Addressing Social Isolation in Primary Care using Digital Patient Engagement
The COVID-19 pandemic revolutionized healthcare delivery, emphasizing the need for digital platforms to optimize patient engagement and outreach. As primary care providers adopt these tools, it is crucial to assess their effectiveness in improving healthcare integration, accessibility, and patient experience. The Canadian Primary Care Information Network (CPIN) offers a scalable, practice-based solution for engaging patients in small, independent primary care practices where most care and care coordination occur.
The Brain-Heart Interconnectome (BHI) Social Isolation project evaluates the implementation of CPIN to measure and improve patient experience in healthcare integration and access, while piloting its use for addressing social isolation—a risk factor for brain and heart conditions—among seniors.
Recruitment Process
We will opportunistically recruit at least 20 primary care providers across Canada to deploy CPIN. Providers will use CPIN to send outreach messages and questionnaires to their adult patients, capturing data on patient experiences with healthcare integration, preferred sources of health information, unmet information needs, and engagement with tailored health messages.
A sub-study will focus on CPIN’s potential to reduce social isolation in seniors by connecting patients with community resources. Eligible patients will be recruited from 20 practices in the Ontario province, including the Archipel and Grand River Ontario Health Teams. Practices will be financially compensated for their involvement in the project. Focus groups with patients and advisory groups will inform the design and evaluation of health messages. Providers will complete surveys on CPIN’s utility, and qualitative data will be analyzed using thematic analysis. Quantitative survey data will be analyzed descriptively and compared by patient characteristics, aggregated across providers.
Expected Outcomes
The study will generate insights into CPIN’s effectiveness in improving routine practice operations, patient engagement, and access to tailored information. The sub-study will evaluate CPIN’s impact on reducing social isolation among seniors, with downstream effects on brain and heart health, by linking patient data to health administrative records.
CPIN offers a scalable, low-burden approach for enhancing patient engagement and addressing social isolation in primary care. Outcomes include a virtual library of patient-rated health messages and an integrated framework for aligning CPIN with regional health system governance.