Paramedicine is a profession whose contributions to the healthcare system include emergency and non-emergency community-based health and social services. Paramedics provide these services in a range of healthcare settings using a broad scope of practice, while integrating with other areas and professions of the healthcare system. In this way, paramedicine is increasingly part of interprofessional and integrated healthcare systems and aligned with emergency and family medicine in their community-based emergent, urgent, non-urgent, and primary care goals.
The Paramedicine Collaborative at DFCM is Canada’s first academic home for research, innovation, scholarship, and graduate education in paramedicine. Run by DFCM in partnership with the University of Toronto Scarborough's Department of Health and Society, the Collaborative serves as a central hub and incubator to support advancements in paramedicine and its growing integration with the healthcare system, while catalyzing innovative solutions for the delivery of health care to Ontarians.
What we do
This academic collaborative program is composed of health care professionals dedicated to the leadership, research, service and advancement of the discipline of paramedicine, locally, nationally and internationally. We are guided by the following mission, vision and core values:
Our work is organized in four ways to support advancements in paramedicine and its growing integration with the healthcare system.
- Research: Contribute to a broad methodological research base and infrastructure in paramedicine. Conduct high-quality collaborative, theory, and practice-oriented research. Provide necessary opportunities for research capacity growth, collaborations, academic resources and networks to foster research contributions and an evidence base for paramedicine.
- Innovation: Provide the intellectual stimuli, space and opportunity to identify challenges and generate solutions through an academic hub and incubator model. This is achieved within and across disciplines, academic, professional, and government sectors.
- Scholarship: Provide several forms of scholarship to serve system advancements, as well as personal professional development. These can include research and other discovery approaches, but also teaching, community engagement, knowledge translation and dissemination activities, scholarly program development and evaluation, mentorship and more. Provide a collaborative and broad network of scholars and community-engaged partners, to achieve these opportunities.
- Education: Provide educational solutions to support research, innovation and scholarship. Provide new and existing learners and organizations with novel graduate educational opportunities in the form of new courses, streams, programs, mentoring opportunities, and community-based program offerings.
Meet the Team
Leadership
Director, Dr. Walter Tavares
Dr. Walter Tavares is the inaugural Director of the Paramedicine Collaborative, a strategy that serves as a central hub and incubator for paramedicine-related research, innovation, scholarship, education and evaluation. Dr. Tavares is also Assistant Professor in the Department of Health and Society, an Education Scientist at the Wilson Centre for Health Professions Education Research and Department of Medicine, and Paramedic and Scientist with York Region Paramedic Services. He initiated and is co-chair of the McNally Project, supervises the undergraduate paramedicine program at UTSC, and is deputy editor of the international journal Paramedicine. His program of research explores health professions education and advancements in community-based health and social services.
Contact: Walter.Tavares@utoronto.ca
Associate Director, Dr. Ian Drennan
Dr. Ian Drennan is a Paramedic Scientist and Assistant Professor at the DFCM and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (IHPME) at the University of Toronto. He is an Affiliate Scientist at Sunnybrook Health Science Centre and Sunnybrook Research Institute and works clinically as a paramedic with Ornge and York Region Paramedic Services. His program of research focuses on clinical and health systems improvements in paramedicine. In addition, he is the Vice-Chair for the Advanced Life Support TaskForce of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation and a Senior Science Editor for the American Heart Association.
Contact: Ian.Drennan@Sunnybrook.ca
Medical Director, Dr. Megan Landes
Dr. Megan Landes is Head of the Division of Emergency Medicine at U of T's DFCM, and an Associate Professor and Clinician Investigator, in DFCM’s Research Program. Dr. Landes is also an attending staff doctor in the Emergency Department of the University Health Network, the University of Toronto’s largest downtown teaching hospital, and a Strategic Director for the Toronto Addis Ababa Academic Collaboration in Emergency Medicine (TAAAC-EM), which is working with Addis Ababa University to deliver Ethiopia’s first emergency medicine residency program.
Contact: Megan.Landes@utoronto.ca
Faculty
Dr. Justin Mausz
Dr. Justin Mausz is an Adjunct Professor in the DFCM and a clinician-scientist with Peel Regional Paramedic Services whose research focuses primarily on workforce health and well-being among paramedics.
Dr. Madison Brydges
Dr. Madison Brydges is an Adjunct Professor in the DFCM. She is Primary Care Paramedic in Halton Region and Health Policy Researcher at the National Institute on Ageing at Toronto Metropolitan University. She holds a Ph.D. from McMaster University in Health Studies. She is a qualitative health studies researcher with a focus on the sociology of work and the professions, and ageing and healthcare systems.
Dr. Polly Ford-Jones
Dr. Ford-Jones is an Adjunct Professor in the DFCM, Professor in Allied Health at Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning in Toronto, and a primary care paramedic. Her program of research explores emergency mental health needs in the community, including response to acute crisis, follow-up, and supportive prevention. Her research is rooted in critical, qualitative methodologies, and engages with issues of health equity and the social determinants of health.
The McNally Project for Paramedicine Research
The McNally Project for Paramedicine Research (McNallyProject.ca), is a grassroots initiative intended to support research capacity growth. Named after Dr. Norman McNally, whose pioneering work in paramedicine education helped transform paramedicine’s contributions in the community. This project aims to have a similar impact by advancing paramedicine research. It provides a network for paramedic and paramedicine researchers at all levels, as well as those with an interest in becoming a researcher, promoting collaboration, education, engagement and advocacy. It is part of a larger network of research communities across Canada. The Paramedicine Collaborative at DFCM is the first academic home for the McNally Project. We welcome its inclusion in this collaborative and look forward to supporting its vision and members.
For more information contact: Dr. Walter Tavares, walter.tavares@utoronto.ca