An Overview of the IMPACT Research Program
Innovative Models Promoting Access-to-Care Transformation (IMPACT) was a five-year research program that provided an opportunity to build upon Local Innovation Partnerships (LIPs) and research to co-create models of care to enhance access for vulnerable populations. LIPs were formed to represent communities with complex challenges to the delivery of primary health care. Set in three Australian states (New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria) and three Canadian provinces (Alberta, Ontario and Québec), IMPACT began by creating learning networks of decision makers, researchers, clinicians and members of vulnerable communities in the six local health regions.
Through this program, we aimed to transform primary health care organisational structures to improve access to appropriate care for vulnerable populations resulting in reduced unmet need, avoidable emergency department visits and avoidable hospitalisations for vulnerable populations. The program had four main objectives:
- To develop a network of partnerships between decision makers, researchers, clinicians and members of vulnerable communities to support the improvement of access to primary health care for vulnerable populations;
- To identify organisational, system level primary health care interventions designed to improve access to appropriate care for vulnerable populations and establish the effectiveness and scalability of the most promising organisational innovations;
- To support the selection, adaptation and implementation of organisational innovations that align with our regional partners local populations’ needs and priorities; and
- To evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency and further scalability of these organisational innovations.
The Interventions
Alberta
Local partners provided health and social services at pop-up events held in the community
New South Wales
Health checks and a web portal provided health information and service referrals to enhance patients’ ability to self-manage Type 2 diabetes
Ontario
Lay, bilingual navigators integrated into primary care practices supported patients to reach community resources
Quebec
Volunteer guides discussed the health and social needs of patients before their first appointment with a primary care physician
South Australia
Assessed the Dandelion project, which responded to the needs of residents of aged care facilities
Victoria
A health brokerage service matched patients from social service organisations to primary healthcare providers
IMPACT was supported through joint funding from the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Fonds de recherche du Québec – Santé.
For more information and additional resources visit our website at www.impactresearchprogram.com
