Two minutes with a Scientific Director: Dr. Rick Glazier

CIHR: How important is research for the reshaping of primary care in Canada?

Dr. Glazier: We’re facing unprecedented challenges in primary care. We have millions of Canadians who don’t have a regular provider, and we see the consequences of that with high emergency department use and delays in diagnosis and treatment.

While other countries are also struggling with similar workforce issues since the pandemic, many have weathered it much better.

Research is one of the key ways in which we can understand what strategies are working elsewhere. Research can also help us understand how well policy changes are working—we call this implementation research. We don’t want to find out five years later that we spent a lot of money on a policy change or initiative that isn’t working; we want to find out as close to real-time as possible to enable course corrections and maximize success and impact.

CIHR: Can you give us an example of how research in this area has already had an impact?

Dr. Glazier: A great example comes from an investigator at the University of Ottawa, Dr. Clare Liddy. She developed something called eConsult, which enables family doctors like myself to consult with specialists—whether it’s a cardiologist, dermatologist, or neurologist—in cases where the patient doesn’t necessarily need to attend the specialist appointment. As a doctor, I can go into this portal, find the specialist, attach lab work and images, and within a few days I receive advice, saving time and effort for the patient.

Another example comes from Renfrew County in Ontario. They have set up a virtual care program where patients can access virtual appointments with a regular doctor. The program is supported by nurse practitioners and paramedics for those patients who need an in-person visit. That in-person backup is crucial, but it’s not needed for every appointment, so the virtual care helps a lot more people access care through a regular doctor.

These kinds of digital innovations have a multiplier effect and are starting to spread across Canada.

CIHR: What would a functioning primary care system of the future look like?

Dr. Glazier: My vision of the future is one that uses my skills more and uses other health professional skills more and where AI is going to take over the drudgery.

We’re already getting an inkling of how it would look from the current research. The future would have health care professionals using their time more meaningfully, with less administrative work, such as the typing up of notes. Emerging evidence is showing that AI scribes, which type notes for doctors, are effective and that doctors are happy with the time saving and better connection with patients. In the future, AI could also assess which patient is due for blood work or a flu shot, sending a prompt to the physician or automatically sending a reminder to the patient. This would save a lot of time in the doctor’s office, because patients would come in ready with all the necessary pre-appointment steps completed.

The future is going to be more proactive, more organized, and more digitally driven, and I hope will be a very interesting and fun place to work because we humans will be able to focus on connecting with people and be doing the work that only we humans can.

Date modified:

2014-12-23