VIP-PC Compassion

Title: Virtual and In-Person Primary Care: Patients and Family Physicians Co-creating a Model of Care Delivery (VIP-PC)

Virtual care became common during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since 2020, family physicians provided a lot of care by telephone, video, and email. Patients say they like virtual care. Patients would like virtual care to continue after the pandemic. So, we need to understand when to use virtual care and when to use in-person care. We need to know how to provide this care for different patients, different health conditions and for different family physicians. We want to make sure primary care includes a long-term, good relationship between patients and their family physicians. We want to make sure that everyone is able to get primary care when they need it. We need to think about how family physicians can provide both virtual and in-person care. We need patients and family physicians working together to answer these questions. The overall goal of this research is to decide the right amount of virtual and in-person primary care that will lead to good health care for patients and good working conditions for family physicians. We will study this in different ways. We will interview patients and family physicians to learn about their experiences using virtual and in-person care. We will ask patients to complete surveys about the kinds of care they received during the pandemic. We will put together a ‘typology’ of virtual and in-person care. A typology is a kind of roadmap that describes the different ways care was provided. We will look to see if there is a connection between how care was provided and the quality of patients’ health care. Once this research is done, we will ask patients and physicians to meet together in groups and discuss the best way to deliver primary care, both virtually and in-person in the future.

Investigator team:

Bridget L. Ryan (PI)

Madelyn daSilva (Project Coordinator)

Rachelle Ashcroft
Judith Belle Brown
Sonny Cejic
Yun-Hee Choi
Tom Freeman
Paul Gill
Maria Mathews
Mike McMahon
Sonja Reichert
Moira Stewart
Amanda L. Terry
Keith Thompson
Stephen Wetmore
Hazel Wilson

For further inquiries contact Dr. Bridget Ryan or Madelyn daSilva