Research Location: Provincial Health Services Authority

Better and more inclusive care is dependent on including patient perspectives or “voice.” Yet, patient voice is rarely included in the design, modification or implementation of digital health systems (DHS) such as patient portals or electronic health records. As a result, DHS are rarely embraced by patient populations who could have the greatest benefit.

For Two-Spirit, transgender, nonbinary and other gender-diverse people (Trans+), this lack of voice is made worse by inaccurate DHS representations of gender identities. Negative healthcare experiences can discourage Trans+ patients from attending or returning for future visits.

Our collaboration includes Trans+ people, Trans Care BC, and other researchers. We will co-develop a program of research that brings patient voices into the design, modification, and implementation of DHS. The project extends our ongoing work to improve representation in DHS. This project is timely given the provincial government’s recent implementation of Health Gateway, a patient-accessed DHS allowing patients access to their health records.

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Team members: Lorraine Grieves (Provincial Health Services Authority); Marcy Antonio (University of Victoria); Francis Lau (University of Victoria); Lindsay MacNeil (Trans Care BC); Quinn Bennett (Trans Care BC); Kelly Davison (University of Victoria); Roz Queen (University of Victoria); Aaron Devor (University of Victoria); Patient Partner TBA (Community Member)

Research co-leads:  Amanda Slaunwhite Provincial Health Services Authority

Research user co-lead: Gillian McLeod City of Delta

Team members: Dr. Aamir Bharmal Fraser Health Authority Jennifer Hawkins  Fraser Health Authority Dr. Michael Schwandt British Columbia Centre for Disease Control, University of British Columbia Amy Salmon Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences Marinel Kniseley Centre for Health Evaluation and Outcomes Sciences Dr. Alexis Crabtree University of British Columbia Dr. Jesse Kancir University of British Columbia

Illicit drug overdose is the central provincial public health challenge in British Columbia (BC). All communities in BC have been affected by the overdose crisis, however little is known about how harm reduction and addictions treatment interventions can be adapted to rural and remote places that do not have supervised consumption/overdose prevention sites or addiction medicine providers.

We aim to address this significant gap in knowledge by convening a diverse group of persons with lived experience, policy makers, clinicians, and researchers from across BC to develop a public health action and research agenda for addressing geographic and place-based contributors to overdose that leverages existing data sources such as the Provincial Overdose Cohort. The objectives of this project are to:  

1. Determine knowledge gaps and identify opportunities to collaborate across organizations and regions to better understand (a) geographic variations in overdose and (b) access to harm reduction, addictions treatment and acute care services outside of urban centers;  
2. Identify immediate (6 month), short-term (1 year) and medium term (2 year) priorities for action in addressing overdose deaths in sparsely populated places with an emphasis on scaling up existing networks, programs and services;  
3. Develop an interactive concept map and lay language publication that synthesizes the results of (1) and (2) for public release.