By Martin Fortin
Pr Jeannie Haggerty (PhD), principal investigator, and Dr Martin Fortin (MSc), co-principal investigator, are currently leading a research program designed to explain the changes operated by the transformation of primary healthcare services and to measure its effects on population health and in particularly vulnerable groups: the multi-morbid and the poor. This longitudinal cohort study is being conducted using mixed methods. Four interrelated studies, using three embedded cohorts (sentinel medical clinics, clinic patients and a population sample) in four local healthcare networks from three regions of Quebec (Canada) are at different stages of the research process.
Study 1, Integration of Local Services Network, explores primary care organizations’ responses to the government mandate and inter-organizational exchanges. Data collection including organizational questionnaires (self-completed by 66 primary care providers), semi-structured interviews (conducted with 17 clinicians) and document review is complete. Studies 2 and 3, Follow-up of a Patient and a Population Cohort, are measuring the effects of efficient and patient-centered healthcare services on evolution of functional health, chronic illness burden and health functioning in individuals over time. Data for the first of this three-year study were collected using questionnaires (self-completed by 786 patients and 1700 individuals of the general population) and analysis is ongoing. Study 4, Validation of Measurement Instruments, is planned for year 2 of the program.
For more information about this program and the research team, follow this link