ArticleBMC primary care2026
Virtual care as deployed to improve access to primary health care in three Canadian provinces: a policy focused qualitative study.
Article in BMC primary care, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAs the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the uptake of virtual primary care (VPC) in Canada, debates over how it ought to be encouraged or discouraged, governed and paid for have intensified. Within these debates there has been little attention paid to the details of which technologies are being deployed to deliver VPC and how those technologies interact with non-technical factors to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
methodsThe aims of the study included drawing out pragmatic considerations for policy makers by identifying the various constellations of VPC technology that are being deployed; characterizing how key informants see them working and to what purpose; and describing how those technologies are interacting with non-technical factors to shape success. 29 qualitative interviews were conducted with mid-level VPC experts from the provinces of Alberta, Nova Scotia, and Ontario.
resultsKey informants saw a broad range of VPC technologies as improving access to primary care by increasing efficiency and coordination. They deployed VPC to improve the accessibility, availability, and accommodativeness of care. They described VPC technologies interacting with and relying on: human efforts, funding models, and the institutional contexts for their success.
conclusionsPolicy-makers seeking to optimize VPC will want to consider ways to support not just purchases of technology, but: the human effort required to choose and manage technology; the funding mechanisms that incentivize the efficient use technology; and the institutional contexts and cultures that underpin access improvements through technology.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.