A Closer look at Ontario’s Northern and Southern Rural

Physicians

Northern Health Research ConferenceJune 4 & 5, 2010

Elizabeth Wenghofer, PhDRaymond W. Pong, PhD

Patrick Timony, MA

Research Objective

• Examine differences in physician populations between rural and urban regions of the northern and southern areas of the province

Study Design

• Descriptive secondary data analysis

• Data from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario (CPSO) 2007Annual Membership Renewal (98% response rate)

• Ethical approval was granted by the Laurentian University Research Ethics Board.

Study Population

• 22,688 Physicians General practitioners

College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC)

Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC)

Primary practice address in Ontario

Active, independent practice

CPSO Annual Survey

• Active practice• Practice Address(es)• Hospital appointments• Language of practice• Accepting new patients• Clinical activities (% of time)• Practice description (hours worked,

number of patient visits)• Continuing medical education

Northern-Southern Definitions

Urban-Rural Definitions• Urban:

Located within a Statistics Canada defined CMA or CA.

• Rural: Strong MIZ: ≥30% of the employed labour force living in

the CSD works in any CMA/CA urban core. Moderate MIZ: ≥5%, but ≤30%, of the employed

labour force living in the CSD works in any CMA/CA urban core.

Weak MIZ: > 0%, but < 5%, of the employed labour force living in the CSD works in any CMA/CA urban core.

No MIZ: includes all the CSDs that have a small employed labour force (< 40 people), as well as any CSD that has no commuters to a CMA/CA urban core (that is, none of the employed labour force living in the municipality works in any CMA/CA urban core).

Regions

Summary

• Differences between NORTH & SOUTH

• Differences also with increasing rurality

• RURAL ≠ NORTHERN

• South RURAL ≠ North RURAL

Next Steps

• Accepting new patients into primary care practices Masters project to be completed in 2010

• Clinical practice activities by specialty scope of practice differences

• Continuing education/professional development activities

Acknowledgements

• Many thanks to the CPSO for providing access to their Annual Survey Data

• Funding for this study was provided by the Laurentian University Research Fund

A Closer look at Ontario’s Northern and Southern Rural

Physicians

Northern Health Research ConferenceJune 4 & 5, 2010

Elizabeth Wenghofer, PhDRaymond W. Pong, PhD

Patrick Timony, MA