Health Care
How to Encourage More Family Doctors
A commentary by a family doctor in Saanich: Never, in my 20 years of practice in B.C., have I seen family medicine in crisis as it is now. Trust me, it is not a new issue. Dr. Jennifer Lush I am beginning to think I know how the dinosaurs felt, watching the comet hurtle towards…
Read MoreRural-Urban Inequities in Palliative Care
Many rural communities have few or no palliative care beds. And as financial burdens increase, some health authorities are agreeing to staff new beds only if the local community pays for the design and building costs of new palliative care facilities. When built, residential hospice palliative care programs have often been at least 50% funded…
Read MoreVirtual care innovations in rural BC
Dr. John Pawlovich, UBC Rural Health Chair and a leading advocate of creating innovative, tech-driven solutions to some of the most vexing health & wellness challenges facing rural, remote, and First Nations British Columbians, describes some breakthrough applications in this informative video.
Read MoreCDC Report on Rural Communities & Covid
While there are many distinct differences between the circumstances of rural Canadians and Americans, this overview from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control & Prevention contains some useful information for rural British Columbians. About 46 million Americans live in rural areas, which face distinctive challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. Long-standing systemic health and social…
Read MoreBC Rural Health Hub Pilot Is a Go
If Covid has taught us anything, it’s that we’re all in this together. And that what we know — and think we know — matters. This places a tremendous importance on communications. Not simply top-down, with information flowing from leaders and decision makers to citizens, but the other way ’round as well. This is called civic…
Read MoreHow can rural community-engaged health services planning affect sustainable health care system changes?
How can rural community-engaged health services planning affect sustainable health care system changes? That’s the question posed in a “pre-print” process description and qualitative analysis of data from the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia’s Rural Site Visits Project (SV Project), authored by C. Stuart Johnston, Rural Co-ordination Centre of BC (RCCBC), RCCBC’s Erika Belanger…
Read MoreCommunity Paramedicine in rural BC, what it is & why it happened — interviews with Nancy Kotani & Amy Poll
BC’s Community Paramedicine Program, the first of its kind in Canada, provides rural residents with access to information and care previously lacking in many small, remote communities. Nancy Kotani, former Chief Transformation Officer for British Columbia Emergency Health Services, led the development and implementation of BC’s Community Paramedic project, the first province-wide initiative of its…
Read MoreHealthy People, Healthy Communities — Mount Waddington Health Network
More than ever, rural/remote communities and First Nations across BC are grappling with serious health & wellness challenges. That is certainly the case in the sparsely populated Regional District of Mt Waddington. Through a series of conversations during the Island Health strategic planning consultation process in 2005, and a subsequent community and multi-stakeholder dialogue the year after, a community-driven mechanism and…
Read MoreHow can rural community-engaged health services planning affect sustainable health care system changes?
A process description and qualitative analysis of data from the Rural Coordination Centre of British Columbia’s Rural Site Visits Project Abstract Objectives The objectives of the Rural Site Visit Project (SV Project) were to develop a successful model for engaging all 201 communities in rural British Columbia, Canada, build relationships and gather data about community health…
Read MoreAn Investigation of BC Rural Citizen-Patient Priorities for Health Planning
The Rural Evidence Review (RER) project is a joint initiative between the Centre for Rural Health Research (Department of Family Practice, UBC), and the Rural Coordination Centre of BC. The project’s goal is to work with rural citizens/patients/communities to provide high quality and useful evidence for rural health services planning in BC. To access the…
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