In May 2023, Canada’s four Atlantic provinces launched the Atlantic Registry (AR), a collaborative process through which eligible physicians registered with one of the Atlantic Medical Regulatory Authorities (MRAs) could be licensed across the other three Atlantic jurisdictions through a single application process. To objectively assess the impact of this initiative, an independent analysis of the AR was conducted by researchers at Laurentian University at the request of FMRAC, with funding support from Health Canada.

This evaluation, authored by Elizabeth Wenghofer, Marcie Lorenzen, Patrick Timony and Nicole Naccarato, seeks to provide an objective understanding of how well the AR is working, its impact on physician mobility and access to care, and key lessons learned in the experience of the Atlantic MRAs.

Here’s what the report found:

• The AR did not have a significant impact on access to care despite significant effort required to establish it.
• The AR removed some administrative burden for physicians, but not all: physicians seeking to practice in another province were still required to register. their provincial corporations and obtain credentials and privileges before they could begin providing care.
• The AR created additional administrative inefficiencies for MRAs due to sub-optimal information sharing and process design.
• The AR had little impact on physician mobility on a health system scale and demonstrated that enabling multi-jurisdictional licensure was not enough to enable multi-jurisdictional practice.