Through a Northern Lens: Community Perspectives on Health and Wellbeing in Northern BC

The provision of healthcare to rural and remote regions in British Columbia presents unique challenges that may be unaddressed by conventional methods of resource allocation that are applied in urban areas. The low population density, harsh climates, and long distances from main treatment centers pose significant problems. For researchers based in urban areas, how strongly these problems affect health care and how they might be overcome is far from obvious. This project is based on the idea that efficient resource allocation in BC would benefit from more input from rural and remote communities. We aim to establish a connection between health economists, predominantly based in the Lower Mainland, and communities in rural and remote BC. We applied qualitative methods (interviews, focus groups, and photovoice) to critically inquire how contextual factors in rural and remote settings might challenge common assumptions of efficiency, imply different priorities, and what this means for health economics methods.