Promise, Potential, and (Real) Progress
29th Annual Health Policy Conference | March 9-10, 2017
CHSPR’s 29th annual health policy conference, March 9-10, 2017, at the Pinnacle Hotel Vancouver Harbourfront, explored the promise, potential, and (real) progress on primary health care reform in BC and Canada.
Over the last decade primary health care (PHC) reform has received sustained attention from professionals, governments and researchers. Collaboration between governments, local health jurisdictions and physicians, in particular, has increased; but structures have been put in place for policy-makers to work collaboratively with physicians on funding and programs in some provinces but not others.
Importantly, the environment of reform and the proponents of changes are not uniform. Various provinces have approached PHC reform using different strategies, and model-driven, principle-based, quality-centered and incentive-oriented incremental changes have all played a role. There has been little publicly available information on the impact of these reforms, or the spread of successful innovations across the country.
Creative new ways of delivering and organizing health care are only the beginning. They must be scaled-up so they have application across the country, rather than being limited to regions or institutions as exists today. Innovations and scalability require funding; the Naylor Report proposes a major federally financed fund and a central agency to attain three main aspirational goals:
- Improving performance of the healthcare system
- Enhancing quality and value to Canadians
- Breaking down barriers to innovation.
This two day conference created a space for dialogue on important questions about the future organization and delivery of primary health care in Canada. We examined important building blocks of high performing primary health care and look to the future of primary health care. Ample opportunity was provided for clinicians, researchers, patients, and policymakers to interact, share, and strategize.
Program
Download a pdf version of the full program
Day 1: Thursday, March 9
9:00 am | Pre-conference workshops (pre-registration only)
Workshop I: Patient engagement
Workshop II: Tools for primary health care reform
1:00 pm | Welcome remarks
Sabrina Wong, UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
Roberta Price, Coast Salish Elder, Snuneymuxw and Cowichan First Nations
Nardia Strydom, Providence Health Care
1:15 pm | Keynote | Addressing the quadruple aim: Using the building blocks of primary care
Kevin Grumbach, University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco General Hospital [Slides]
2:00 pm | Panel | Rethinking the way we do business: Template for the future
Chair: Michael Law, UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research
Rebecca Etz, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine [Slides]
Rick Glazier, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences [Slides]
Tracy Wasylak, Alberta Strategic Clinical Networks [Slides]
3:30 pm | Active dialogue: Audience ideas on rethinking the way we do business
4:00 pm | Poster session and reception
Day 2: Friday, March 10
9:00 am | Welcome remarks
Robyn Tamblyn, McGill University [Slides]
9:15 am | Panel | Data driven improvement: A building block of high-performing primary care
Chair: Kevin Grumbach, University of California, San Francisco, and San Francisco General Hospital
Rick Birtwhistle, Queen’s University Centre for Studies in Primary Care [Slides]
Fred Burge, Dalhousie University Department of Family Medicine [Slides]
Scott Garrison, University of Alberta [Slides]
11:00 am | Concurrent sessions
Session I: Access, quality, and cost
Session II: Interprofessional practice, integration, and coordination
Session III: Performance measurement and innovations in practice
1:00 pm | Panel | What is needed to scale up innovations in primary health care across Canada
Chair: Tracy Wasylak, Alberta Strategic Clinical Networks
Jeannie Haggerty, McGill University Department of Family Medicine
Stephen Samis, Canadian Foundation for Healthcare Improvement [Slides]
Stephen Peckham, Kent University (UK) Centre for Health Services Studies [Slides]
3:00 pm | Poster session
3:30 pm | Keynote | Accountability to our patients: Moving toward a high-performing primary care system
Tara Kiran, Health Quality Ontario [Slides]
4:30 pm | Closing remarks
Kim McGrail, UBC Centre for Health Services and Policy Research