title: Primary health care in Canada: systems in motion.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  During the 1980s and 1990s, innovations in the organization, funding, and delivery of primary health care in Canada were at the periphery of the system rather than at its core. In the early 2000s, a new policy environment emerged.
  
  
  METHODS
  This policy analysis examines primary health care reform efforts in Canada during the last decade, drawing on descriptive information from published and gray literature and from a series of semistructured interviews with informed observers of primary health care in Canada.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Primary health care in Canada has entered a period of potentially transformative change. Key initiatives include support for interprofessional primary health care teams, group practices and networks, patient enrollment with a primary care provider, financial incentives and blended-payment schemes, development of primary health care governance mechanisms, expansion of the primary health care provider pool, implementation of electronic medical records, and quality improvement training and support.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Canada's experience suggests that primary health care transformation can be achieved voluntarily in a pluralistic system of private health care delivery, given strong government and professional leadership working in concert.
authors.affiliation: hutchb@mcmaster.ca
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Hutchison
authors.forename: Jean-Frederic
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Levesque
authors.forename: Erin
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Strumpf
authors.forename: Natalie
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Coyle
mesh_terms: D002170:Canada; D018166:Health Care Reform / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006291:Health Policy; D006301:Health Services Needs and Demand / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006801:Humans; D007348:Insurance, Health; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D009313:National Health Programs / Q000458:organization & administration; D009936:Organizational Innovation; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*