News

ICN Welcomes New Board Members

At our June 2023 Annual General Meeting, ICN welcomed four new Board members and for the first time since our founding in 2015, a new Board Chair.  ICN is pleased to welcome Stephen Samis as Board Chair.  Stephen relocated to Edmonton one year ago after working across Canada in health policy areas for many years.

Read more

ICN’s Post Election Message

Imagine Citizens Network would like to take this opportunity to congratulate Premier Smith and the United Conservative Party on their victory in our recent provincial election. We would like to congratulate Rachel Notley and the New Democratic Party for their successes as well as all candidates who stepped up in the election to serve Albertans.

The new government has a mandate to pursue, over the next four years, improvements that will move us toward the goals of a more prosperous, generous and equitable province. Both major parties campaigned to improve healthcare in many key areas, and Premier Smith talked about making Alberta’s healthcare system the best in the world. That is a goal that ICN is fully committed to working collaboratively to achieve. 

Read more

Giving Day – Make a Gift Today

Imagine Citizens Network, in partnership with the O’Brien Institute for Public Health at the University of Calgary, is thrilled to invite you to participate in Giving Day. Your donation will be doubled thanks to matching funds from the University!

Last year, we saw an incredible demand for our citizen engagement services. We are proud to be a trusted and respected organization that brings citizen perspectives to the forefront.

Read more

Engaging Albertans on Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System

Imagine Citizens Network (ICN) has been working with Albertans to capture what matters most to them about primary healthcare and share these insights with the Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) initiative. The goal is to identify immediate and long-term improvements that can build on Alberta’s many primary health care successes. 

ICN engaged with 32 Albertans from across the province to identify guiding principles that reflect people’s values regarding the redesign and delivery of primary care programs, services, and care.

Read more

Addressing the Social Determinants of Health – Modernizing Primary Health and Care

This is the third story in our series Modernizing Primary Health and Care where we share the recommendations we provided to Alberta Health’s Modernizing Alberta’s Primary Health Care System (MAPS) initiative.

Our health is shaped by a complex set of factors, including genetics, lifestyle choices, environment, and social determinants of health. Social determinants of health refer to a wide range of social, economic, and environmental factors that affect our health, such as income, housing, education, and discrimination.

Read more

Advice to the National Roundtable on Primary Care

Last fall, Judy Birdsell, ICN’s Board Chair, had the rare opportunity to meet and hear from leaders in Primary Care from other parts of Canada at the invitation of The Honourable Jean-Yves Duclos, Minister of Health.

“This was an invaluable experience, not only to have ICN’s voice at a national table, but to meet ten other exemplary leaders in Primary Healthcare from across Canada,” says Judy. “This opportunity has enabled connections with several individuals at the roundtable.”

With input from ICN members, we brought the following key messages to the Roundtable:

Read more

Focusing on Community – Modernizing Primary Health and Care

While a citizen-centred approach to health is essential, many factors beyond an individual and his/her family impact health. Health is a community accomplishment. Structural and social community assets such as easily accessible recreation facilities, green spaces, employment opportunities, affordable housing, safe roads, faith-based and cultural organizations, and service clubs are examples that contribute to health outcomes.

Read more

Healthy Aging in Alberta – Measuring What Matters 

The recent Healthy Aging in Alberta: Measuring What Matters project led by Imagine Citizens Network, in partnership with Alberta Health Services (AHS) and the University of Alberta, was a unique opportunity for citizens to help AHS identify the most important measures of quality in its work with seniors, continuing-care clients, and their supporting caregivers to improve health, well-being and independence. 

Read more

Becoming Citizen-Centred – Modernizing Primary Health and Care

At Imagine Citizens Network, we believe citizen-centred care should be a priority in reforming Alberta’s primary health system. 

Citizen-centred care considers the individual in the context of their life, their environment and social context and the opportunities life has afforded or limited, and the health and community options available in them. This needs to be the starting point for primary health: the understanding of the context in which the citizen lives. 

Read more

Digital Health – What is it and why it matters 

We are on the cusp of unprecedented change in the way health services are delivered, personalized, accessed, and funded. The rapid growth in connected personal health services, devices, and data is creating opportunities to re-imagine aspects of healthcare access and delivery, personal health and fitness, and health data.   

Read more

Who Should Own Our Health Information? 

As healthcare becomes increasingly reliant on technology, questions about who owns health information and how it is accessed become increasingly important. Understanding where data is stored, how it is accessed, and who is responsible for safeguarding it are at the centre of the digital health evolution. According to Dr. Ewan Affleck, “information is the currency of care.” Personal health data is an enabler of patient safety, better health outcomes and reduced harm.  

