Tara Kiran

MD, MSc, CCFP, FCFP

Scientist

Biography

Tara Kiran is the Fidani Chair in Improvement and Innovation and Vice-Chair Quality and Innovation at the Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto. Much of her research has focused on evaluating the impact of Ontario’s primary care reforms on quality of care. For example, her work has tried to understand whether organizing and paying physicians differently makes it more likely for people to get recommended care.

Dr. Kiran has a passion for improving the system she works in. She practices family medicine at the St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team. She led the team’s quality improvement program from 2011 to 2018 including efforts to understand patient experience and engage patients in service design. Under her leadership, the team began to systematically collect and report more than 20 indicators of quality and made significant improvements in a number of areas — for example, it became easier for patients to get a timely appointment and more people started receiving recommended cancer screening. In all her work, Dr. Kiran strives to ensure that everyone is getting the care they need, regardless of their income, gender, race, length of time in Canada, or the community they live in. Recent initiatives include trying to improve care for people facing stigma in society such as those who are dependent on opioid medications and those with Hepatitis C.

Over the years, Dr. Kiran has held a number of local and regional leadership roles including as the Board Chair for her Family Health Team, as the Provincial Clinical Lead for the Ontario Diabetes Strategy, and as a Primary Care Physician Lead for the Toronto Central Local Health Integration Network. In 2013, Dr. Kiran received the CIHR Rising Star Award from the Institute for Health Services and Policy Research. In 2015, her article on payment incentives for cancer screening was selected to receive the Outstanding Family Medicine Research Article Award from the College of Family Physicians of Canada.

Dr. Kiran is an Associate Professor at the University of Toronto in the Faculty of Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation. She is a Scientist in MAP Centre for Urban Health Solutions at St. Michael’s Hospital and an Adjunct Scientist at ICES.

Please note: Dr. Kiran is not taking any summer students.

Recent Publications

  1. O'Neill, B, Yusuf, A, Lofters, A, Huang, A, Ekeleme, N, Kiran, T et al.. Breast Cancer Screening Among Females With and Without Schizophrenia. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6 (11):e2345530. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.45530. PubMed PMID:38019514 PubMed Central PMC10687664.
  2. Shuldiner, J, Shah, H, Bar-Ziv, S, Mauti, J, Kaplan, D, Tradrous, M et al.. Practice Facilitation to Support Family Physicians in Encouraging COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake: A Multimethod Process Evaluation. Ann Fam Med. 2023;21 (6):526-533. doi: 10.1370/afm.3041. PubMed PMID:38012044 PubMed Central PMC10681695.
  3. Lofters, AK, Wu, F, Frymire, E, Kiran, T, Vahabi, M, Green, ME et al.. Cancer Screening Disparities Before and After the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6 (11):e2343796. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.43796. PubMed PMID:37983033 PubMed Central PMC10660460.
  4. Shuldiner, J, Kiran, T, Agarwal, P, Daneshvarfard, M, Eldridge, K, Kim, S et al.. Developing an Audit and Feedback Dashboard for Family Physicians: User-Centered Design Process. JMIR Hum Factors. 2023;10 :e47718. doi: 10.2196/47718. PubMed PMID:37943586 PubMed Central PMC10667970.
  5. Rahman, B, Costa, AP, Gayowsky, A, Rahim, A, Kiran, T, Ivers, N et al.. The association between patients' timely access to their usual primary care physician and use of walk-in clinics in Ontario, Canada: a cross-sectional study. CMAJ Open. 2023;11 (5):E847-E858. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20220231. PubMed PMID:37751920 PubMed Central PMC10521921.
  6. Bayoumi, I, Glazier, RH, Jaakkimainen, L, Premji, K, Kiran, T, Frymire, E et al.. Trends in attachment to a primary care provider in Ontario, 2008-2018: an interrupted time-series analysis. CMAJ Open. 2023;11 (5):E809-E819. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20220167. PubMed PMID:37669813 PubMed Central PMC10482493.
  7. Pinto, AD, Eissa, A, Kiran, T, Mashford-Pringle, A, Needham, A, Dhalla, I et al.. [Not Available]. CMAJ. 2023;195 (31):E1062-E1064. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.221587-f. PubMed PMID:37580079 PubMed Central PMC10426351.
  8. Stewart, A, Craig-Neil, A, Hodwitz, K, Wang, R, Cheng, D, Arbess, G et al.. Increasing Treatment Rates for Hepatitis C in Primary Care. J Am Board Fam Med. 2023;36 (4):591-602. doi: 10.3122/jabfm.2022.220427R1. PubMed PMID:37468214 .
  9. Pinto, AD, Eissa, A, Kiran, T, Mashford-Pringle, A, Needham, A, Dhalla, I et al.. Considerations for collecting data on race and Indigenous identity during health card renewal across Canadian jurisdictions. CMAJ. 2023;195 (25):E880-E882. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.221587. PubMed PMID:37364910 PubMed Central PMC10292955.
  10. Kiran, T, Rozmovits, L, O'Brien, P. Factors influencing family physician engagement in practice-based quality improvement: Qualitative study. Can Fam Physician. 2023;69 (5):e113-e119. doi: 10.46747/cfp.6905e113. PubMed PMID:37173000 PubMed Central PMC10177636.
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Affiliations & Other Activities

  • Staff Physician, Department of Family and Community Medicine, St. Michael’s Hospital
  • Board Chair and Quality Improvement Program Director, St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team
  • Associate Professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto
  • Adjunct Scientist, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences