Faculty, Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
Professor, UBC School of Nursing
sabrina.wong@ubc.ca
(604) 827-5584
spor-bcphcrn.ca | cpcrn-rcrsp.ca
Profile
Dr Wong’s research examines the organization and delivery of health care services within the context of primary health care. A recognized leader in research involving patient-reported quality of care, her work contributes to informing practice and system level interventions that seek to decrease health inequalities among Canadian residents, including people who face multiple disadvantages in accessing and using the health care system such as those who have language barriers and live in poverty. Her long-standing commitment to research has significantly contributed to further understanding and application of primary health care in helping to reduce health and health care inequalities.
Education
PhD, Health Services Research, Nursing, University of California, San Francisco
MSc, Community Health Nursing Administration, University of California, San Francisco
BSN, University of British Columbia
Research Interests
- Primary health care
- Health inequalities
- Performance measurement and reporting
- Integration of health services
Current Projects
- Transforming community-based primary healthcare delivery through comprehensive performance measurement and reporting
- Research lead, BC Primary Health Care Research Network, one of the Strategy for Patient Oriented Research Primary and Integrated Health Care Innovation Network nodes. The BC PHCRN aims to seek out, develop, and facilitate adoption of health care innovations to improve BC’s health care delivery system (spor-bcphcrn.ca).
- Co-Director, BC node of the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (spor-bcphcrn.ca/bc-cpcssn/). The Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network (CPCSSN) is a pan-Canadian multi-disease electronic medical record surveillance system that makes it possible to securely collect and report on vital information from Canadians’ health records to improve the way chronic diseases are managed.
Affiliations and Awards
- Investigator, Culture, Gender and Health research unit (2004-present)
- Affiliate, Department of Family Practice (2007-present)
- NAPCRG (North American Primary Care Research Group) PEARL on: Continuity of Care: Does Having the Same Primary Care Provider Over Time Matter?, NAPCRG (February 2015).
- UBC Killam Faculty Research Fellowship, UBC (2012)
- Canadian Institute for Health Information Scholar (2012)
- Excellence in Nursing Research, College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia (2011)
- Career Scholar, Michael Smith Foundation for Health Research (2005-2010)
- Canadian Institutes for Health Research New Investigator award (2006-2011)
- Distinguished Paper Presentation award, Society for Teachers of Family Medicine (2004)
- Career award, National Institute on Aging (2003-2006)
- Health Services Research award, American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry Foundation and the Children’s Dental Health Project (2001)
Current Graduate Students
- Mary Helmer-Smith, MSc Student, School of Population and Public Health
- Innocent Ndateba, PhD Student, School of Nursing
Currently Recruiting Graduate Students Interested in
- Primary health care
- Performance measurement and reporting
- Collaboration between public health and primary care
- Health inequalities
Courses Currently Taught
- NURS 505 Statistical Literacy in Nursing
- Mixed methods in primary health care research (pan-Canadian Transdisciplinary Understanding of Research in Primary Health Care program)
Recent Publications
Shuldiner J, Ragunathan A, Mohammed J, Katz A, Andiappan M, Barber D, Condon A, Garber G, Kiran T, Hysong S, Schoon J, Martin D, Wong ST, Ivers N. Mapping policies, regulations, and practice supports for medical office assistants in primary care: a scoping review. BMC Prim Care. 2026 Feb 20. doi: 10.1186/s12875-026-03222-8. Online ahead of print. Read more
Ndateba I, Havaei F, Haase KR, Hogg W, Martin-Misener R, Wong ST. Association between team functioning and self-efficacy and quality of life for primary care patients in British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. Prim Health Care Res Dev. 2026 Feb 12;27:e20. doi: 10.1017/S1463423626100887. Read more
T Vaillancourt V, Poirier MD, Fournier A, Wong ST, Poitras ME. Design and Performance of an Email-Based Patient Recruitment Campaign in Primary Care Research: A Formative Secondary Analysis. JMIR Hum Factors. 2026 Feb 9. doi: 10.2196/67088. Online ahead of print. Read more
