Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Objective: To develop annotated maps of primary care services and population health characteristics across geographic community areas of the city of Winnipeg with two purposes 1) to assist administrators, providers, and communities in the development of Primary Care Primary Care Networks 2)to assist in building relationships and partnerships with family physicians. Methods: Overall, a collaborative approach to the development of the tools was adopted to maximize the utilization of the tools in planning, and involved researchers and decision makers working together. Geospatial maps communicated this information in an integrated and visual way and allow for comparisons of the geographic distribution of population health in a community (i.e where the services are needed) with the geographic distribution of primary care services (i.e. where the services are provided). Results: 3 interlinked tools were developed culminating in the creation of a series of maps illustrating primary care services and population health needs within community areas in the Winnipeg Health Region using GIS mapping technology. First, a database of family physicians and practices was developed. Second, several practice characteristics were identified (e.g., number of physicians per practice),and added to the database for targeted reporting. Third, population health indicators were identified from the Community Health Assessment and overlaid onto the maps. Decision makers predict that the visual depiction of community-based resources and population health issues will inspire focused dialogue and priority setting for services at the local level between family physicians and the RHA Conclusion: The database and community area maps will increase the potential use of the tools by health planners, providers and community for Primary Care Network Development.