History of RACE

RACE is based on a pilot study that was done in 2008 by the St. Paul’s Hospital Division of Cardiology and the Providence Health Care Department of Family Medicine where FPs could page a cardiologist.  As a result of the encouraging results from this pilot project, the Specialists Services Committee put a billing code in place in April 2010 to allow specialists to bill for the telephone call.  Shortly after, the General Practice Services Committee put a billing code in place to allow family physicians to bill for the telephone discussion.  Through a partnership with Providence Health Care, the Shared Care Committee (a joint committee of the BC Medical Association and the Ministry of Health), and Vancouver Coastal Health, the expanded RACE model of shared care began in June 2010 with 5 services.  Since June 2010 it has steadily grown with feedback from family physicians on what services would be useful.

In 2016 the RACE team was approached by the CFHI to participate as faculty in a national collaborative focused on spreading the RACE model, as well as the Champlain BASE eConsultation model. The Connected Medicine collaborative is now in its second iteration focused on service implementation. You can learn more about this collaborative here.