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. 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.
  2. Lapointe-Shaw, L, Kiran, T, Salahub, C, Austin, PC, Berthelot, S, Desveaux, L et al.. Walk-in clinic patient characteristics and utilization patterns in Ontario, Canada: a cross-sectional study. CMAJ Open. 2023;11 (2):E345-E356. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20220095. PubMed PMID:37171909 PubMed Central PMC10139081.
  3. Lofters, A, Salahub, C, Austin, PC, Bai, L, Berthelot, S, Bhatia, RS et al.. Up-to-date on cancer screening among Ontario patients seen by walk-in clinic physicians: A retrospective cohort study. Prev Med. 2023;172 :107537. doi: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2023.107537. PubMed PMID:37156431 .
  4. Kiran, T, Green, ME, Strauss, R, Wu, CF, Daneshvarfard, M, Kopp, A et al.. Virtual Care and Emergency Department Use During the COVID-19 Pandemic Among Patients of Family Physicians in Ontario, Canada. JAMA Netw Open. 2023;6 (4):e239602. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2023.9602. PubMed PMID:37115549 PubMed Central PMC10148195.
  5. Breton, M, Gaboury, I, Martin, E, Green, ME, Kiran, T, Laberge, M et al.. Impact of externally facilitated continuous quality improvement cohorts on Advanced Access to support primary healthcare teams: protocol for a quasi-randomized cluster trial. BMC Prim Care. 2023;24 (1):97. doi: 10.1186/s12875-023-02048-y. PubMed PMID:37038126 PubMed Central PMC10088119.
  6. Salahub, C, Kiran, T, Na, Y, Sinha, SK, Stall, NM, Ivers, NM et al.. Characteristics and practice patterns of family physicians who provide home visits in Ontario, Canada: a cross-sectional study. CMAJ Open. 2023;11 (2):E282-E290. doi: 10.9778/cmajo.20220124. PubMed PMID:36944429 PubMed Central PMC10035667.
  7. O'Neill, B, Yusuf, A, Kurdyak, P, Kiran, T, Sullivan, F, Chen, T et al.. Diabetes care among individuals with and without schizophrenia in three Canadian provinces: A retrospective cohort study. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2023;82 :19-25. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2023.02.007. PubMed PMID:36898192 .
  8. Kiran, T. [Not Available]. CMAJ. 2023;195 (6):E251-E253. doi: 10.1503/cmaj.221563-f. PubMed PMID:36781196 PubMed Central PMC9928439.
  9. Desveaux, L, Nguyen, MD, Ivers, NM, Devotta, K, Upshaw, T, Ramji, N et al.. Snakes and ladders: A qualitative study understanding the active ingredients of social interaction around the use of audit and feedback. Transl Behav Med. 2023;13 (5):316-326. doi: 10.1093/tbm/ibac114. PubMed PMID:36694357 PubMed Central PMC10182419.
  10. Lapointe-Shaw, L, Salahub, C, Bird, C, Bhatia, RS, Desveaux, L, Glazier, RH et al.. Characteristics and Health Care Use of Patients Attending Virtual Walk-in Clinics in Ontario, Canada: Cross-sectional Analysis. J Med Internet Res. 2023;25 :e40267. doi: 10.2196/40267. PubMed PMID:36633894 PubMed Central PMC9880810.
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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