Read more

Educating Future Healthcare Leaders: ICN Brings the Patient Voice

Last summer, Imagine Citizens Network (ICN) was invited to participate in the new transdisciplinary Precision Health program at the Cumming School of Medicine (University of Calgary) which brings together future healthcare leaders, entrepreneurs, and educators to improve patient care. Precision health is a new and innovative approach to healthcare delivery. It’s tailored to a patient’s genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors and, as the name implies, it is aimed at keeping people healthy by personalizing the prevention and treatment of individuals “precisely”.

Read more

Health Equity: The Vision for a Fairer and Healthier World

As September signals the start of the formal academic year, students from all communities across Canada prepare for the year of learning ahead. Yet significant cultural variations may emerge to illustrate the diversities and dynamism of the student group as a whole. Equity raises awareness about these important variations with reference to fair access and participation in basic needs such as health and education, to transform social systems that serve everyone equally within their unique contexts.

Read more

Supporting Newcomer Communities to Improve Their Own Healthcare

Several years ago, ICN and other patient-partnered organizations initiated the iKnow Health project to help people in Alberta understand how healthcare works, how to navigate and advocate for themselves, and how to apply their rights. While that project was designed to reach a wide population with its online guide Healthcare Basics for Albertans, we knew there were significant additional challenges for rural and minority/marginalized communities. To better understand these challenges, we partnered with the Alberta International Medical Graduates Association (AIMGA) to support volunteer Connectors to host seven conversations about healthcare in newcomer communities in Alberta.

Read more

Healthy Aging in Alberta: measuring what matters

If you are 65 and older or care about someone who is, add your voice to Alberta Health Service’s (AHS) strategic planning!

ICN is partnering with AHS to connect with Albertans to identify the most important measures of quality in AHS’s work with older adults and their supporting caregivers.

Read more

Giving Day 2022

Imagine Citizens Network, through our relationship with O’Brien Institute of Public Health at the University of Calgary, is inviting you to participate in Giving Day – our most significant donor campaign of the year. Your gift will go twice as far with the matching funds offered by the University.

Last year marked a turning point in our evolution. Since our inception seven years ago, we have been a volunteer powered organization. Last year we received a donation of $150,000 ($50,000 over three years) allowing us to begin to hire core staff.

In the coming year, we will continue to build our foundation (technology infrastructure, staffing and funding) as well as focus on two key initiatives:

Read more

Safe Spaces for Patient Storytelling

This is the second in a series of articles about Patient Storytelling. 

Patients share their health care stories in public for many reasons: fundraising purposes, media exposure, advocacy efforts, and to educate or to support quality improvement projects. We even tell a version of our stories when we simply submit a biography or introduce ourselves at a meeting.  

 I’ve had many experiences writing and speaking my own story as the mom of a young man with Down syndrome and as a recent breast cancer patient. I’ve spoken with the media for advocacy campaigns, explained parts of my story at committee meetings, lectured at grand rounds and presented at health conferences. Most of these experiences have been positive, but some have gone side-ways.  

Read more

The Power of Patient Stories

This is the first in a series of articles about the power of patient stories.

“I tried all sorts of storytelling to write my way through my cancer. I wrote in my journal. I handwrote in the variety of little notebooks that I carried around with me. I typed out thoughts on my phone. I texted myself…” -Bird’s Eye View book

Read more

Digital Story Initiative: Child & Youth Mental Health

Stories matter in healthcare and they promote citizen engagement in health and care issues. Early this year, we embarked on a project to produce five digital stories with our Child & Youth Mental Health group.

Digital storytelling through its use of photos, participant voices and music can meaningfully capture and share poignant personal stories. With a skilled facilitator, it’s a highly effective approach to share lived experience while also empowering storytellers and promoting and protecting their wellbeing. With the storyteller’s permission, these stories are then used to initiate conversations on issues that are of concern to the storyteller.

Read more

Who is the Captain of the Care Team?

Amateur and professional athletes agree that there is little that compares to the joy of participating on a highly functioning team. Interestingly, the same applies in healthcare. 

It was a special experience for me as a practicing Nephrologist (now retired) to participate as a team member in a clinic devoted to the treatment of patients with chronic kidney disease, some of whom were headed to chronic dialysis. The culture in this clinic was all about the team: nurse practitioners, dieticians, social workers, pharmacists, doctors and patients working together. Every healthcare provider was there to meet the needs of the patient, as defined by the patient, during every visit. As the doctor, I was just one team member, no more important than any other. And the captain of the team? That was the patient.  

