Rural Continuing Medical Education Community Program & Rural Programs Liaisons

The Rural Continuing Medical Education (RCME) Community Program provides funding and resources to groups of physicians — including generalists and specialists — who live and deliver care in Rural Subsidiary Agreement (RSA) communities. By supporting physicians’ collective learning needs, the program aims to improve the capacity of local health care systems to meet community needs. It does this by giving physicians more control over learning activities, reducing barriers to funding access, and strengthening relationships among health system partners.

An integral part of this work is the provincial staffing model, which includes RCME Liaisons embedded within regional health authorities and the Rural Coordination Centre of BC (RCCbc). These liaisons support rural communities in developing local RCME models and collective learning strategies.

Also supporting this effort are Rural Programs Liaisons, who contribute not only to the RCME Community Program but also to a broad portfolio of rural programs. Through engagement with rural physicians and medical leaders, they build relationships, enhance communication, and identify opportunities to support community-driven planning. Like RCME Liaisons, Rural Programs Liaisons are located across the province and operate within a co-reporting structure to both the health authorities and RCCbc, with accountability to the Joint Standing Committee (JSC) on Rural Issues.

Drew Baird, Provincial Manager RCME and Rural Programs, at the RCME Leaders Gathering in October 2024.

“CME has been pretty amazing for our community. […] Through all the funding, our little team actually gets to practice on site with equipment, with our local contacts, bringing our paramedics and nurses. We’re feeling much more confident as a team because of being able to run the courses on site.”

Dr. Breanne Abbot, Dease Lake

Achievements

Strengthened Relationships Between RCME Staff and Leaders

The RCME Community Program successfully re-established an important conference for RCME liaison staff, local RCME Coordinators, community physician leads, and JSC-funded staff.

Prior to 2021, the Doctors of BC CPD Nucleus Committee held an annual networking event to foster advocacy and collaboration among CME/CPD leaders in BC. This initiative was vital for strengthening the connections within the medical education community.

The Rural CME Leaders Gathering was held on October 8, 2024, in Vancouver, BC, organized in partnership with UBC Rural CPD. The one-day event proved to be an excellent opportunity to support the ongoing development of rural medical education across the province. This gathering both strengthened existing relationships and reinvigorated participants, energizing future learning and growth in the field. By bringing together a diverse group of professionals, the event helped lay the groundwork for continued innovation and progress in rural healthcare education.

Successes from the event included:

Facilitating communication between CME/CPD stakeholders.
Reviewing RCME needs and addressing educational gaps.
Generating recommendations for program improvements.
Creating networks amongst physicians and coordinators who are facing similar circumstances.

Comprehensive Planning for the Northern Isolation and Travel Assistance Outreach Program

Throughout the calendar year the Rural Programs Liaison positions have continued to expand their portfolios within the respective health authority teams. A major focus of this year has been collaboration and formal engagement with First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) Primary Care Managers for each region during the planning of the Northern Isolation and Travel Assistance Outreach Program (NITAOP).

The Rural Program’s Liaison team successfully navigated this change, preparing all NITAOP fiscal 2026 plans for review by the JSC ahead of the November 2024 meeting. This work has led to increased engagement, more comprehensive NITAOP plans being submitted and more accurate NITAOP budget projections being submitted. This will result in more physician visits to First Nations communities in fiscal 2025/26, and reduced travel for patients who require urgent services.

“The impact of having a subject matter expert who can serve as a coordinating point of contact to quickly and efficiently transmit information between organizations and decision makers enables NITAOP to function as intended and meet its overall objective” – Brendan Stewart, Senior Manager, Rural Programs, Ministry of Health

Brought Learning Opportunities to New Locations

The RCME Community Program has had a successful year of hosting virtual and in-person CME/CPD activities.

This was accomplished by promoting and hosting multi-community education, and funding the supports and structures required to execute local RCME models.

The program continued to bring education opportunities into new locations throughout the year. This was highlighted by:

EDE Level 1 Bootcamp in Prince George
- - The EDE courses are the most widely taught and refined programs of their kind in Canada. Prince George is the first RSA community in the North to host EDE Level 1 Bootcamp.
A scheduled date for The CARE Course to be hosted on Pender Island for the first time. This course is a collaboration between Pender, Mayne and Galiano Island.
A Trauma Resuscitation in Kids (TriK) two-day training course was held in the Northern Health region for the first time.
BREATHE Course will be held on Bowen Island for the first time.

By hosting these local CME activities in community, physicians are more engaged in their education and able to network in-person, supporting overall retention. This work increases learning capacity, enables stronger cross coverage and collaboration.

Explore the numbers

7 New physician leads

In 2024, the RCME Community Fund Program onboarded 7 new community physician leads.

14 SPIFI Funded projects

The Specialist, Sub-specialty, Indigenous and Funding for Innovation (SPIFI) program approved 14 projects, with up to $10,000 for each, across four health authorities covering 22 communities.

Making a Difference

While at the RCME Leaders Gathering in October, several attendees spoke to the positive impact that CME has had on rural communities.

Dr. Fern Vonderporten said that “making resources available for physicians to continue their education in a rural specific setting with information that is applicable to us […] to actually perform a SIMS program and be able to administer CME education at home,” has had a positive impact on their work in Whistler, BC.

“One course that really stood out for me recently was The CARE Course […] it’s just a really really, fun, relevant course. You run it and everybody’s engaged, it applies to your practice. [Participants said] ‘We learned a lot, but we grew as a community, as a medical community […] and had a great time.’ So, to me, that is what CME is all about.”

Nicole Hochleitner, RCME Liaison for Interior

Plans for the Future

In the coming year, the RCME Community Program will continue building relationships with rural doctors and will use valuable input from the Provincial Rural CME Leaders Gathering. An area of focus in the coming year will be to identify less engaged communities and create an engagement strategy to visit these communities or create a stronger line of connection into local MSA and planning meetings. Additionally, the RCME Liaison team plan to partner with UBC Rural CPD to pilot a Community Learning Plan designed specifically for rural healthcare teams, building on lessons learned from the Personal Learning Plan (PLP) format to help communities plan their education.

On the Rural Programs side; the focus will be on rebuilding the liaison team and further mobilizing the NITAOP resources to bring specialist services into remote communities. The team will focus on strengthening relationships with the relevant Regional FNHA Primary Care Managers, Ministry of Health Physician Services and community contacts to increase the accuracy and impact of NITAOP visit.