Team-based primary care without collaboration: a call for academic partnerships in relational transformation

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Source: Frontiers Medicine

Original: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2026.1803192...

Published: 2026-03-25T00:00:00Z

The study conducted 11 focus groups with 10 family health teams (FHTs) and a total of 48 participants, an average of four per group, during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic despite the challenges of physical distancing.[1] Primary care teams have demonstrated successful collaboration even without physical participation, due to pre-pandemic teamwork, interactions during the pandemic, and shared resilience.[1] The transition from face-to-face to virtual care happened overnight without sufficient preparation, but the existing foundations allowed for the rapid creation of psychological safety.[1] The study identifies a gap in collaboration between primary health care teams and other community agencies where such links were the exception.[1] The authors call for academic partnerships to transform team-based primary care relationships to sustain invested collaboration.[1] Virtual care can offer new opportunities for creative collaboration across organizations for more comprehensive patient-centered care.[1]