Alberta Innovates- Health Solutions - Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research

David Moores is on administrative leave from his full-time job as professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. His mid-career decision to pursue research training is an opportunity to seize now what was not readily available to him before.

"I represent the typical family doc in Canada and the typical academic family doc in Canada, in that my medical education program didn't allow for research training. Canada has the shortest postgraduate education and training program in the world for general practice-just two years. Most of us try and pick up bits and pieces here, there, and anywhere."

Dr. Moores has always been interested in primary care research, focussing on health care delivered by family physicians, particularly in the area of organization and service. Issues such as physician remuneration and the organization of primary care in Canada are real-life challenges for him and all family physicians.

While at a conference in England last year, Dr. Moores looked into research training opportunities. Because the National Health Service in Britain is one of the oldest organized health systems in the world-it was started in 1948--Dr. Moores found a wealth of academic training opportunities in primary care research.

With the support of Dr. Lorne Tyrrell, Dean of Medicine at the University of Alberta, Dr. Moores successfully applied to AHFMR for a Career Renewal Award to start his training. He has already completed three of the six one-week modules at the University of Birmingham that will be interspersed throughout the year. These short courses will give him solid training in research methods before he embarks on a year-long research project beginning in the summer of 2000.

There are at least five different subjects Dr. Moores wants to pursue as research topics-including accountability frameworks for family physicians not affiliated with hospitals. "Right now, there isn't a simple answer to the question: 'How many family docs are there in the Capital Health Region?' That's because the term 'family doctor' is interpreted in different ways by different governing bodies. The estimated 500 to 600 physicians in the Capital Health Region who do not have direct ties to the region still use its services and resources by ordering tests and prescribing drugs. But we do not have any type of accountability framework in place to calculate the impact of these doctors on costs and effectiveness of care."

Dr. Moores comments, "Health services research makes a lot of sense for most family docs because we like to know that what we do or don't do truly makes a difference."

Dr. David Moores is a Professor and Chair of Family Medicine at the University of Alberta. His research is supported by a Career Renewal award from AHFMR.

For more information about AHFMR's Career Renewal Grant, please check here