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The Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) modules are designed to give patients a foundational understanding of the research process to help prepare them for their role as patient/family advisor on a research team. SPOR modules are also intended to help equip patients, researchers and other stakeholders (i.e., health care professionals and system decision-makers) with the skills necessary to engage meaningfully in a variety of roles, including: governance, peer review or other committee work, priority-setting, and the conduct of patient-oriented research. 

The goals of the modules are to help participants:

• acquire foundational knowledge about health research to allow them to become full-fledged members of a research team;

• build mutually beneficial partnerships for conducting patient oriented research; and

• work as a team to carry out patient-oriented research and produce high-quality scientific knowledge in a health-related field.

The SPOR program was created to support patients, researchers, health–care providers and health-care decision-makers interested in or engaged in patient-oriented research. The information may not be new to everyone depending on their background, however, the co-learning opportunity will help individuals see how their knowledge and experience differs from others on the team, and where they can contribute their unique knowledge to the research project. Patients, principal investigators and students/trainees working on a SCPOR affiliated patient-oriented research team are strongly encouraged to attend the training sessions. 

This training day consists of Module 1, Foundations in Patient-Oriented Research, and is immediately followed by Module 2, Fundamentals of Health Research in Canada. The day begins at 8:30 AM and usually ends around 4 PM.