About us

The team behind Preparing for my appointment

These internationally recognized researchers are experts in professional health communication. They have conducted many studies in this field and have contributed to many teaching activities on communication in healthcare.

Marie-Thérèse Lussier, M.D., B.Sc., M.Sc. (Psychology), FCFP

Full professor in the Department of Family Medicine and Emergency Medicine at the Université de Montréal and a researcher in the Health innovation and evaluation hub at the CHUM Research Centre. Dr. Lussier is also the director of the Université de Montréal’s Primary Care Research Network.

Claude Richard, Ph.D., M.A. (Psychology)

Mr. Richard is a psychologist who has collaborated on many research projetcs on communication in primary care. He has developed and validated a method for analyzing patient-healthcare professional communication between patients and healthcare professionals. He is also the president of Entre Les Lignes Inc., recherche et communication, a company that analyzes professional communications.

Dr. Lussier and Claude Richard are life partners and co-editors of the book La communication professionnelle en santé. The third edition will be published by ÉDISEM (Somabec) in 2026. This book has become a key reference for teaching communication in several Francophone medical faculties. Together, Claude Richard and Dr. Lussier have written many scientific publications and continuing professional development articles on professional health communication.

Claude Richard is the coordinator for communication between patients and healthcare professionals and was therefore paid for his role in the Improving the pathway for patients without a family doctor going through the Guichet d’accès à la première ligne (GAP, or Primary Care Access Point) project, funded by Unité de soutien SSA Québec. Dr. Lussier was the scientific director of the project. This arrangement was declared to the SSA Support Unit management, which approved the hiring of Claude Richard and approved the use of funds. The situation was also reported by Dr. Lussier in her annual declarations of interest to the Université de Montréal and the CHUM Research Center.

Capsana

Capsana is a social enterprise owned by the ÉPIC Foundation, which is associated with the Montreal Heart Institude, and the PSI Foundation (Prévention Santé Intégrale). Its mission is to encourage people to take an active role of their own health. Founded in 1988 under the name ACTI-MENU, Capsana is dedicated exclusively to the promotion of health and healthy lifestyle habits, and the prevention and management of chronic diseases.

Capsana developed well-known public health campaigns such as TOUGO, the Quit to Win! Challenge, Smoke-Free Family, Nous, parents, and PAUSE. Capsana works with the general public, municipalities, and families. Capsana also implements health promotion programs in the workplace.

The need for efficient communication

The Preparing for my appointment website encourages patients to prepare for their medical appointments. The Getting ready form was developed directly from the work associated with the DiscutonsSante.ca website carried out by Dr. Marie-Thérèse Lussier’s team (to learn more, visit the About Preparing for my appointment page).

The Discutons Santé website was launched in 2014. It follows the PACE model, developed by Dr. Don Cegala, a researcher in health communication (Cegala et al., Health Commun, 2007, 21(2):177-85). PACE is an acronym that stands for: Prepare, Ask, Check and Express your concerns. Dr. Marie-Thérèse Lussier’s team has often used this type of tool in research and learned that patients find these tools relevant, useful, and helpful when they meet with a doctor in different healthcare settings (Lussier et al., Health Expect, 2021, 24(2):243-56; Glaser et al., Patient Educ Couns, 2017, 100(11):2062-70).

Editorial independence

Health professionals, researchers, and a patient partner wrote and supervised the content of this website. They were in control of their work and were not paid by other organizations ensuring full editorial independence. We thank them for their work.

Funding

The Preparing for my appointment website was made possible thanks to a grant from the Partnerships for the Improvement of Life Trajectories and Innovation in the Transition to Sustainable Health (PATIenTS) program, awarded by the Unité de Soutien SSA Québec. This grant was given to Dr. Lussier’s team for the project Improving the pathway for people without a family doctor going through the Guichet d’Accès à la Première ligne (GAP). The team worked closely on this project with the CIUSSS de l’Est-de-l’Île-de-Montréal.

The Unité de Soutien SSA Québec is a provincial unit within Canada’s national Strategy for Patient-Oriented Research (SPOR) network, under the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR). Its goal is to continuously improve the Quebec healthcare system by mobilizing and applying experiential, scientific, clinical, and organizational knowledge. The unit supports different projects that help with patient pathways and continuous quality improvement. For more information, visit: ssaquebec.ca/en/.