Interior Node

The Interior Node

The Rural Coordination Centre of BC’s Interior Node, based in Penticton, is the focal point connecting healthcare providers and organizations that strive to improve rural health in British Columbia’s (BC) Interior region. Its unique partnership with Interior Health and trusted relationships with the Divisions of Family Practice and community groups enable the Interior Node to lead and support diverse projects that enhance healthcare knowledge and delivery in rural and remote communities across the region.

Achievements & Impact

Expanded and enhanced human resources

Stewarded up to 10 rural health research projects

Hosted the first-ever BC Rural Health Research Exchange, featuring 26 presenters and attracting 150 participants

Enhanced research capacity within several RCCbc programs

Looking ahead

Interior Node Overview

In addition to expanding and integrating RCCbc staff from across the Interior region, the Interior Node substantially grew its engagement in a number of diverse projects.

Its research strengths—and “hands-on” approach to directing, connecting, and supporting Interior physicians who are involved, or interested, in rural health research—showed promising results throughout the year. Currently, Interior Node staff are stewarding up to 10 rural health research projects on topics, including inter-facility transfers from a rural BC hospital for emergent CT scans, and the impact of privileging dictionaries on surgical services in rural and remote BC. Several of these studies will be published in the coming months and have the potential to inform and alter healthcare policy and practice in the province.

The Interior Node also launched its inaugural BC Rural Health Research Exchange in November 2020, a virtual research symposium to highlight rural health research occurring across BC, and identify research gaps. The event, which featured 26 rural health research presentations and attracted 150 participants from across the province, created and enhanced networks of individuals committed to improving health systems. In addition, the event engaged community, patient, and Indigenous partners in guiding future rural health research.

Throughout the year, the Interior Node team also began co-leading the Rural Site Visits Innovations project, launching a new website, called Rural Health Innovations. The team also expanded its physician engagement support for Intelligent Network for Point-of-Care Ultrasound, and continued co-leading the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) pillar of the Rural Surgical and Obstetrical Network, serving as a key conduit between all project stakeholder and, in particular, CQI nurses within the Interior Health authority.

The Interior Node team will continue to lead and support a diverse set of projects. It remains committed to transferring the outcomes of their activities into tangible policy and/or practice changes to improve the health of rural people and communities.

How have we shown or built resilience in BC during a challenging year?

“Several of our key stakeholders were asking us what sort of rural health research was happening in British Columbia. We discovered that there is no rural health research database in the province, so we developed the inaugural BC Rural Health Research Exchange to promote rural health research, connect rural health researchers, and identify rural health research opportunities for the future.”

Jason Curran
Regional Practice Lead, Research and Knowledge Translation (Rural Health)

Team Members: Tracey DeLeeuw, Karen Osiowy, Kim Williams, Nicole Hochleitner-Wain