Kerry Kuluski

Kerry is the inaugural Dr. Mathias Gysler Research Chair in Patient & Family Centred Care at the Institute for Better Health at Trillium Health Partners. She is an Applied Health Systems Researcher and a Social Worker by training. She received her PhD in Health Services and Policy Research from the University of Toronto followed by a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellowship at the University of Oxford. At the U of T she supervises graduate students and Chairs the Patient Engagement Working Group. She is the Associate Editor of Health Expectations, a leading international journal on public and patient participation.

• Kerry’s research provides insight into what matters most to patients with complex care needs and their caregivers. She works in partnership with patients and caregivers and formed an advisory group to inform her research. With her patient and caregiver partners, she co-designed an intervention which addresses care and communication gaps during a hospital discharge delay.
• Her research on the attributes of person centred care has been used to inform the design of practice guidelines (for Ontario health teams), teaching tools (Masterclass on integrated care) and measurement tools (for Ontario’s homecare sector).
• She is leading a pan Canadian study on the impact of COVID-19 on patient engagement activities- insights from this work will inform how health systems can effectively pivot to continue engagement efforts during critical periods like pandemics
• In partnership with faculty, community partners, students and caregivers, Kerry designed IHPMEs first course on patient and caregiver engagement in research.
• Her previous research on home and community care helped health administrators identify people on long-term care home waiting lists who could remain in the community longer with additional supports.

Professional Interests: Patient and Caregiver Experience, Patient and Caregiver Engagement, Homecare, Long-term Care, Aging, Family Caregiving, Care Transitions, Health Systems Research, Health Care Quality, Co-design

Research Interests: Kerry studies the health care experiences of patients and their caregivers with specific attention to people who have complex, ongoing care needs. The contexts of her research include primary health care, homecare, hospital care, delayed hospital discharge and transitions between care settings. She uses multi and mixed methods, including co-design to understand what is required for care services to be person centred.

Current Major Research Projects:

• Patient Engagement in the Era of COVID-19
• Evaluation of the Alternate Level of Care Leading Practices Tool-Kit
• Alternate Level of Care: Assessing the State of the Evidence
• Measuring What Matters to Patients and Families and Acting on it to Improve Health Care
• Optimizing care journeys for adults with hip fractures and complexity: A mixed-methods case study