Dr. Andrew Pinto appointed as Director, U of T Practice-Based Learning and Research Networks

We are thrilled to announce the appointment of Dr. Andrew Pinto as the Research Program Director of Practice-Based Learning and Research Networks at the University of Toronto, effective September 1, 2023.

Dr. Pinto holds the CIHR Applied Public Health Chair in Upstream Prevention. He is a Public Health and Preventive Medicine specialist and family physician at St. Michael’s Hospital, Unity Health Toronto. Additionally, he serves as an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto within the Department of Family and Community Medicine (DFCM), with adjunct appointments to the Institute for Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health.

He is the founder and director of the Upstream Lab, a research team dedicated to addressing social determinants of health, enhancing population health management, and using data science to enable proactive care. From 2019 to 2023, he served as the Associate Director for Clinical Research at the University of Toronto Practice-Based Research Network.

Dr. Pinto’s research and contributions extend well beyond Toronto. He is the lead for clinical research at Ontario’s POPLAR network and is the founder of the Canadian Primary Care Trials Network. He serves on the Institute Advisory Board of CIHR’s Institute for Population and Public Health and is an adjunct scientist at the Institute for Work and Health and an honorary senior lecturer at St. Andrews University in Scotland.

In his new role as Research Program Director, Dr. Pinto will provide scientific leadership to the University of Toronto’s Practice- and Community-Based LEarning And Research Network (UPLEARN) and forge innovative partnerships to advance primary care research and quality improvement initiatives. This will involve supporting DFCM clinicians and sites with Quality Improvement and Continuing Medical Education, promoting medical education scholarship, facilitating community engagement, and serving as a platform for data science and clinical research.

Dr. Pinto’s focus will be on how the U of T Practice-Based Learning and Research Networks can support clinicians, learners and teachers, communities, policymakers and researchers. We are excited to witness the positive impact that his leadership will have on improving healthcare practices and patient outcomes through primary care research and innovation.