Immigrant Health and Cancer Screening
Beginning of initiative: April 2015
Studies show that immigrants to Canada are less likely to be screened for cancer than the non-immigrant population. The immigrant cancer screening initiative lead by a Queen’s MPH student under the supervision of Dr Eva Purkey seeks to determine screening rates for cervical cancer, colon cancer and breast cancer among the adult immigrant population at QFHT compared with the non-immigrant population. Should these rates be found to be substantially lower, as is the case in general in Canada, efforts will be made to reach this population through the implementation of culturally appropriate messaging, and outreach to community organizations, among others.
Primary Care Interventions into Poverty
Beginning of initiative: May 2015
The Ontario College of Family Physicians developed a program called Treating Poverty: a Workshop for Family Physicians. The Department of Family Medicine piloted this workshop for PGY-2 residents in May 2015, and is hoping to host it for QFHT physicians and staff as well as for community physicians in the upcoming months. DFM may partner with KFL&A to study the effectiveness of this intervention within the Kingston family medicine community.
Refugee Health Initiative
Queen’s Family Health Team (QFHT) faculty, residents and staff recognize and acknowledge the importance of responding to humanitarian situations, as well as the importance of collaborating with our community partners with the current national resettlement initiative. With this in mind, a number of QFHT physicians, along with the physicians from Kingston Community Health Centers (KCHC), and other primary care providers in the community, have agreed, when called upon, to assist refugee families to ensure they are receiving appropriate and necessary care to manage their health and prevent any worsening of health outcomes.
Understanding Patient Demographics at QFHT
In order to better target our services to our patient population, we are collecting optional information on patients' country of origin, indigenous identity, and spoken languages to be sure that we are better able to provide the care patients need.