BRIC NS—an acronym for Building Research for Integrated Primary Care in Nova Scotia—is a research network that seeks to improve primary health care and integrated services for people with, or at risk of developing, complex health care needs. It is part of a Canada-wide “network of networks” that shares the same overarching goal.

BRIC NS was funded in 2015 and is run from offices in Dalhousie University’s Department of Family Medicine in Halifax, NS. BRIC NS evolved from Collaborative Research in Primary Health Care, or CoR-PHC.

Leadership for BRIC NS includes co-directors, Dr. Ruth Lavergne, Canada Research Chair in Primary Care in the Department of Family Medicine at Dalhousie University, and Dr. Matt Grandy, network director for the Maritime Family Practice Research Network (MaRNet), with support from Dr. Emily Gard Marshall, Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at Dalhousie University.

 

Origins of the Canadian Primary Care Research Network (CPCRN)

BRIC NS is one of 11 Canadian Primary Care Research Networks (previously known as Primary and Integrated Health Care Innovation Networks (PIHI)) across the country under the Strategies for Patient Oriented Research (SPOR) umbrella. In 2022, the PIHI Network changed its name to “Canadian Primary Care Research Network”. Each network unit has a supporting unit, for a total of 22 networks/supporting units across the country.

These networks work together, in order to learn from each other by:

• exploring and comparing innovations across provinces
• determining how innovations that are successful in one province could be scaled and/or adapted in another province
• evaluating, refining and promoting successful innovations more broadly across the country

This “network of networks” approach is to ensure the efficient use of health research resources, to produce meaningful and cost-effective improvements in health care and population health nationwide.

Many Canadian Primary Care Research Networks also provide support to primary care Practice-Based Research and Learning Networks (PBRLNs). These research networks study many aspects of health care, from understanding patients and clinicians experiences, to working with communities, disease prevention and health promotion, and running clinical trials. A key tool they use is data from electronic medical records (EMRs).

Housed within BRIC NS, MaRNet is a PBRLN aiming to help patients and providers across the Maritime provinces. Managing a de-identified database of Nova Scotian primary care EMR data, MaRNet facilitates research and quality improvement initiatives in primary care in Nova Scotia.

To learn more, please visit the MaRNet webpage.   

Last updated: August 2025