U of T pharmacy dean recognized as top primary care researcher

Lisa Dolovich, professor and dean of U of T’s Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, has been named one of the 50 most impactful primary care researchers in Canada.

The list of impactful researchers was based on an analysis of publications and citations led by Monica Aggarwal from U of T’s Dalla Lana School of Public Health and published in Canadian Family Physician. Dolovich is one of two pharmacists on the list, alongside Tony Antoniou, a pharmacist and associate professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in the Temerty Faculty of Medicine.

“Researchers from a range of disciplines are on the list, and it’s a huge honour to be one of the pharmacists considered as part of the primary care community,” says Dolovich. “This is an important community for me, so it's nice to be recognized as someone who has made a contribution.”

“It’s a huge honour to be one of the pharmacists considered as part of the primary care community.”

Many Canadians struggle to access primary care; last week, the Ontario College of Family Physicians reported that 2.5 million people in Ontario do not have a family doctor. Primary care research plays an important role in identifying practices and approaches to improving the delivery of high-quality primary care.

“Primary care is the foundation of our health care system. It's been shown that countries with a strong primary care system have better health outcomes for their populations,” explains Dolovich. “Learning about different approaches that are used around the world and understanding how primary care can flourish in our unique Canadian and Ontario context is important. This knowledge can help us determine how to make the best possible system and achieve better health for our population.”

Researchers in the field are examining a range of questions, including how patients can better access primary care for diagnosis, how certain conditions can be treated within primary care, and how primary care can ensure that patients have the support and services they need to be healthy.

Pharmacists play key roles in primary care

A key question in primary care is how pharmacists, as accessible and trusted health care professionals, can work as part of the team together with family physicians, nurses and other health care providers to help more patients access primary care and get the medication support they need. As pharmacists in Ontario and across Canada are increasingly enabled to practice to their full scope, they are taking on a larger role in the primary care system.

Dolovich is a key leader in studying pharmacists’ contribution within the primary health care system. Her program examines how to improve patient health through better management and use of medications in community and primary care including an emphasis on the role of the pharmacist and ways primary health care teams can work together. She also studies how pharmacists can better integrate into the health care system to benefit patients further.

Her research on pharmacist-physician collaboration has informed how pharmacists can be integrated into interdisciplinary primary care teams. Her research has also helped inform how the MedsCheck medication consultation service has been implemented.

Dolovich also leads the advisory committee for the Network for Improving Health Systems, a collaboration between the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and the Dalla Lana School of Public Health launched in 2022 that supports projects examining pharmacist contributions and opportunities as part of the primary health care system.

“We're excited about the projects that have been funded through the Network so far because they cross a wide range of topics,” she says. “We are looking forward to the results of the projects and how such an infusion of work carried out across the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy and Dalla Lana School of Public Health can inform Ontario and other jurisdictions.”

Dolovich says that pharmacists being included on the list of impactful researchers is an acknowledgement from the primary care community of pharmacy’s important role.

“It’s an honour to be one of the pharmacy representatives within this group of multidisciplinary researchers,” she says. “It’s another recognition from the community that pharmacy is an important part of primary care.”