The ODPRN is comprised of four fully integrated units:
- The Rapid Response Unit (RRU), whose primary function is to work with policy-makers to efficiently respond to research requests using linked population-level information from datasets housed at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).
- The Citizens’ Panel is a group of up to 25 volunteer citizens from across Ontario who have collectively come together to ensure that the ODPRN appropriately identifies issues of importance to the public, and incorporates these priorities into all aspects of our research.
- The Stakeholder Advisory Panel (SAP), which collaborates with the RRU in fulfilling policy-maker research requests, as well as addressing their own research questions through traditional academic research. The SAP also recruits and mentors students through our Student Training Program.
- The Knowledge Translation Unit (KTU), which disseminates the ODPRN’s research findings to target knowledge users and stakeholders, including policy-makers, researchers, clinicians and the public.
Together, these units have the capacity to:
- Assess the relative safety and effectiveness of drug therapies
- Measure drug plan costs as a function of drug policy decisions
- Assess changes in drug utilization over time and space
- Understand utilization, adherence, appropriateness, and costs of drug classes, including the impact of changes to the provincial drug formulary
- Assess the impact of system level interventions on the health of populations
- Disseminate and implement our research evidence to key stakeholder groups