About Academics at WCH

About The Research and Innovation Institute

A multidisciplinary research institute, we are one of only a few hospital-based research institutes worldwide to focus on health equity. Our scientists, all of whom have academic appointments at the University of Toronto, conduct research that improves the health of women, helps people prevent and manage complex chronic conditions, and delivers innovative health system solutions.

Our vision is to lead innovative, high impact health research that changes practice, changes policy, and changes lives.

Our scientists are expanding and exporting knowledge about health conditions that have unique implications for women and others throughout their lives – like arthritis, depression, diabetes and heart disease. They are investigating the complexities of these conditions – because rarely does one person experience only one disease or take only one medication. They are exploring the social, political and economic forces that influence health and access to healthcare. They are working to address pervasive health system issues and develop innovative virtual solutions to enhance the care experience.

The WCH Research and Innovation Institute endorses the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council’s Dimensions Charter, aiming to increase research excellence, innovation and creativity across all scientific disciplines, through greater equity, diversity and inclusion.

Reporting Relationships

Dr Rulan Parekh is the Vice President, Academics at Women’s College Hospital.
Katharine Schwartz, Director, Research Operations, oversees research services.

About The Learning Institute

Women’s College Hospital (WCH) is an internationally recognized academic health sciences centre, fully affiliated with the University of Toronto. It offers unparalleled mentorship, teaching, leadership and learning in an ambulatory environment with a focus on generating sustainable health system solutions.

WCH’s team of professionals and learners are revolutionizing patient care and the patient experience by transforming inpatient to outpatient care models and enabling the most effective integration of virtual care.

WCH’s Learning Institute is supporting humanistic education and care, engaging patients and communities in working to improve processes and practices. The team strives to create life-long learners, while also aiding the path of our future healthcare professionals.

Our Team

About the Learning Health System Collaboratory

In establishing an LHS Collaboratory, we are expanding our scope of work within the Academics portfolio to create a hub that advances the rapid translation of research findings into knowledge and knowledge into practice – in a continuous improvement and feedback loop – that provides patients and their caregivers the confidence that their care is the best and most-advanced available.

An LHS model at WCH will foster a culture of curiosity and engagement. It will enable everyone across the organization to continuously ask questions about our current processes, delivery, and outcomes, to determine if and where we’re adding value and then to assess how we can work together to effect improvements.

Our Team

Guiding Principles

Our agenda and actions are shaped by our guiding principles:

Excellence

Academics conducted with scientific rigour

Collaboration

Academics that are conducted with partners across Toronto, Canada, and the world

Equity

Academics that respond to diverse women’s health and broader health equity concerns

Integrity

Academics that meet the highest ethical standard

Innovation

Academics that respond to gaps within healthcare practice and the health system

Communication

Academics that are shared in a timely and meaningful way

Social Responsibility

Academics with a global perspective that values social justice

The newly integrated Academics program at Women’s College Hospital (WCH) brings together education, research, and innovation to become the first hospital in Canada to truly integrate a learning health system.

Recognizing that data is a core component of research, and that good data management and stewardship is a pre-condition to supporting knowledge discovery and innovation, WCH will be prepared to implement the FAIR Data Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship . These guiding principles will improve the Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability, and Reuse of research data. 

In response to the Tri-Agencies Research Data Management (RDM) Policy, WCH is committed to research excellence by fostering a robust environment for data management that supports and develops researchers to be well-positioned to contribute and capitalize on data-intensive science and scholarship. 

To learn more, download our research data management strategy document.