Factors Influencing Travel for Locally Available Medical Imaging Services

Key Messages

What Is the Issue?

• Access to health services in rural and remote communities is essential to the well-being of the populations living in these communities. Medical imaging is a key component of health care, as it informs clinical diagnoses, treatment, and the monitoring of therapeutic responses.
• Although many rural and remote health care centres offer imaging services, some individuals travel to larger urban centres for exams. Canada’s Drug Agency (CDA-AMC) was asked to explore why people living in rural or remote areas travel to urban centres for medical imaging exams that are also available closer to home.

What Did We Do?

• To understand why some patients in Canada travel for medical imaging, we used a mixed-evidence approach, combining a targeted literature review with input from those closest to the issue: patients, caregivers, health care professionals, and administrators involved in delivering imaging services. This report aims to:
  • understand the perceptions and experiences that shape decisions about where to seek care
  • explore the provider and system factors that lead patients to obtain care at a facility other than the closest option
  • inform approaches to more equitable access to imaging across rural, remote, and urban settings.

What Did We Find?

• Decisions to travel for care may be shaped by factors at the patient, provider, and system levels. Our analysis identified 5 main themes that may influence travel for medical imaging that is also available locally:
  • Accessibility and system capacity: Shorter wait times, access to advanced technologies, and perceived differences in image quality can influence where people receive care.
  • Clinical requirements and service offerings: Referral decisions may depend on access to specialists, the range of services offered, and the complexity of a patient’s condition.
  • Provider preferences and referral pathways: Awareness of available services and established referral practices contribute to travelling for care.
  • Convenience and perceived quality: Perceptions about differences in quality of care between rural or remote and urban centres can contribute to travel for medical imaging.
  • Patient circumstances and equity considerations: Past experiences and individual circumstances can also lead to travel for medical imaging. Equity-deserving groups may experience additional considerations, such as the need for culturally appropriate care.

What Does This Mean?

• Patient travel for medical imaging reflects the complexity of how services are organized, accessed, and navigated across health systems. Key implications of travelling for medical imaging include the following:
  • Service distribution across rural, remote, and urban settings shapes demand patterns and patient flow.
  • Differences in capacity, referral processes, and service availability can influence where imaging is received, with potential effects on wait times.
  • Opportunities to better align referral practices with available local capacity exist, potentially enabling more consistent and predictable care pathways.
  • Variation in access to information and system navigation support has equity implications for different populations.