Grant: SPOR Networks in Chronic Disease - LOI

Multimorbidity, the co-occurrence of two or more chronic diseases in an individual, has become the norm in the Canadian healthcare system. The number of patients with multimorbidity seen by primary care practitioners is growing rapidly. These individuals often have poorer outcomes and greater healthcare use and costs than individuals with only a single chronic disease. Practitioners and policy makers tend to approach multimorbid patients one disease at a time, rather than considering the potential for interactions amongst multiple chronic diseases. Optimal approaches to treat and manage patients with multimorbidity and using health technology innovations to improve the health and well-being of these patients, are not well understood by practitioners and decision makers. The ePRISM Network is a pan-Canadian initiative built on the established structure of the Canadian Primary Care Sentinel Surveillance System (CPCSSN). CPCSSN collects health information from the electronic medical records (EMRs) of more than 800,000 primary care patients; it uses this information to describe the burden of chronic disease in the Canadian population and to improve primary care practice. CPCSSN provides a platform for the ePRISM Network to meet the challenge of multimorbidity in Canadian patients in unique and innovative ways. The Network will use the power of the rich clinical data contained in EMRs to develop a patient-focused research agenda about multimorbidity measurement, patient health outcomes, and health information technology innovations, and will work with healthcare providers, patients, and decision makers to translate this research into practice. It will examine the role of socio-demographic and gender factors for describing the onset and progression of multimorbidity in the Canadian population. The ePRISM Network's research, KT, and training environment will lead to improvements in the health and well-being of Canadians with multimorbidity.