Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums
  • My alerts
The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • RSS feeds
  • Follow cfp Template on Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
OtherCollege

The urgency of creating a primary care CIHR institute

Francine Lemire
Canadian Family Physician August 2018; 64 (8) 624;
Francine Lemire
MD CM CCFP FCFP CAE
Roles: EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • Figures & Data
  • eLetters
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading
Figure

Dear Colleagues,

Data abound regarding the role of a strong primary care system in improving population outcomes and the importance of contributions by family physicians.1,2 According to reports presenting Commonwealth Fund survey results, Canadian seniors are more likely than those of other nations to indicate that their primary care providers adopt a person-centred approach to their care and facilitate navigation in the health care system when referrals are required3; and Canadian adults rate the care they receive from their family doctor’s practice as considerably above average.4 Yet we know that Canada lags behind other countries when it comes to timely access to care, team-based care, and communication between health care providers themselves and with their patients.4 We need data and research to better understand this situation, inform a transformational agenda, and assess the effect of innovation in the organization and delivery of primary care.

When the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) was first created, the CFPC advocated for an institute dedicated to primary care research.5 This did not materialize. At that time, CIHR believed that research based on primary care and community health care should be part of the research agendas of the other 13 institutes. We now face a situation where primary care research is proportionately underrepresented by CIHR and underfunded.

To be fair, CIHR has directed time-limited, strategic research funding to primary care, particularly in the past 6 years or so. Although the primary care share of CIHR funding has increased over the past 15 years, total primary care research funding represented only 2% to 3% of total CIHR funding between 2014 and 2017. Its funding for community health care research has been flat over the past 15 years, did not exceed 0.2% of the CIHR total, and peaked at 0.8% of the total in 2016–2017. However, these strategic funding commitments are scheduled to decrease over the next few years and end in 2022–2023.6

We believe that one of the main reasons for such a low level of funding relates to limited primary and community health care presence on CIHR’s governing council, grant review panels, and institute advisory boards (primary health care researchers are currently represented on only 3 of the 13 institute advisory boards). What is clear is that CIHR’s current approach to supporting primary care and community health care research has not been successful.

I want to iterate that the CFPC recognizes the importance of basic science research and the importance of institution-based research. This said, family doctors know that the patients they care for might have more complex needs than those included in interventional, disease-specific studies. We need to be more deliberate in supporting the generation of high-quality evidence to inform policy and practice. This absolutely requires investments in primary care and community health care research.

The CFPC has prepared a proposal for a CIHR Institute of Integrated Primary and Community Health Care; this internal document outlines immediate steps to address some of the challenges identified and to show that CIHR understands and is committed to this vital component of our health care system: develop a sustainable infrastructure for practice-based research networks and primary health care data collection, integration, and access; renew funding and support new primary and community health care strategic funding initiatives to address priority issues; and provide systematic tracking of primary and community health care submissions, success rates, and funding in the CIHR open grants competitions. Finally, although a robust cadre of highly productive, internationally acclaimed primary and community health care researchers has emerged in the past decade, development of an ongoing primary and community health care research training and career support strategy is critical.

We congratulate Dr Michael Strong on his appointment as CIHR President. We are aware of CIHR’s intent to revisit future directions, and of the reality that this will be accompanied by legislative requirements. We also recognize the many pressures facing CIHR. This said, we need an institute dedicated to primary and community health care within CIHR. We are pleased that the Canadian Nurses Association, the Canadian Home Care Association, and the Society of Rural Physicians of Canada are considering joining us in this advocacy. Stay tuned for more developments.

Acknowledgments

I thank José Pereira, Brian Hutchison, Artem Safarov, and Deirdre Snelgrove for their assistance with this article.

Footnotes

  • Cet article se trouve aussi en français à la page 623.

  • Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada

References

  1. 1.↵
    1. Gulliford MC
    . Availability of primary care doctors and population health in England: is there an association? J Public Health Med 2002;24(4):252-4.
    OpenUrlCrossRefPubMed
  2. 2.↵
    1. Glazier RH,
    2. Moineddin R,
    3. Agha MM,
    4. Zagorski B,
    5. Hall R,
    6. Manuel DG,
    7. et al
    . The impact of not having a primary care physician among people with chronic conditions. Toronto, ON: Institute for Clinical Evaluative Studies; 2008.
  3. 3.↵
    1. CIHI
    . How Canada compares: results from the Commonwealth Fund’s 2017 International Health Policy Survey of Seniors. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2018.
  4. 4.↵
    1. CIHI
    . How Canada compares: results from the Commonwealth Fund’s 2016 International Health Policy Survey of Adults in 11 Countries. Ottawa, ON: CIHI; 2017.
  5. 5.↵
    1. Gutkin C
    . Research and the family doctor. Can Fam Physician 1999;45:1628. (Eng), 1627, 1626 (Fr).
    OpenUrl
  6. 6.↵
    1. Canadian Institutes of Health Research [website]
    . Funding decisions database. Ottawa, ON: Government of Canada; 2018. Available from: http://webapps.cihr-irsc.gc.ca/decisions/p/main.html?lang=en. Accessed 2018 Jul 11.
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Family Physician: 64 (8)
Canadian Family Physician
Vol. 64, Issue 8
1 Aug 2018
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on The College of Family Physicians of Canada.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
The urgency of creating a primary care CIHR institute
(Your Name) has sent you a message from The College of Family Physicians of Canada
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the The College of Family Physicians of Canada web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
The urgency of creating a primary care CIHR institute
Francine Lemire
Canadian Family Physician Aug 2018, 64 (8) 624;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Share
The urgency of creating a primary care CIHR institute
Francine Lemire
Canadian Family Physician Aug 2018, 64 (8) 624;
Twitter logo Facebook logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Acknowledgments
    • Footnotes
    • References
  • Figures & Data
  • eLetters
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • Le besoin urgent d’un institut des IRSC sur les soins primaires
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • Supporting the Primary Care Research Infrastructure Through Advocacy: A Reflection from the NAPCRG Research Advocacy Committee
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

College

  • Getting practical about the naive dreamers
  • Planification préalable des soins : des soins durables axés sur le patient
  • Family medicine: high standards and high value
Show more College

Cumulative Profile

  • Scope of work and the future of family practice
  • Building a family medicine movement
  • Addressing family physician shortages
Show more Cumulative Profile

Similar Articles

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
  • Collections - English
  • Collections - Française

For Authors

  • Authors and Reviewers
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Permissions
  • Terms of Use

General Information

  • About CFP
  • About the CFPC
  • Advertisers
  • Careers & Locums
  • Editorial Advisory Board
  • Subscribers

Journal Services

  • Email Alerts
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Instagram
  • RSS Feeds

Copyright © 2025 by The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Powered by HighWire