2025 Patient Experience Award Recipients
Alberta Virtual Pain Program – serving all of Alberta
One in five Albertans lives with chronic pain – pain that lasts three months or longer. The Alberta Virtual Pain Program helps close gaps in care for people living with pain. This first-in-Canada, publicly funded program was co-developed with people with lived experience. It supports patients and providers by offering easy and timely access to patient-centred interdisciplinary care and evidence-based non-pharmacological resources. All services are virtual, and include a centralized phone line, interdisciplinary group programming with peer support, topic-specific programming, self-led options, and an upcoming repository of health information.
Patients can self refer. This accessible approach removes major barriers to care – including challenges in obtaining a diagnosis and referral – which are especially common among patients without a primary care provider, patients living in rural communities, and at-risk populations.
Calgary Zone Music Therapy – southern Alberta
Palliative, neurological, and critical care hospital patients experience high rates of anxiety, distress, confusion, pain, and poor sleep, and standard treatments may be limited by side effects. Patient distress in ICUs is commonly managed with sedation, especially during prolonged stays. Music is an evidence-based, non-drug, pain and anxiety option. Certified Music Therapists use music to support health and well-being and offer a safe outlet for patients and families to process anxiety, fear, grief, or frustration.
Individual and group music therapy is offered at five acute care sites across Calgary. Non-verbal formats are available to patients who find traditional talk-based therapies less accessible or effective, to bridge language barriers, or to support patients who are on mechanical breathing support, confused, or not fully aware.
Edmonton Diabetes and High-Risk Foot Clinic – Edmonton area and northern Alberta
Diabetes care has historically been fragmented, requiring patients to visit separate clinics for specialist appointments, foot and nail care, wound care, diabetes education, insulin pump training, and mental health support. Communication between these services was often minimal, creating an overwhelming burden on patients and their families.
The first of its kind, the Edmonton Diabetes and High-Risk Foot clinic integrates services under one roof: specialist physician care, nurse education, insulin pump training, dietitian consultations, mental health support, and preventative foot and wound care. Patients can see multiple providers on the same day to simplify the experience of coming to the clinic and get the most out of their visits, and wait times for services have been reduced by many months.
My Next Steps: Getting Ready to Leave the Hospital – all of Alberta
This patient-centred guide aims to better support patients during their discharge from hospital, to help reduce the risk of readmission or unnecessary emergency department visits. My Next Steps: Getting ready to leave the hospital helps patients be actively engaged in discharge discussions, ensuring they feel confident they have the information and understanding they need before leaving the hospital.
My Next Steps is the result of a collaborative approach that involved patient advisors with lived experience in design and testing, and advice from healthcare providers to ensure the tool was easy to implement. The guide has been documented in use in over 660 units across 142 facilities in Alberta, and has been translated into 28 languages, including three Indigenous languages.