Read more

What You Permit You Promote

This aphorism is useful in many settings, including when talking about person-centred care (PCC) and about patient engagement, without which PCC will never achieve its promise.  It’s relevant because when communities and citizens continue to accept non-person-centred healthcare, they are effectively promoting non-engagement.

Read more

Person-Centred Care in Precision Health

Imagine Citizens Network (ICN) has started collaborating with the Cumming School of Medicine as they launch a new program called Precision Health[1]. The first course of the four streams launched this August.  The first course was designed as a Foundations block-week where all participants came together.  Central to the planning for that block week was the emphasis on patient-centred care, as a means of embedding a shift in thinking from the ‘expert’ model of health care to involvement of the patient as a partner in their care.

Read more

The Crazy Slow Adoption of Person-Centred Care

There is an adoption problem with the concept of person-centred care (PCC). The precepts of this concept were detailed almost 30 years ago, and it has been vigorously promoted ever since. And while a commitment to PCC can be found on every Canadian health system website, it’s struggling to gain traction in what continues to be a discouragingly provider-driven healthcare system. What’s afoot? Why the crazy slow adoption of PCC?

Read more

We are now Imagine Citizens Network!

IMAGINE Citizens has refreshed its brand to become Imagine Citizens Network (ICN)!  Our new name and bold new logo will better support us in building awareness of who we are and what we’re about as we continue to grow our presence in Alberta. We are indeed a network of health citizens, community partners, health-oriented organizations and innovators aimed at transforming health and care in Alberta.

Read more

True Co-Design for Patient Guide

“I just assumed my family doctor was aware.”

This is a common assumption amongst Albertans who have needed care outside of that received from their primary care physician. Unfortunately, this is often not the case due to a lack of continuity of information flow between hospitals and primary care providers.

The good news is that a dynamic team of patients, the Patient Transitions Resources team, are working hard alongside the Primary Health Care Integration Network to effect meaningful change on the system by improving the experience and outcome for all Albertans.

Read more

The Power of Storytelling

Amateur and professional athletes agree that there is little that compares to the joy of participating on a highly functioning team. Interestingly, the same applies in healthcare. 

It was a special experience for me as a practicing Nephrologist (now retired) to participate as a team member in a clinic devoted to the treatment of patients with chronic kidney disease, some of whom were headed to chronic dialysis. The culture in this clinic was all about the team: nurse practitioners, dieticians, social workers, pharmacists, doctors and patients working together. Every healthcare provider was there to meet the needs of the patient, as defined by the patient, during every visit. As the doctor, I was just one team member, no more important than any other. And the captain of the team? That was the patient.  

Read more

Falling Through the Cracks: Greg’s Story

IMAGINE Citizens Collaborating for Health was honoured to collaborate with Greg’s Wings to host a virtual screening and discussion of Falling Through the Cracks: Greg’s Story. The event on November 25, 2020, united 24 viewers from across Alberta and other provinces.

Read more

IMAGINE COVID Survey Findings

In late August to mid-September 2020, IMAGINE Citizens conducted a brief survey of people in or connected to our community about citizen involvement in future pandemic planning and decision-making.

Read more

The input of everyday Albertans made a difference

A year ago, IMAGINE Citizens Collaborating for Health completed a project in which we had an in-depth conversation with 28 Albertans over the course of several months on two topics that were top of mind to Alberta Health (government ministry responsible for health).

Read more

MyHealth Record

The Government of Alberta has recently launched a new portal that makes it possible for Albertans to access some of our health information online. This is a first important step toward making our complete health record a tool for us to use to ensure our care is seamless and effective.

Read more

Citizens for Digital Health

IMAGINE is excited to launch a new project called Citizens for Digital Health. Through this initiative, we will connect citizens with digital health innovators. Canada

Read more

Healthcare 101

Last year, IMAGINE Citizens Collaborating for Health and our partners saw a need to build an introduction course for Albertans to help us all to

Read more

IMAGINE turns 1!

One year ago today, a group of like-minded patient, family and citizen champions partnered with the O’Brien Institute for Public Health to host a forum

Read more

Patients, the Right Medicine for Health Care

Patients have known for a long time the healthcare system could be doing more to address their fears, concerns and needs. Now, a federal investigation into the state of the Canadian healthcare system has given weighty validity to those concerns.

Read more