UBC Rural Chair & Rural Scholars

The role of the UBC Rural Doctors’ Chair in Rural Health is to elevate the health priorities of rural, remote and First Nations communities across BC. RCCbc’s virtual health lead Dr. John Pawlovich is the current chair. His leadership ensures there is robust rural health research, as well as education and training that meets the needs of current and future rural residents and healthcare providers.

Healthcare today is being molded by increased demands on healthcare personnel, and rapid innovation in response. Tools such as AI charting and transcription, Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) training modules, and a changing regulatory landscape have presented patients and providers with a new set of challenges as well as unique emerging opportunities.

As technologies and adjacent infrastructure continue to advance, their incorporation into the healthcare landscape is inevitable. By embracing curiosity, getting involved, and being receptive to innovation we can help shape this integration.

In this vein, I have aimed to deepen relationships with UBC Hackspace for Innovation and Visualization in Education (HIVE). HIVE’s MR and VR modules provide learners with greater hands-on resources in the early years of medical training. The Virtual Reality Anatomy and Pathology Project for example gives learners access to 3D scans of real anatomical and pathological specimens, bringing resources out of the classroom to meet students where they are at and reduce physical barriers to training. This work also led us to connect with Dr. Bernhard Hirt and his team at the Institute of Clinical Anatomy and Cell Analysis at the University of Tübingen in Germany. This connection has allowed for a valuable knowledge exchange providing Canadian and German learners with more robust training resources and opportunities.

The UBC Drone Transport Initiative (DTI), initialized in 2020, is also seeing the benefits of advancing technology and regulatory changes as it enters Phase 2. Recent changes announced by Transport Canada surrounding Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV) have opened up new opportunities for the DTI. These changes notably, the ability to fly beyond line of sight, have the potential to vastly expand the scope of this project to support the transport of medical supplies to some of BC’s most remote and resource-scare communities which were not previously accessible via drone.

As technology continues to advance and synthesize into our healthcare system it is apparent it will become a more prevalent facet of patient care. Whether this automation helps or hinders patient care will be a matter of healthcare providers getting involved in assuring appropriate integration. Through partnering with our colleagues across the healthcare landscape, and fostering proper implementation, technology can be a tool with the potential to optimize clinical time, expand educational opportunities, enhance trust and relationships between all stakeholders, and improve access to safe, high-quality, person-centered, healthcare for all British Columbians.

– Dr. John Pawlovich

In 2024, Dr. Denise Jaworsky, based in Cranbrook, was appointed as Director of the Rural Scholars Program at UBC. Dr. Jaworsky took over from Dr. Ilona Hale, who passed the torch early in 2024. The Rural Scholars Program is funded through the distributed support funds of the Rural Doctors’ UBC Chair in Rural Health provided by the Joint Standing Committee on Rural Issues in partnership with the Department of Family Practice at UBC and RCCbc. Read Dr. Jaworsky’s message below.

It has been an exciting year for the Rural Scholars program as two new scholars joined the program. Dr. Katherine Bell is a family physician in Duncan, BC and her study focuses on the experiences of intimate partner violence experienced by Canadian physicians. In this qualitative study she will interview physicians about their personal experiences with intimate partner violence, including perceived predisposing and protective factors, how participants accessed resources and how their experiences impacted their medical practices and careers. A diversity of physician perspectives will be sought, in hopes of better understanding how physicians in rural (vs urban) areas may experience intimate partner violence differently. Dr. Jenny Phillips is a family physician in Sechelt and her research focuses on the impact of the college complaint process on service delivery in rural communities. In particular, she wants to understand the impact of spurious complaints on the wellbeing of physicians in rural communities.

Our rural scholars have built interdisciplinary research teams to provide them with ongoing mentorship and increase the reach of their work. They are also receiving ongoing support from RCCbc research team members. Dr. Katherine Bell is the recipient of a RCCbc Rural Physician Scholar award. We have also partnered with the UBC Clinician Investigator Program who have invited the Rural Scholars to their academic sessions and Research in Progress seminars. Through this, our Rural Scholars have been able to advocate for the consideration of rural needs more broadly in research. 

– Dr. Denise Jaworsky

In 2025, the Rural Scholars will be attending the BC Rural Health Conference with the intention of submitting their work for presentation at the subsequent BC Rural Health Conference.