Operationally and financially, the Primary Healthcare Research Unit (PHRU) is an autonomous unit within the Faculty of Medicine reporting directly to the Dean of Medicine. Academically, the PHRU is part of the Discipline of Family Medicine. Those faculty members appointed to the PHRU are appointed through the Discipline of Family Medicine and report academically to the Chair of Family Medicine.

The PHRU’s mandate is:

1. To develop programs of research and program evaluation relevant to primary care and family medicine.
2. To serve as a resource to the Discipline of Family Medicine, and the Faculty of Medicine as a whole, in issues related to primary care research.
3. To build capacity to conduct primary care research in the Faculty of Medicine and in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador.
4. To facilitate collaborations in research between academic family medicine, community based family physicians, and other primary health care related disciplines.
5. To serve as resource to support and promote family medicine and primary care research in the undergraduate, postgraduate, and graduate studies programs in the Faculty of Medicine.
6. To facilitate the translation and dissemination of knowledge relevant to primary care practitioners, decision makers, and policy makers.
7. Through its Centre for Rural Health Studies (CRHS), to promote, facilitate, support, and conduct rural health research in Newfoundland and Labrador.