Member news: Change Day Ontario, mapping primary care models and more

AFHTO News

• Change Day is coming to Ontario: AFHTO is pleased to support Change Day, a growing global movement rooted in improving the health system, an initiative that is co-sponsored by Health Quality Ontario and Associated Medical Services.

• Welcome Yulia! Yulia Biberberg is the Policy and Strategic Communications Associate and our newest employee. She comes to us from Oakmed FHT. Learn more about Yulia here.

• Learn more about Change Day Ontario and how you can be a Change Day Ambassador, and motivate your team to create meaningful pledges to help support change in the health sector. Small changes can have big impact – think about how you can make a difference this November 17th.

• UpToDate Survey: AFHTO is exploring the possibility of offering a group discounted subscription rate of UpToDate for our members. Please fill in this short survey to help us identify if there is interest in a subscription by your FHT or NPLC.

Members in the Media & Success Stories

• AFHTO members have been receiving a lot of media attention lately: find out what’s been happening with your fellow members across the province.

• Kawartha North FHT Awarded Ontario Trillium Grant: to build on the efforts of the Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes Community Roundtable for Poverty Reduction, which also includes City of Kawartha Lakes FHT.

Evidence of Value

• Five Things You Need to Know About Family Health Team Pharmacists: article in the Ontario Pharmacist magazine, by Heather Hadden, Credit Valley FHT and Suzanne Singh, Mt. Sinai FHT

• Inter-and Intraprofessional Collaboration: Learnings from Family Health Teams: article in the Ontario College of Pharmacists Summer Edition of Pharmacy Connection (pages 26 & 27) by Nav Gill, Humber River FHT and Kaila MacMillan, formerly of South East Toronto FHT

News Relevant to Primary Care

• Mentoring, Education, and Clinical Tools for Addiction: Primary Care-Hospital Integration (META:PHI): this program’s rapid-access clinics have spread to seven additional communities across Ontario,  thanks to the Adopting Research to Improve Care (ARTIC) grant program. Learn more here.

• Expression of Interest to establish an Indigenous IPC Team: deadline extended to Sep. 8, 2017. Indigenous member teams are invited to apply. If you have any questions regarding this extension, please contact IIPCT@ontario.ca.

• Ontario Drug Benefit Act Amendments regarding Nurse Practitioners: amendments as of July 1, 2017 were made to make it easier for ODB recipients to be covered for more prescriptions written by their nurse practitioners. For the authoritative text of the consolidated Act, please visit the e-Laws website.

• Primary Care & Public Health Collaboration: The Minister’s Expert Panel on Public Health recently released its report and a toolkit has been developed by researchers to help support collaboration between primary care and public health. Learn more here.

Resources and Reports

• Access to family physicians varies widely across the province: according to a recent report from the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES) which also highlights the distribution of different primary care models, including family health teams, compared to patient populations.

• Medical Assistance in Dying Year in Review Webinar: slides from the Ministry’s webinar now available.

Conferences and Events

• Come and Sit Together (CAST) Canada Workshops:
•  Trauma Essentials Human Connections: A Transformational Day, August 15, 2017
• Complex Emotional burdens: Being Human in Human Services, August 16, 2017

• Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) workshops:
• Mood Disorders: Advanced Strategies for Primary Care Physicians, Sep. 22, 2017
• Women’s Health Intrauterine Contraception: Theory to Practice, Sep. 23, 2017

• HQO Quality Rounds Ontario: Technology and Compassionate Care, September 6, 2017: register now

• EMR: Every Step Conference, September 28, 2017: register now

• NPAO Conference, Sep. 21 – 23, 2017: register now

• 12th Annual Dietitians of Canada Ontario FHT RD Conference, September 28-29, 2017: register now

• Free Patient Education Session on Leukemia and Lymphoma, September 22, 2017: register now

• What Directors Need to Know – Quality of Care, Privacy and Accountability, September 28, 2017: next in Miller Thompson’s Coffee Talk- Board of Directors Series

• Toronto Geriatrics Update Course, October 27^th & 28^th: AFHTO is pleased to support the Sinai Health System and University Health Network’s 5^th Annual Toronto Geriatrics Update Course. All AFHTO Members receive the early-bird rate no matter when they register for the Update Course. Click here to learn more.