Connected Medicine

Connected Medicine: Enhancing Primary Care Access to Specialist Consult

Canadians often wait for specialist care after referral from a primary care provider. In the 2016 Commonwealth Fund Survey, Canada placed last on a measure of specialist access among the 11 countries surveyed, with 56% of Canadians reporting waiting four weeks or longer to see a specialist.¹

In June 2017, CFHI launched the Connected Medicine Collaborative in partnership with the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC), Canada Health Infoway (Infoway), and the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (The Royal College), with expert support throughout by the Champlain BASE™ and Rapid Access to Consultative Expertise (RACE)™ innovators.

A total of 11 improvement teams participated in the collaborative which spread two leading Canadian innovations* that improve access to specialist advice by allowing primary care providers, such as family doctors and nurse practitioners, to ask specialists patient care questions through secure digital technology and telephone services.

• Champlain BASE^™ eConsult Service (BASE^™), a secure web-based eConsult service which originated with the Champlain Local Health Integration Network in Ontario
• Rapid Access to Consultative Expertise (RACE™), a telephone advice line and app launched at Providence Health Care and Vancouver Coastal Health.

As a result, patients can benefit from care in their community and closer to home, while also maintaining the confidence and comfort of their relationship with their primary healthcare provider.

• New results: Innovative program improves patient access to specialist medical advice in primary care across Canada 
• Connected Medicine Backgrounder 
• Read the stories of patients who have benefitted
• CFHI Blog: Primary Care: A foundation for a high performing health system
• Improvement Conversation: Intensive physician engagement in New Brunswick eConsult rollout accelerates access to specialist advice

This collaborative built on the 2016–17 Connected Medicine e-collaborative, in which 10 teams from across Canada and internationally came together to develop business cases and strategies to implement remote consult services in their jurisdictions.

Last Updated: July 2019

¹Canadian Institute for Health Information. Wait Times for Priority Procedures in Canada, 2016. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2016.