Training and capacity development in patient-oriented research: Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit (OSSU) initiatives.

In 2011, Canada developed a Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research. The aim of the strategy was to ensure that patients were included as equal partners in research, with the goal to improve the patient experience and enhance health outcomes using research findings to influence clinical care, policy, and health system improvement. Building capacity in patient-oriented research is a core element of the strategy. Since 2014, the Ontario SPOR SUPPORT Unit has led numerous initiatives to build capacity in patient-oriented research. Successes include a Capacity Building Compendium (a catalogue of resources that has been accessed greater than 45,000 times); courses on how to do and how to use patient-oriented research that have trained hundreds of patients, practitioners, organizational leaders, policymakers, and researchers; created online patient-oriented research materials; developed a patient engagement resource center; identified what is required to ensure authentic and meaningful patient partnerships in research; and shared these resources and learnings widely.