Report to College members

Section for Family Physicians with Special Interests or Focused Practices

With the goal of strengthening comprehensive continuing care in family medicine, programs have been approved to support FPs with specific interests in palliative care, mental health, emergency medicine, maternity and newborn care, care of the elderly, anesthesia, sport and exercise medicine, and respiratory medicine.

Undergraduate and postgraduate education

Medical student career choice: College-supported family medicine interest groups are running successfully in all Canadian medical schools. In 2010, family medicine was the first choice for 33% of graduates, and 40% of first-year residency posts were in family medicine (CaRMS data).

Future of Medical Education in Canada: Undergraduate curriculum recommendations are being implemented; work has begun on postgraduate training.

Residency curriculum: The CanMEDS–family medicine roles are being incorporated into a new competency-based family medicine curriculum focused on 3 C’s: Comprehensive, Continuous care Centred on patients.

Examinations and Certification

Certification examination: In 2011 a computerized written examination will be introduced, and the number of CFPC examination sites will increase from 12 to 19. Harmonization of the Medical Council of Canada (part II) and CFPC Certification examinations will take place in 2013.

International accreditation: Certification (CCFP) may now be granted without further examination to those who have completed international training and certification overseen by sister Colleges whose standards are determined to be comparable to ours. To date, the US, Australia, and Ireland have been approved.

Alternative route to Certification: A nonexamination route to Certification is being offered until the end of 2012 to non-Certified FPs in active practice in Canada who have held unrestricted licences to practise family medicine independently for the 5 years preceding application.

Revalidation of licensure and CPD. Licensing bodies now require physicians to meet mandatory CPD standards. All recognize compliance with CFPC or Royal College CPD requirements as meeting their standards. Some have stipulated that all physicians in their jurisdictions must meet CFPC or RCPSC standards. We have provided access to our CPD systems for members and non-members to help them meet licensing body requirements.

Health policy

The CFPC, the Canadian Medical Association, and the National Specialty Society for Community Medicine released our post-H1N1 analysis, Lessons from the Frontlines: A report on Pandemic H1N1. Our discussion paper, Patient-centred Primary Care in Canada: Bring it on Home, received feedback from more than 100 individuals and organizations. We also released a position paper on primary care wait times, The Wait Starts Here.

Interprofessional teams and scopes of practice: We support increased roles and changing scopes of practice for other health providers working in teams with FPs. However, we have expressed our concerns about some regulations and legislation being introduced. More explicitly defined training requirements are needed, competencies must be demonstrated, and limits must be followed for diagnosis and prescribing, as outlined in CFPC’s position statement on the Prescribing Rights of Health Professionals.

Intraprofessional teams: Recommendations for intraprofessional core competencies have been proposed as standards for undergraduate and postgraduate training. A Guide to Enhancing Referrals and Consultations Between Physicians was released.

Other projects

National Physician Survey: It is important for all physicians to complete the 2010 survey, which is vital to planning future physician resources in Canada.

Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance Network: The CFPC has signed a 5-year agreement with the Public Health Agency of Canada to continue surveillance of chronic disease.

Canadian Family Physician: Independent measures of the impact of our journal continue to rise. Through CFP Mainpro, readers now have an opportunity to earn Mainpro-M1 credits for performing brief reflective exercises after reading eligible articles in the journal.