Practice Based Research and Learning Network Advisory Committee

The goal of this committee is to inform research priorities that are of high importance to primary care practices, specifically to provide guidance on research and learning activities that involve electronic medical record data. This committee contributes to one of BC-PHCRN’s aims to make primary care electronic medical record data more accessible for:

  • Clinical practice improvement, eg. quality improvement (QI) initiatives can be implemented at a clinician and practice level using tools such as the Data Presentation Tool (DPT).
  • Communicable and non-communicable disease surveillance and management, eg. clinicians’ EMR data is cleaned using validated case definitions for 13 chronic diseases and provided back to clinicians in the DPT.
  • Health system planning, eg. facilitate the implementation of primary care networks (PCN) across the province by tracking patients’ journeys within the health care system.
  • Research, eg. linking EMR data with other sources of data such as hospital admissions or MSP billing can answer many health-related research questions. This Committee will also provide further specific guidance to the overall direction of BC-CPCSSN.

Members meet on a quarterly basis and include practicing primary care clinicians, academic clinicians, and representatives from each of the General Practices Services Committee (GPSC) and a Primary Care Network (PCN).

Committee Chair

Dr. Rita McCracken, MD, PhD is a family doctor and researcher at UBC’s Department of Family Practice and Innovation Support Unit (ISU). She is studying the family doctor shortage in BC and creating a reliable way to measure changes in the availability of primary care, when we make changes to health policy and care delivery models. Her other research work includes designing tools to change patterns of prescribing/deprescribing in order to improve patient outcomes.

Committee Members

Dr. Peter Barnsdale is a family doctor in the Fraser Valley. He studied medicine at the University of Leicester, England. Following graduation, he trained as a family physician. He became a member of the Royal College of General Practitioners in 2002 and a member of the Canadian College of Family Practitioners in 2008. Dr. Barnsdale actively supports the principals of the public health care system in Canada and works tirelessly with groups to develop and improve the way it works. Founder and first Division Lead in Mission and member of the Fraser Health leadership team, Dr. Barnsdale is enthusiastic about supporting physicians and allied care teams in the ongoing work to improve local primary and community health services.

Dr. Graham Blackburn is a settler from Kwakwaka’wakw territory near Campbell River and moved to Cowichan Territory in August 2011. Dr. Blackburn graduated from UBC’s medical school in 200 and completed a family medicine residency in Prince George in 2008. He practices family medicine at Cowichan District Hospital (CDH) and at Penelakut First Nation. He is the Division Head and Medical Lead of Family Practice at CDH and a clinical instructor with the UBC Department of Family Medicine. His areas of clinical interest include First Nations health, chronic pain, substance use disorders and mental health. He enjoys teaching medical students and family medicine residents. He is passionate about improving the accessibility and quality of health care to marginalized populations.

Dr. Jen Ellis has been the Quality Improvement and Evaluation Lead for the Kootenay Boundary Division of Family Practice for the past five years, and has worked as a project manager, facilitator, and evaluator for twenty years in the fields of health care and environmental sustainability. She holds a PhD from the University of Waterloo and a BSc from the University of Victoria.

Dr. Selena Lawrie lives and practices family medicine in Kamloops, BC. She has a passion for health system improvements, focusing on safe and holistic care. In addition to her clinical work she is Site Director of the UBC Family Practice Residency Program in Kamloops, and also serves as a board member at Interior Health.

Dr. Morgan Price, MD, PhD, CCFP, FCFP is the director of the Innovation Support Unit in the department of Family Practice at UBC, an Associate Professor in the Department of Family Practice and adjunct at University of Victoria Computer and Health Information Sciences. He is a family physician and practices in a Community Health Centre where he provides team-based care to underserved populations in inner-city Victoria. His research is in health systems change and clinical info system adoption.

Ms. Sonja Rietkerk has been a nurse practitioner (NP) in BC for the last 10 years. She has worked in a variety of settings including St. Paul’s Hospital, various community settings and international experience in Liberia and Uganda. For the majority of her NP career she provided primary care for refugees and newcomers to Canada, including working at Bridge Clinic at Evergreen Community Health Centre. She is also experienced and has a keen interest in women’s health and sexual health, and has worked at the Vancouver Women’s Health Collective in the Downtown Eastside. She is deeply committed and passionate about providing comprehensive team-based care and since Sept 2019 has been working as the Clinical Lead and NP at a new Community Health Centre – RISE – in Vancouver.