Representative Assembly

In October 2025, we added a new "dashboard" to your RA meeting packages to report back to you on issues discussed at prior RA meetings.Titled Your Voice in Action, this new status report provides a quick summary of how your input is put to work helping to inform and guide our efforts on behalf of all BC doctors. Learn more below.

October 3, 2025 dashboard

• Topics we reported back to you on: Physician Physical and Psychological Safety, Health Human Resources, AI in Health Care, Informing Doctors of BC Board Planning Workshop, RA Visioning, RA Input in Agenda Planning, Empowering the RA, Enhanced Partnership with the Board. Read the report here.

February 6, 2026 dashboard

• Topics we reported back to you on: RA Visioning, Doctors of BC Elections, Empowering the RA, RA Input on Agenda Planning. Read the report here.

Large-scale health system changes and Doctors of BC's strategic response to them develop over time. The cadence of RA meetings (February, May/June, September/October) allows time for work to evolve and the need to re-engage with the RA for further guidance on these items. See below for some key strategic areas of work where the Board and its committees have returned (and will return again) to the RA.

Physician Burdens

Since Doctors of BC first began our work to address the mounting administrative burdens on physicians, the RA has played an integral role in our strategic advocacy, ongoing efforts, and policy wins on this front. The RA’s in-depth discussion and feedback during the February 2019 and October 2022 RA meetings helped to identify key burdens and their impact and to inform Doctors of BC’s Physician Burdens policy statement and in-depth paper Creating Space for Doctors to be Doctors: A Cumulative Impact Lens on Physician Demands, in which we:

• Call for policy makers and health system partners to apply a cumulative lens to assess the implications of any new or existing tasks on physicians, and
• Provide a proposed structure to do so: our Burdens Solutions Tool.

RA input shared during the February 2024 meeting then helped to guide the focus of a new phase of efforts to create tangible improvements related to administrative burdens, as negotiated in the 2022 Physician Master Agreement (PMA).

In December 2025, Canadian Family Physician published a letter to the editor from Dr Jessica Otte, former Chair of the Council on Health Economics and Policy (CHEP), that highlights the value of the cumulative lens approach and the Tool we created to support it. She also speaks to the influence of our policy on the 2022 PMA and important policy changes our position has informed related to sick notes, medical imaging appointments, and other administrative burdens.

Read Dr Otte’s letter (“Adaption, prevention urged to address administrative burdens”) for more on where strategic work the RA’s feedback has helped to shape is gaining broader awareness and supporting long-term, sustainable changes for BC physicians.

Health Professions and Occupations Act (HPOA)

Over the past year, the RA has played a significant role in informing Doctors of BC’s advocacy on the HPOA with government and health care partners. Input you shared in May 2025 helped confirm our strategic direction, response, and work to elevate the physician voice that continues today. In October 2025, you then shared important perspectives during our dialogue with guest representatives from the College of Physicians and Surgeons of BC, reasserting concerns and needed clarity outlined in our comprehensive 20-page response to the College on its bylaws that put the HPOA into action. We are pleased to see that some of our recommendations were incorporated in the final bylaws.

At the February 2026 meeting, a brief status update in the lead up to the April 1 implementation of the HPOA flagged the imminent change in legislative landscape and Doctors of BC ongoing work. The HPOA implementation drew significant attention from both local and national mainstream media outlets, with numerous stories about the new legislation and significant changes it brings, including its impact on patient access to care and the cost of delivering care in BC—key concerns you confirmed in May 2025, when 98% of RA members agreed that the HPOA, in its current form and without meaningful physician input, would significantly increase health system costs and further reduce access to all levels of patient care. This feedback helped strengthen our advocacy position with government and ongoing efforts to elevate the physician voice.

With the HPOA now in full effect, our advocacy will focus on monitoring the new legislation's impact on physicians. We are actively seeking all members’ input through our Have Your Say online engagement platform and encourage you to share your experiences to help shape our ongoing response. The RA’s advice will continue to play an important role moving forward as we navigate the new legislative landscape and the emerging and future physician needs that come with it.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in health care

Ongoing dialogue with the RA has been integral to informing Doctors of BC’s strategic advocacy in the fast-emerging space of AI in health care. In February, building on input shared in May and October 2024 that helped guide development of our policy statement on Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Health Care, RA members shared perspectives on the potential benefits and risks of expanded use of AI in health care settings. Through facilitated breakout discussions, you identified several areas beyond AI scribes where AI could provide meaningful support. These include:

• Reducing administrative burden (e.g., automating completion of third-party documentation).
• Triage and waitlist management (e.g. reviewing patient information to assist with triage, developing dynamic waitlists that adjust based on acuity).
• Quality improvement and chronic disease care (e.g., supporting follow-up for chronic disease patients, integrating quality improvement principles into routine practice).
• Clinical decision support (e.g., summarizing evidence, supporting chart review).

You also emphasized that AI must complement and not replace clinical judgement, physical examination, and physician expertise and be positioned as a support tool rather than a substitute for clinical experience and decision-making.

Identified areas of risk/concern associated with expanded use of AI tools in health care, included:

• Bias, equity, and fairness (e.g., algorithmic bias, geographic inequities in access to AI tools).
• Accountability and responsibility (e.g., importance of clear expectations around review of AI outputs, transparency in how AI tools are developed and used).
• Privacy and data protection (e.g., understanding how patient data is used and stored, ensuring compliance with privacy requirements).
• Dehumanization of care (e.g., depersonalization of patient interactions, encouraging patient self-diagnosis without full clinical context).
• Over-reliance and skill erosion (e.g., reduced diagnostic reasoning and clinical skill development over time).
• Evidence and context limitation (e.g., potential misalignment with Canadian practice guidelines; contextual documentation challenges, particularly in complex encounters involving multiple individuals).

For more details, read the full What we Heard report. With the foundation of our policy principles, the RA’s feedback informs Doctors of BC’s work in digital health and emerging technologies, including our collaboration with the Ministry of Health on a new Community Digital Health Innovation Program.

Truth and Reconciliation

This year, the RA will have an important role to play in the development of Doctors of BC's Truth and Reconciliation plan. This will build on a foundation established in May 2019, when the RA took part in a signing ceremony commemorating the Board's endorsement of the Declaration of Commitment on Cultural Safety and Humility in Health Services. By signing this Declaration, and in partnership with our First Nations and Indigenous patients, doctors agree to create an environment where cultural safety – based on each patient’s health care experience – is developed through a process of mutual trust and respect of cultural humility.

Learn more about the Declaration of Commitment Signing Ceremony.

Learn more about Doctors of BC's ongoing efforts to advance our commitments to truth and reconciliation.

Watch for future RA planning to dedicate time for dialogue on this core strategic priority for the Association.