Katz A, Aubrey-Bassler K, Aghajafari F, Fransoo G, Ivers NM, Kwong JC, Moineddin R, Nguyen L, Saj D, Taylor C, Upshur REG, Woodrow J, Wong ST, Xiong H, Aggarwal M. The impact of COVID-19 vaccine distribution channels on equity-deserving populations: a Canadian population-based cohort study using administrative data. BMC Public Health. 2026 Jan 9. doi: 10.1186/s12889-025-24824-4. Online ahead of print. Read more
Shuldiner J, Ragunathan A, Mohammed J, Khan A, Hare N, Meninato T, Haggerty J, Garber G, Reid RJ, Andiappan M, Martin D, Kaplan D, Kiran T, Hysong SJ, Wong ST, Zhao QJ, Sherlock C, Légaré F, Ivers N. Elevating an invisible role: co-designing solutions to optimize medical office assistants in primary care. BMC Prim Care. 2026 Jan 6. doi: 10.1186/s12875-025-03155-8. Online ahead of print. Read more
Giroux CM, Bush PL, Alkhaldi M, Talla PK, Couturier Y, Thomas A, Bussières A, Wong ST, Poitras ME, Ahmed S. Assessing healthcare organizations' readiness to implement a learning health system: questionnaire validation using a Delphi method. BMC Health Serv Res. 2025 Dec 29;25(1):1626. doi: 10.1186/s12913-025-13636-2. Read more
Thandi M, Gibb A, Price M, Baumbusch J, Wong ST. Development and testing of an electronic frailty index using Canadian electronic medical record data in primary care. BMC Prim Care. 2025 Nov 12;26(1):359. doi: 10.1186/s12875-025-03075-7. Read more
Hutchison B, Aggarwal M, Shannon H, Katz A, Wong ST, Marshall EG. Author ordering and citation-based measures of scholarly impact: Implications for research assessment. Can Fam Physician. 2025 Oct;71(10):e244-e250. doi: 10.46747/cfp.7110e244. Read more
Garrison SR, Bakal JA, Kolber MR, Korownyk CS, Green LA, Kirkwood JEM, McAlister FA, Padwal RS, Lewanczuk R, Hill MD, Singer AG, Katz A, Kelmer MD, Gayayan A, Campbell FN, Vucenovic A, Archibald NR, Yeung JMS, Youngson ERE, McGrail K, O'Neill BG, Greiver M, Manca DP, Wang T, Manns BJ, Mangin DA, MacLean C, McCormack J, Wong ST, Norris C, Allan GM. Interaction Between Chronotype and the Timing of Antihypertensive Medication on Cardiovascular Events and Death. J Am Heart Assoc. 2025 Oct 9:e044278. doi: 10.1161/JAHA.125.044278. Online ahead of print. Read more
Hosseini B, Condon A, da Costa BR, Daley P, Greiver M, Jüni P, Lee TC, McBrien K, McDonald EG, Murthy S, et al. Canadian Adaptive Platform Trial of Treatments for COVID in Community Settings (CanTreatCOVID): protocol for a randomised controlled adaptive platform trial of treatments for acute SARS-CoV-2 infection in community settings. BMJ Open. 2025 Aug 3;15(8):e097134. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-097134. Read more
Dhillon S, Leung B, Sanghera D, Sattar S, Culbertson S, Hedges P, Renouf DJ, Wong ST, Newton L, Mariano C, Haase KR. A patient co-led project to set care and research priorities for older adults with cancer. J Geriatr Oncol. 2025 Jun 28;16(7):102300. doi: 10.1016/j.jgo.2025.102300. Online ahead of print. Read more
Beresford A, Dasgupta D, Jafari M, Kamihiro N, Ghirmay ET, Tolppa T, Valle L, Xie M, Elkes S, Wong ST. Primary Care at A(nother) Crossroads: Conference Summary. Vancouver (BC): UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research; Jun 2025. Read more
Garrison SR, Bakal JA, Kolber MR, Korownyk CS, Green LA, Kirkwood JEM, McAlister FA, Padwal RS, Lewanczuk R, Hill MD, Singer AG, Katz A, Kelmer MD, Gayayan A, Campbell FN, Vucenovic A, Archibald NR, Yeung JMS, Youngson ERE, McGrail K, O'Neill BG, Greiver M, Manca DP, Kraut RY, Wang T, Manns BJ, Mangin DA, MacLean C, McCormack J, Wong ST, Norris C, Allan GM. Antihypertensive Medication Timing and Cardiovascular Events and Death: The BedMed Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2025 May 12. doi: 10.1001/jama.2025.4390. Online ahead of print. Read more
Thandi M, Price M, Baumbusch J, Brown S, Wong S. Capturing factors associated with frailty using routinely collected electronic medical record data in British Columbia, Canada, primary care settings. Prim Health Care Res Dev. 2025 May 8;26:e41. doi: 10.1017/S1463423625000337. Read more
Sasseville M, Supper W, Gartner JB, Layani G, Amil S, Sheffield P, Gagnon MP, Hudon C, Lambert S, Attisso E, Ouellet S, Breton M, Poitras ME, Roux-Lévy PH, Plaisimond J, Bergeron F, Ashcroft R, Wong ST, Groulx A, Paquette JS, D'Anjou N, Langlois S, LeBlanc A. Electronic Implementation of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures in Primary Health Care: Mixed Methods Systematic Review. J Med Internet Res. 2025 May 5;27:e63639. doi: 10.2196/63639. Read more