Your Weekly News & Updates
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Advancing equity in cancer screening for gender-diverse clients June 17
New, gender-affirming cancer screening guidelines have been developed to support the health and wellbeing of Transgender and Non-Binary clients. These groups often have lower screening rates than their peers due to outreach that misses eligible clients and screening practices that can trigger gender dysphoria.
We will hear from Ed Kucharski, a family physician who has led this work at Ontario Health and is a physician at SETFHT, about the guidelines and what needs to be in place to enable their use.
We’ll also hear from two Alliance members who are leaders in care for 2SLGBTQ+ care and members of our 2SLGBTQ+ Health Equity Committee: Celeste Turner, an outreach worker, and Michelle Hurtubise, an executive director, will share their perspectives on how implementing these guidelines will affect health care planning, delivery, and outcomes at the individual and community levels.
Welcome to Abisola Otepola
We’re happy to introduce Abisola Otepola, our new Director of Policy and Stakeholder Relations.
Abisola joins AFHTO from the Ontario Public Service where she worked as a Manager to the Associate Deputy Minister of Health. She also previously worked as a Team Lead with oversight of the funding, policy, and performance of Ontario Health Teams, a population health model designed to end hallway healthcare and build a connected provincial health care system.
At the Ministry of Health, she led and developed projects from design to scale, including a multi-year plan for scaling bundled care across the province. She brings a strong understanding of integrated care programs and a wealth of experience delivering on complex policy and programs across hospital, community, and primary care settings.
Welcome Abisola to the team!
Reminder- Practical technologies that can enable ageing in place webinar May 19
Dr. Samir Sinha, Director of Geriatrics at Sinai Health and University Health Network (UHN) and Director of Health Policy Research at the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) will be presenting on Practical Technologies that can Enable Ageing in Place on May 19, from 9:00 – 10:00am EDT.
Presented by Sinai Health, in partnership with the NIA, UHN, and the Primary Care Collaborative, the webinar will aim to give health care professionals a better understanding of:
- The risks and impacts of at-home medical emergencies
- Why older Canadians want to age in place, now more than ever
- Practical technologies that can enable ageing in place
Just a couple weeks left for Election 2022
It’s only a couple of weeks until the provincial election on June 2. Healthcare is a top issue for all parties AND the public, so use all the resources available to make your voice heard.
Share successes, pictures from candidate meetings, or pictures of patients with a voter card on social media. Broadcast what you do to deliver the best primary care in Ontario where It Takes a Team. Thank you to all the teams who have shared so far.
AFHTO is tweeting regularly. We ask you tag @afhto when you tweet, and we’ll also retweet you! Don’t forget to use our campaign slogan #ItTakesATeam
If you have any questions, please email advocacy@afhto.ca.
Clinical systems renewal funding guidelines and template
The FY 2022/23 Clinical Systems Renewal funding guideline and proposal template are now available.
Interested OHTs, In Development Teams and other health care organizations should contact their OH Region (see below) to plan collaboratively and discuss their questions and the submission process. OH Regions are responsible for facilitating submission development and determining which should be submitted for funding approval.
- Central OH-Central_DigitalVirtual@ontariohealth.ca
- East OH-East_DigitalVirtual@ontariohealth.ca
- North OH-North_DigitalVirtual@ontariohealth.ca
- Toronto OH-Toronto_DigitalVirtual@ontariohealth.ca
- West OH-West_DigitalVirtual@ontariohealth.ca
For more background see our February ebulletin.
National Physiotherapy Month
For National Physiotherapy Month, we’d like to say THANK YOU to the amazing PTs in primary care teams – truly an example of the value that diverse professionals working together provide in healthcare.
Access to Evusheld, guidance for routine immunization and more
Recent updates include:
- Guidance for Routine Immunization Services During COVID-19– MOH, updated May 16, 2022
- Ontario Health Memo regarding access to Evusheld – EN and FR– OH, May 13, 2022
We continue to update several pages on our site with resources and news:
- Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates– the original page, with news and updates
- COVID-19 Vaccination Information
- COVID-19 assessment centres in Ontario
- COVID-19 information for Patients, Caregivers and the Public
- Infection control resources and tools for primary care
- Management and operations, human resources and COVID-19
- Mental health and wellness during COVID-19
- Providing Comprehensive Care During COVID-19
- Resources for Re-opening
- Virtual Care, Digital Health and COVID-19
Refugee Healthline
The Ministry of Health is supporting newly arriving refugees and people arriving through other exceptional humanitarian authorizations (e.g., Canada-Ukraine Authorization for Emergency Travel) by providing a toll-free, multi-lingual, Refugee HealthLine where they can connect with health care providers who deliver transitional health care and services, including primary care, specialist care, and mental health supports. Find out more here and here.
Impacts of transitioning cancer survivors to primary care
Primary care providers are tasked with providing safe and effective follow-up care for many cancer survivors.
Ontario Health has developed a short survey to better understand your practice, your comfort level providing care to cancer survivors, the challenges you face, and your experiences in providing care for cancer survivors. Their goal is to use the results to develop tools and resources to support you in providing care to survivors and improving patient care across the care continuum.
The survey will take about 5-10 minutes to complete, and your input by Friday, June 17th, 2022, would be greatly appreciated. For any questions, please contact Meaghan Wright (Meaghan.Wright@ontariohealth.ca).
Updates to antimicrobial stewardship program & antimicrobial resistance comparison tool
Public Health Ontario has updated the Ontario Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) & Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) Comparison Tool to provide more data and increase functionality. It will include recent data on hospital ASPs, updated Antimicrobial Use (AMU) data and trending in Ontario hospitals, and new antimicrobial resistance/antibiogram data for hospital, long-term care, and community settings. For questions or more information contact asp@oahpp.ca.
Inuit Wellness and Prosperity: The Importance of National Seal Products Day, May 18, 2022
Hosted by the IPHCC and presented by IPHCC Knowledge Keepers Circle member Vicky auf der Mauer. Find out more here.
Demystifying Insurance: What Nonprofits Need to Know to Protect their Operations, May 19, 2022
Free webinar presented by HUB International in partnership with CharityVillage. Register here.
Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams (Part II), May 24, 2022
Hosted by HSPN, they will review the approach to provider experience measurement and results from the Couchiching OHT. Register here.
Clearing the Air on Asthma and COPD: When Undertesting Leads to Overdiagnosis, June 8, 2022
What are the barriers to pulmonary function testing? And how might clinicians and patients be supported to avoid over-diagnosis and over-treatment? They’ll discuss these questions and more on June’s Choosing Wisely Talks. Register here.
Spirometry Testing for Diagnosing Asthma and COPD in Primary Care – The Why and the How, June 16, 2022
The goal of Choosing Wisely’s Let’s Clear the Air campaign is to avoid unnecessary treatment and misdiagnosis that can occur without a proper breathing test. To help, the Lung Health Foundation is hosting sessions to explore the why and the how of spirometry testing for the diagnosis of asthma and COPD in primary care. Register here.
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