Human-centred standards for technological advances in primary care
The problem
Technological solutions in health care are advancing incredibly fast, outpacing the ability of governments and health care systems to keep up. These solutions are often implemented without meaningful input from those most impacted by their adoption: patients and practitioners.
These technologies could bring impressive transformative opportunities to primary care, but they also come with a significant risk of increasing the burdens on physicians and other care providers. Information technologies can cause workflow disruption, data overload and sub-optimal ergonomics, which may negatively impact patient experience, equitable access to care and relevance of care.
The solution
Through this initiative, the Quebec College of Family Physicians (QCFP) will launch a structured patient, practitioner and stakeholder consultation process based on a human-centred service design approach.
The goal is to produce guidelines and recommendations for policymakers and entrepreneurs that strengthen the role patients and practitioners play in co-designing and implementing technological solutions that will support the core principles of primary care.
“Guidelines for co-designing and implementing technology in primary care could, if widely adopted, influence how we develop technologies that could unburden physicians’ work and ensure increased value for patients and the healthcare system. It’s time that clinicians and patients play a larger role in the conversation about tools and innovations that greatly impact their work and health.”
The innovators
As the provincial chapter of the College of Family Physicians of Canada, the QCFP represents over 4,500 family physicians, family medicine residents and primary care leaders in Quebec and supports its members by providing services and clinical tools by and for family physicians.
The co-leads for this initiative, Élise Boulanger, Nebojsa Kovacina and Frantz-Daniel LaFortune, are family physicians and leaders in improving primary care, engaging with the public and implementing innovative solutions in clinical settings.