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MUSIC Primary Care Research Network (McMaster University Sentinel and Information Collaboration)

Research strongly demonstrates links between high functioning primary care and improved population health outcomes. Clinician-led research that takes advantage of routinely collected patient data has the potential to rapidly and efficiently provide important insights into primary care delivery, patient-centred improvement and population health.

The McMaster University Sentinel and Information Collaboration (MUSIC) is a practice-based learning and research network (PBLRN) with clinical data provided and governed by from the McMaster Family Health Organization. MUSIC facilitates research and quality improvement projects on topics that are important to primary care and the patients it serves. MUSIC extracts specific elements of structured, de-identified data from electronic medical records. This enables research and quality improvement on topics in “real world” settings on topics such as clinical care pathways, disease prognosis, treatment efficacy, and the management of chronic illness.

MUSIC can also support data requests from clinical researchers to conduct prospective research and health care intervention studies.

Contact MUSIC@FamMedMcMaster.ca for more information.

Program Lead

Michelle Howard

BA (Hons), MSc, PhD

Associate Professor

Program Team

Rebecca Clark

BSc MSc

Research Coordinator

MUSIC Conflict of Interest Statement

MUSIC is committed to research that will provide sound evidence for rational medical and public health practice and is seen to be otherwise impartial and free of any funding which may prejudice these goals. We do not provide data or accept funding for research from pharmaceutical companies or other for-profit organizations either directly or indirectly (as unrestricted educational grants or fellowships) where that partnership could create a conflict of interest in the work at Department of Family Medicine. These principles are explicit parts of our agreements with POPLAR and CPSCCN.