Sara Guilcher

Dr. Sara Guilcher is an Assistant Professor at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy, and cross-appointed with the Rehabilitation Sciences Institute (RSI), University of Toronto.  Dr. Guilcher is also an Adjunct Scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, and an Affiliate Scientist at the Centre for Urban Health Solutions, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael’s Hospital. As a physical therapist and clinical epidemiologist, Dr. Guilcher’s research vision is to improve health service delivery and quality of care across the continuum, specifically for marginalized populations with complex health and social needs. Dr. Guilcher holds a Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) Embedded Clinician Salary Award working with Health Quality Ontario to optimize transitions of care among persons with complex needs.

Often using multi-methods (e.g., administrative health claims, qualitative methods, survey research), Dr. Guilcher’s research relates to clinical/social epidemiology, health equity, disability and multimorbidity.

Research Synopsis

Sara’s overall research vision is to improve health care service delivery and outcomes for vulnerable populations with multiple complex health and social needs (e.g., disability, multimorbidity). Sara’s research is guided by the intersectionality paradigm, which acknowledges the complexity of health and the multi-dimensional factors that can influence health. This paradigm frames her work by recognizing the importance of micro (individual level factors), meso (clinical and neighbourhood factors), as well as macro components (socio-economic political context) that interact and influence health promotion, health care delivery, policy and outcomes.

Broadly Sara’s research program is structured by three main activities:

• Understanding health care needs and necessary mechanisms for optimal service delivery
• Developing solution-focused interventions and
• Evaluating the impact of interventions for vulnerable populations