How telemedicine affected the comprehensiveness, continuity, technical quality, and equity of care

Poor access to Canadian primary care has been an ongoing challenge that is exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although telemedicine may improve access, its overall impact on health system remains dubious. The College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) would like to assess the impact of this technology while leveraging the evaluation effort to simultaneously inform its long-term national health system database initiative. This fellowship therefore aims to: 1) identify primary care performance indicators on comprehensiveness and continuity of care that can simultaneously support telemedicine evaluation, CFPC's national database development, and CFPC's Patient Medical Home initiative; 2) examine the impact of telemedicine on the comprehensiveness, continuity, technical quality, and equity of care; and 3) generate policy- and education-related recommendations for CFPC regarding telemedicine. This fellowship will first conduct scoping review of theoretically and practically useful indicators on comprehensiveness and continuity of care. I will then use a quasi-experimental method to identify the impact of telemedicine on the comprehensiveness, continuity, technical quality, and equity of care. I will then derive the appropriate policy- and education-related recommendations based on the findings. The fellowship offers opportunity to interact with various members and organizations embedded in the policymaking, education, advocacy, and academic realms. The diverse range of perspectives on the ideas, interests, institutions, and positions will help me cultivate my competencies in understanding and comparing health systems and the policy making process; dialogue and negotiation; and change management and implementation.