Speaker: Dr. Sara Davison

Description: Primary care physicians, specialists, and patients often do not have the right supports and tools at their fingertips to optimize the approach to chronic, complex care. Patients with advanced stage diseases have high rates of hospitalization and aggressive use of treatments, often with limited benefit and insufficient input from patients, presenting significant challenges to our healthcare system and community. Patient needs and wishes are not always taken into account, and even if they are, physicians often lack the support to effectively communicate and coordinate the care that these patients have expressed they want outside the walls of the clinic. Our project, “One: CarePath” is about creating a single, integrated supportive care path for patients living with advanced-stage disease(s) to live well on their terms, until they die. In collaboration with primary care physicians, specialists and patients, we are looking to find ways to improve patient outcomes and optimize system performance by a very integrated, multi-level, demand-driven and person-centered strategy designed to address complex and costly health needs for these vulnerable patients. In this presentation, the speaker highlights how patient-oriented research is being used in Alberta to change the landscape of care delivery. The presentation will show how engagement of patients and clinicians and cross-collaborations with multiple stakeholders from the beginning of the research will facilitate the translation of knowledge/evidence into real world changes that will improve health outcomes and the healthcare system.

*Recording form the AbSPORU Virtual Institute 2020