CFPC key terms

A consulting approach that explores the patient's illness experience alongside the disease, integrates psychosocial context, and negotiates a shared management plan. It underpins continuity and whole-person care in family medicine.

The patient's personal meaning of symptoms, including feelings, ideas, expectations, and effects on daily function. Eliciting it distinguishes family medicine interviews from purely biomedical history-taking.

A collaborative opening step in which clinician and patient each name the issues they hope to address, then jointly prioritize them within the visit. It reduces missed concerns and improves efficiency.

The sustained relationship between a patient and a clinician or team over time, spanning episodes of illness and health maintenance. It supports accumulated knowledge, trust, and coordination across settings.

A primary care model in which a team provides accessible, comprehensive, coordinated, and continuous care, acting as the patient's central point of entry to the health system.

Interprofessional teamwork in which physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and other clinicians share planning and decision-making around a defined patient panel. It extends capacity and improves chronic disease outcomes.

A structured, proactive approach to long-term conditions using registries, planned visits, self-management support, and systematic follow-up rather than reactive episodic care.

A directive, patient-centred counselling style that explores and strengthens a person's own reasons for change by eliciting change talk and rolling with resistance. It is used for smoking, alcohol, and lifestyle change.

A model describing readiness to alter behaviour across precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Interventions are matched to the person's current stage rather than assumed readiness.

A test applied to asymptomatic people to detect disease earlier than clinical presentation would allow. It requires a suitable test, an important condition, acceptable treatment, and evidence of benefit.

A planned, age- and risk-tailored review of preventive manoeuvres, lifestyle, immunization, and screening rather than a fixed annual physical. Recommendations are individualized by risk factors and preferences.

The apparent survival gain created solely by detecting disease earlier, without any delay in the time of death. It can make screening look beneficial when it is not.

The number of patients who must receive an intervention for one additional person to benefit over a defined period. It is the reciprocal of the absolute risk reduction.

A ranking of study design strength, from systematic reviews of randomized trials down to expert opinion. It informs how much confidence a clinical recommendation deserves.

Systematically developed statements that assist decisions about care for specific circumstances, ideally derived from evidence and graded by strength. Guidelines require judgment when applied to individual patients.

The conditions of income, education, housing, employment, and social support that shape health outcomes and access to care. Recognizing them guides advocacy and appropriate referral.

An approach in which the clinician examines power imbalances and their own assumptions so that care is experienced as respectful by patients of differing cultures, including Indigenous peoples.

An approach that assumes widespread trauma histories and seeks to avoid re-traumatization by prioritizing safety, trust, choice, and collaboration in all clinical interactions.

A functional determination of whether a patient can understand information relevant to a specific decision, appreciate consequences, and communicate a consistent choice. Capacity is decision-specific, not global.

An ongoing process of discussing values, goals, and preferences for future care, ideally documented and revisited as health changes. It guides decisions if the patient later loses capacity.

A person legally authorized to make health care decisions on behalf of a patient lacking capacity, ranked by provincial legislation or appointed by the patient in advance.

Care focused on comfort, function, and quality of life for people with life-limiting illness, delivered alongside disease-directed treatment and extending to family bereavement support.

Explicit agreement among patient, family, and team about the intended aims of treatment, such as cure, prolonging life, or comfort. They direct escalation decisions and limit unwanted interventions.

The concurrent use of multiple medications, often five or more, which raises risks of interactions, adverse effects, and non-adherence. Regular structured review and deprescribing are core management steps.

The systematic process of identifying and withdrawing medications whose harms outweigh benefits for a given patient, using tapering and monitoring. It is common in frailty, renal impairment, and near end of life.

An injury resulting from a medication, whether from predictable effects, interactions, or error. It is a leading cause of emergency visits and hospitalization, especially among older adults.

A rapid, sequenced assessment of catastrophic threats using the ABCDE format, with resuscitation begun before proceeding. It is repeated whenever the patient deteriorates.

A head-to-toe examination and history conducted after the primary survey and initial stabilization, aimed at identifying all injuries and guiding definitive investigation and disposition.

Partial or complete blockage of airflow at or above the larynx, producing stridor, muffled voice, or inability to phonate. Immediate airway manoeuvres and suctioning or surgical rescue may be required.

Simultaneous administration of an induction agent and neuromuscular blocker to secure the airway quickly while limiting aspiration risk. It requires preoxygenation, a planned backup, and post-intubation confirmation.

A bedside ultrasound protocol examining pericardial, perihepatic, perisplenic, and pelvic windows for free fluid in the unstable trauma patient. It is rapid, repeatable, and operator dependent.

Life-threatening organ dysfunction from infection with persistent hypotension requiring vasopressors and elevated lactate despite fluid resuscitation. Early antibiotics and source control are time-critical.

A validated tool combining history, examination, and sometimes test findings to estimate risk and guide investigation or disposition. It should be applied only to populations resembling the derivation cohort.

A process in which clinician and patient exchange evidence and values to reach a mutually agreed choice among reasonable options. It is central to screening, chronic disease, and disposition decisions.

A short-stay area where selected emergency patients receive serial reassessment and testing over hours to clarify disposition, avoiding unnecessary admission or premature discharge.

The structured transfer of clinical responsibility and information between providers or teams, ideally using a standardized format. Poor handover is a recognized source of adverse events.

The process of sorting casualties by urgency when resources are overwhelmed, aiming to do the greatest good for the greatest number rather than to maximize individual treatment.