About SPARK RPh
We are interested in leveraging the unique frontline position of community pharmacies to screen for the SDoH using the SPARK tool - a novel use of the Tool in Canada. Crucial to this expansion are the perspectives of the public and other stakeholders, including citizens/patients, pharmacists/other health professionals, professional bodies, and policymakers. We propose to engage these public partners in a knowledge exchange and research planning activity on the topic of community pharmacist screening for SDoH in NL. The goal is to ensure that any future scale-up is responsive to the needs of patients, providers and the health system.
Public Engagement Project
This public engagement (PE) project will be completed in collaboration with the Newfoundland and Labrador Pharmacy Board (principal public partner), the Newfoundland and Labrador Centre for Applied Health Research, the Department of Health and Community Services (Health Transformation), and the Upstream Lab. It will engage patients/citizens, health professionals, and other public partners in deliberative dialogues on the topic of community pharmacist screening for social determinants of health (SDoH) in NL. We are interested in leveraging the unique frontline position of community pharmacists to screen for the SDoH using the SPARK Tool—a tool developed and validated by the Upstream Lab (University of Toronto) that supports primary care providers in screening for poverty and related social determinants. The knowledge and perspectives of public partners will help to identify needs, gaps, and opportunities as well as considerations for implementation and evaluation of the initiative.
Approach
We will host a total of 5 dialogues, including:
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Dialogues with each participant group: (1) patients/citizens, (2) policymakers, regulators, and the professional association, (3) pharmacists, and (4) other health professionals
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An interdisciplinary workshop with 1-2 representatives from each participant group as well as project team members and other representatives from each organization involved.
Each deliberative dialogue will be led by an experienced member of the team with notetakers present to capture the discussion. We will aim to recruit 8-12 participants for each of the four participant advisory meetings. Up to 30 participants will take part in the large, interdisciplinary workshop and research planning session. The patient/citizen meeting will be conducted in-person at an accessible location in St. John’s. All other meetings will be conducted virtually using Webex - the virtual meeting platform hosted by Memorial University.
Outcomes and Deliverables
Our objectives are to:
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Identify needs, gaps, opportunities around SDoH screening in the NL pharmacy setting
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Identify considerations for the implementation and evaluation of the SPARK Tool in pharmacies, including the use of digital health solutions
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Engage strategic public partnerships in next steps
Using deliberative dialogues as a system-level knowledge translation and exchange (KTE) strategy, this public engagement (PE) project will consist of a series of participant advisory meetings to assemble patients/citizens, policymakers, regulators, and health professionals across disciplines in knowledge exchange and research planning.
Project Partners
