead of INSPIRE-PHC, a Research Professor at Western University within the Centre for Studies in Family Medicine, and an Associate Professor at University of Toronto in the Department of Community and Family Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy Management and Evaluation. She works in collaboration with researchers, evaluators and policy makers to improve care for people with barriers. Her community based primary care experience includes leadership roles in policy, planning, performance, accountability and quality improvement. 

Jennifer received her PhD of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Western and completed post-doctoral training at Toronto Metropolitan University. 

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