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The Physician Champion Blueprint

This section outlines the AMA support plan for physician champions who concentrate their efforts on clinic level change and transformation. This is intended to be a living document to reflect the ongoing development of content and approaches.

Key Definitions of Physician Champions

The health transformation workforce are practice facilitators and physician champions with the defined role and skill to work with community care practices to help them with their incremental transformation toward a Patient’s Medical Home integrated with the Health Neighbourhood. 

A physician who sees the intrinsic value of the health care transformation approach and actively engages their peers in this work.  Physician champions (PCs) are often early adopters of new approaches to practice change and influence others to participate in these changes.  Successful physician champions are characterized by being persuasive, credible, and relatable.

A physician who has been formally engaged to inform, educate, consult with, and empower peers and system stakeholders by exhibiting a strong commitment to the vision for change. A physician leader should demonstrate a clear vision for change and health system transformation using evidence-based principles.

The Blueprint Components

  1. Organizational Commitment

    The AMA is committed to supporting Clinic Level Physician Champions as a key resource to achieving Patient’s Medical Home and Health Neighbourhood implementation.

     

     

  2. Identify & Recruit

    The identification and recruitment of Clinic Level Physician Champions is predominantly the scope of the PCN or clinic.  The AMA supports these groups with identification and recruitment through evidence support.

    Physician Champion Literature Summary

    A summary of the evidence describing what a physician champion is; what role they play in the system; what skills and competencies are required of a successful physician champion; and what impact physician champions have on the system.

    Physician Champion Research Paper – full report – three-page summary

    The goal of this pilot study was to build an understanding of primary care Physician Champions in Alberta. Specifically, internal members of AMA-ACTT, and select senior Physician Champions were asked - what makes an effective primary care Physician Champions?

  3. Develop

    The AMA focus on the development of Clinic Level Physician Champions is at the macro level, where it is efficient and pragmatic to take a provincial approach. This includes defining Physician Champion competencies, creating and curating opportunities to build competencies, and providing networking opportunities for Physician Champions from across the province to connect.

    Physician Leadership Network

    Alberta Physicians who are interested in connecting and learning with their peers on their Patient’s Medical Home implementation and building leadership skills are invited to join the Physician Leadership Network. The Network meets approximately every six weeks for an hour; the program is also accredited.

    Alberta Primary Care Explained (online module)

    The Primary Care Explained course provides an overview of primary care in Alberta and the Patient's Medical Home and Health Neighbourhood model. It will take approximately 1.5 hours to complete the course. The course can be completed all at once or it can be completed section by section and you can refer back to this course as often as needed. It has been specifically designed for primary care physicians, clinical team members, and practice facilitators in Alberta.

    Opioid Process Improvements Training (online module)

    This course was designed to help physicians and team members implement practice changes that improve care for patients who use opioids. It will take approximately 4 hours to complete the course. The course can be completed all at once or it can be completed section by section and you can refer back to this course as often as needed. It has been specifically designed for primary care physicians, clinical team members, and practice facilitators in Alberta. This self-learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Alberta Chapter for up to 4 Mainpro+ credits.

    One Nail at a Time - Patient’s Medical Home Podcast Series

    This made in Alberta podcast series interviews physicians, leaders, and others from across Alberta (and beyond!) about their journeys building Patient's Medical Homes. Just as a house is not built or renovated overnight, creating a Patient's Medical Home takes time and planning. ‘One Nail at a Time’ highlights stories, strategies, and tips for making incremental changes toward PMH transformation.

  4. Deploy

    This section of the blueprint outlines the approaches and methods to support the deployment of the change agent into the field.  As with the other steps in the blueprint, the AMA is involved in the deployment of the change agent to varying degrees.  The deployment content is intended to provide consistent tools and approaches to the work of implementing the Patient's Medical Home and Health Neighbourhood.

  5. Progress & Retain

    Training and development resources for Clinic Level Physician Champions are in the ‘Develop’ section of this Blueprint.  In this section the focus is on options for the advanced development of Physician Champions through the broadening of learning and sharing opportunities beyond their local PCN geography.

Physician Champions are key change agents in the Alberta Primary Care and Health Neighbourhood transformation journey. Where many inpiduals working in the primary care system can choose to engage as a change agent, by the very nature of their role Physician Champions are change agents, often partnered with Practice Facilitators to achieve meaningful improvement. Please see the accompanying literature summaries Evidence for Physician Champions and Evidence for Physician Champions and Practice Facilitators Working as a Dyad.

There is strong evidence that physician champions positively impact the transformation we seek in health care. These impacts include:

  • Demonstrated influence on the engagement and buy-in of their peers for an innovation
  • Increase the likelihood of provider implementation of an innovation
  • Improved quality of care
  • Help change the culture of the organization and increase its capacity for change

A local research study published in 2019, Scaling Up - A Principled Approach for Primary Care Transformation in Alberta, describes how to innovations like the Patient’s Medical Home to scale. Foundational in the study is the Diffusion of Innovations theory, which is a longstanding body of literature across many industries, including health care. The study focuses on a particular phenomenon referred to as the “valley of death”; the point innovations commonly fail to spread to the wider population. To take an innovation to scale, the valley must be bridged so the tipping point can be reached. This transition requires engagement of most the early majority, who tend to think differently about change compared to innovators and early adopters who successfully demonstrate the innovation.

A number of characteristics were identified amongst early majority physicians when taking on new ways of working.

  • Prefer and are more willing to take up change in small incremental steps
  • Are open to change but will not "swim upstream"
  • Typically need the idea brought to them by someone they know and trust
  • Are open to trying evidence-based changes that positively impact patient care and/or clinical operations
  • Value support that is easy to access when needed
  • Tend to need help to “see the bigger picture,” e.g., how the improvement they’re working on is connected to other pieces that feed into the PMH vision 

Physician Champions, working alongside Practice Facilitators, can win over the early majority by speaking a language they understand through addressing the characteristics head on.

With the strong and growing evidence for Physician Champions as a lever for transformation, the AMA commitment to supporting these change agents continues grows along with it.