Enhancing primary healthcare delivery in the inner-city community in Toronto, Canada

A very participatory evaluation process with broad involvement of all stakeholders, including patient and community members, led to consensus on priorities and gaps in services; prioritization of an innovative, patient-centred, model of health and social care led to development of an integrative Family Health team working from a social determinants of health lens; multiple partnerships support long-term sustainability and educational collaboration; supportive leadership and internal champions created momentum for change and mitigated internal and external barriers to change; active and ongoing engagement of patients, community and health team members in program design and implementation.

St. Michael’s Hospital, Department of Family & Community Medicine-Family Health Team

The St. Michael’s Hospital Academic Family Health Team (SMHAFHT) is a large, primary care teaching clinic, affiliated with the University of Toronto, and nestled within the downtown core of Toronto. The Family Health Team provides services to the inner-city community of Toronto through 6 clinical sites located conveniently in these neighbourhoods. We serve the poorest communities in Toronto - people who are marginalized, underhoused and with significant health comorbidities who are significantly impacted by many social determinants of health that negatively affect the quality of one’s life, such as poverty, inadequate housing and inequitable access to health and social care services. 

In identifying the significant impact that social determinants of health have on our community, and in consideration of the research which supports the importance of interprofessional (IP) care and education, our department undertook a visioning and planning process to evolve and ‘re-purpose’ the way we deliver care, how ...

Good collaborative practice: reforming capacity building governance of international health research partnerships

In  line with the policy objetives of the United Nations sustainable Development Goals, this commentary seeks to examine the extent which provisions of international health research guidance promote capacity building and equitable partnerships in global health research. Theri evaluation finds that governance of collaborative research partnership, in resource- constrained settigns is limited but has improved with the implementation guidance of the International Ethical Guidelines for Health- related Research Involving Humans by The Council for International Organizations of Medical Sciences (CIOMS 2016)

Should community pharmacy be 'linked'? The perceptions of including community pharmacy in an integrated care model in Ontario, Canada

Integrated care models are becoming more frequent in various health systems to provide quality coordinated care, with the aim of improving patient outcomes and costs. Many patients under an integrated care model present with complex health and social needs requiring more sophisticated care coordination. 

Unknown makes unloved—A case study on improving integrated health and social care in the Netherlands using a participatory approach

Many initiatives integrating health and social care have been implemented in order to provide adequate care and support to older people living at home. Further development of existing initiatives requires iterative processes of developing, implementing and evaluating improvements to current practice. This case study provides insight into the process of improving an existing integrated care initiative in the Netherlands. Using a participatory approach, researchers and local stakeholders collaborated to develop and implement activities to further improve collaboration between health and social care professionals. Improvement activities included interprofessional meetings focussing on reflection and mutual learning and workplace visits. Researchers evaluated the improvement process, using data triangulation of multiple qualitative and quantitative data sources. 

International cooperation in public health in Martinique: geostrategic utility for cancer surveillance in the Caribbean

Cooperation in public health and in oncology in particular, is currently a major issue for the island of Martinique, given its geopolitical position in the Caribbean region. The region of Martinique shares certain public health problems with other countries of the Caribbean, notably in terms of diagnostic and therapeutic management of patients with cancer. This study presents a roadmap of cooperation priorities and activities in cancer surveillance and oncology in Martinique.