administrators

I would be interested in learning what you think. I believe the CPCRC is an important vehicle for connecting primary care data in Canada. I will be on holidays so am counting on all of you who finally have the links. If there are still link issues, we can raise it with Onil et al.

SCPOR’s Patient Partner Mentorship Program

Interested in learning more about patient-oriented research and how to contribute as a patient partner on a research team? SCPOR’s Patient Partner Mentorship Program connects mentees with experienced mentors who can provide guidance and support in navigating patient-oriented research partnerships.

https://www.scpor.ca/mentorship

@Jayden-Tang You might want to also enter it as an Opportunity. There is a form on the Opportunities tab where you can do this.

Interesting tool developed by the Vector Institute, Canada. Take a read: UnBias-Plus AI tool detects and rewrites bias in text

David Gilbert, a leading UK patient partner has a newsletter that is worth subscribing to. He has this in his recent edition:

Dear ImPatient subscriber,

I hope you are enjoying the summer, but I know many are struggling.

AI mental health self-help tools are growing fast - I’ve used AI myself for support with my own mental health problems. But protection for the people using them isn't keeping pace.

This growing gap is precisely why I’ve worked with the Centre for Mental Health to produce Unequal benefits, unequal harms, a discussion paper on AI mental health chatbots, inequality and the risks of self-guided care. READ HERE

The paper finds people’s use of AI to support mental health has outpaced the development of robust mechanisms to mitigate problems. Oversight is uncoordinated, and there are significant gaps in evidence, accountability and patient safety.

While these tools may improve access and affordability for some, the paper warns that the benefits won't be distributed evenly - and that the risks of generative AI mental health systems are likely to fall disproportionately on people who are already vulnerable. Large language models can also absorb and repeat patterns of structural discrimination, reinforcing stereotypes or invalidating certain identities.

There's also a data gap: we don't know enough about who is using these tools across different demographic and socioeconomic groups, including in relation to deprivation, ethnicity, disability, neurodiversity, severe mental illness and experiences of trauma.

Take a look at his website InHealth Associates UK and sign up to his newsletter.

The Nine Pillars of Integrated Care 2026 Forum Series Forum Discussion on Purpose

REGISTER HERE

As part of our series of Forum Discussions on the Nine Pillars of Integrated Care in which we explore international experiences of integrated care, we are delighted to host the fifth in our series of nine Forums to launch the revised Pillars.
Shared purpose for integrated care matters because integrated care is, fundamentally, an attempt to get people to work together who otherwise wouldn't — across professional boundaries, organisational divides, the split between health and social care, and the gap between formal services and the people they serve. Without something that pulls in a common direction, each actor defaults to their own internal logic: at the risk of oversimplifying, the hospital to throughput, the GP to list size, the social worker to safeguarding thresholds, the commissioner to contract compliance. Shared purpose is what makes collective action possible in a system where no single authority can simply issue orders.

Join IFIC for an interactive Forum Discussion focused on the Shared purpose Pillar of the Nine Pillars of Integrated Care. This session brings together international expertise to explore what progress has been made, what tensions remain, and what practical shifts are needed to enable integrated, people centred care in different contexts.

What we will explore
• Whose purpose is it, really?
• What are each of us willing to give up for it?
• How would we know if our shared purpose was actually wrong?

Health Excellence Canada (HEC) has an excellent newsletter with what is happening particularly in primary care in Canada. I urge you all to sign up for it if you don't already get it.

The Patients Redefining the Future of Healthcare in Canada Summit has convened a patient-led Integrated Models of Care Working Group since 2019. They’ve spearheaded the creation of three case studies:

• Community Health Centres
• Indigenous Primary Healthcare Organizations
• Alberta Thoracic Oncology Program Case Study

and a supporting toolkit to support your advocacy efforts related to family medicine and integrated models of care.

Please share these case studies and the summary amongst your network of patients, caregivers, citizens, and groups as well as with your clinician colleagues and amongst relevant decision-makers to help them advance their ideas about evidence-based investments in family medicine as well as more efficient and accessible diagnosis, treatment, and care.

@Debra-Turnbull PAN needs to work on what we would like to see for a consent framework from the consenter point of view otherwise this will be a mess.

I am excited to share this announcement of $100 M for the Vital project which will connect all hospital data in Canada.

This lays the foundation for connected care in Canada. This also means potentially a one stop shop for researchers and innovators. The benefits will be enormous.

PAN is in talks with the Vital team around our participation in building a patient infrastructure in the project to ensure it reflects our values and needs -- so stay tuned!