Complexity of medical needs and primary care attachment shape patient experiences with episodic virtual primary care: a mixed methods study in two Canadian provinces
Rebecca H. Correia, Emran Hasan, François Gallant, Shelley Doucet, Tara Kiran, Lauren Lapointe-Shaw, A. Luke MacNeill, Rachel Thelen, Stephanie Welton, Julie Easley, Agnes Grudniewicz, Lindsay Hedden, M. Ruth Lavergne · 2026
Read Complexity of medical needs and primary care attachment shape patient experiences with episodic virtual primary care: a mixed methods study in two Canadian provinces by Rebecca H. Correia, Emran Hasan, François Gallant, Shelley Doucet, Tara Kiran, Lauren Lapointe-Shaw, A. Luke MacNeill, Rachel Thelen, Stephanie Welton, Julie Easley, Agnes Grudniewicz, Lindsay Hedden, M. Ruth Lavergne (2026) in the Tower of Babel, a free online library of public-domain works preserved in clean, searchable text. No sign-up. The full text is served as a plain-text file at a predictable URL, where text is present: https://antarctic-labs.com/tower-of-babel/PMC13551714.txt.
Description
Rebecca H. Correia, leading twelve colleagues, published a 2026 mixed-methods study of episodic virtual primary care in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada. Such services offer quick online visits without an ongoing clinician relationship. The team surveyed adult users about access, medical complexity, and experience, then analyzed free-text answers alongside the numbers, comparing people with and without a regular clinician.
Most users felt virtual care met their needs, yet survey scores looked rosier than written comments. People lacking a regular clinician, and those with more complex needs, rated experiences less favorably and more often sought help for chronic problems or prescription renewals. Some disliked the technology and preferred in-person care, so the authors call virtual care a partial gap filler.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Rebecca H. Correia, Emran Hasan, François Gallant, Shelley Doucet, Tara Kiran, Lauren Lapointe-Shaw, A. Luke MacNeill, Rachel Thelen, Stephanie Welton, Julie Easley, Agnes Grudniewicz, Lindsay Hedden, M. Ruth Lavergne |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 49170 |
| LICENSE | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |