We received over 90 submissions for Bright Lights and presentations at the AFHTO 2020 Conference. Thank you to all those who applied!
A confirmation email has been sent to the contact person for each submission.
If you are part of a group that has prepared a submission, please ensure your group contact has received the email with the subject: “Thank you for your AFHTO 2020 Conference Submission!”. (Please have them check their junk mail as well.)
If your contact person has NOT received this confirmation, please contact info@afhto.ca by August 5.
The confirmation email is your assurance that your submission has been received and will be reviewed by volunteers for participation at the conference.
Final concurrent session and poster presentations will be selected by August 19-21, 2020.
Sessions will be announced in late August.
It may be summer, but these definitely aren’t lazy days. Given the demands on your time, we’ve responded by extending the deadline to submit abstracts and Bright Lights nominations for the AFHTO 2020 Conference “Tectonic shifts: rebuilding primary care in a new world.”
All are welcome. Please pass this along to your peers, colleagues and network including those from other healthcare sectors, non-profits, and the academic and research communities.
Email (info@afhto.ca) or call 647-234-8605x 200 if you have any questions. We’re here to help.
Reduced registration fee for concurrent session presenters: For each approved concurrent session, up to 2 presenters will each be granted a discount off the conference registration fee (now available). Additional discounts apply for patients presenting at the conference. (Discount doesn’t apply for poster displays.
Conference key dates (updated):
July 31, 2020 Deadline for concurrent session, poster and Bright Lights submissions
Congratulations to the five new Ontario Health Teams and to our member teams that are engaged and participating in the development of OHTs. And further congratulations to all OHTs, receiving funding of $25.25 million for virtual care and other direct support.
Working group volunteers have met for inspiring and fruitful brainstorming this week. Don’t be surprised if you hear from them soon, especially if you have insight into the topics below. Among other topics, your peers want to hear about:
Lived experience of Black, Indigenous and other visible minority patients- straight from the source
Rural LGBTQ experience
Health anxiety
Integrated access to medical records
Separating truth from fiction related to COVID
Policy-level discussion on cancer screening and any changes to accommodate the pandemic and our post-pandemic reality
Differences between OHT and non-OHT regional approaches to COVID
Addressing marginalized populations’ lack of access to virtual care
Evidence of efficacy of virtual appointments vs. in-person care
Colleagues from other health care sectors, non-profits, and the academic community will join, all eager to hear about these and more in our 5 core themes. The deadline to submit for an #AFHTO2020 presentation is July 29, 2020.
All are welcome. Please pass this along to your peers, colleagues and network including those from other healthcare sectors, non-profits, and the academic and research communities.
Reduced registration fee for concurrent session presenters: For each approved concurrent session, up to 2 presenters will each be granted a discount off the conference registration fee (now available). Additional discounts apply for patients presenting at the conference. (Discount doesn’t apply for poster displays.)
Are you proud of what your team has accomplished, especially during this pandemic?
Do you want your colleagues to be recognized for the amazing work they do?
Do you think it would be great to see your initiative spread across the province?
If you’ve said yes to any of the above, submit a Bright Lights nomination!
Don’t be left out- they’ve started to pour in so send in your nominations and supporting documents
before the deadline, Wednesday, July 29.
Review the nomination categories in advance (see nomination guide pg. 3 for descriptions).
Review the nomination evaluation criteria (see nomination guide pg. 2 for details).
Complete the online nomination form and send all supporting materials before July 29, 2020
Pro Tip: Using the nomination template, save a Word version of your nomination as a backup to your submission.
We look forward to seeing your nominations and recognizing ALL the excellent work being done!
Conference key dates:
July 8, 2020 Call for concurrent session, poster and Bright Lights opens
July 29, 2020 Deadline for concurrent session, poster and Bright Lights submissions
August 2020 Conference registration opens
October 8-9, 2020 AFHTO 2020 Conference
If you have any questions about the submission process or want to know if your work is a good fit, email (info@afhto.ca) or call 647-234-8605x 200. We’d be happy to help.
These are the topics we’ll explore for our 5 core themes. We want interactive sessions for the live presentations, and we encourage creativity. As long as we can deliver it in a virtual format, we want to hear about it.
If you have a story to tell, focused on systems and policies affecting the shifting health landscape or insight from a small, rural or Northern perspective, then we want that too. It could be a podcast!
A quick lesson learned on providing patient-centred care in a pandemic and beyond? It could be a Rapid Fire session! The deadline to submit for an #AFHTO2020 presentation is July 29, 2020.
Is there someone you’d like to hear from? A dynamic speaker? Email us at info@afhto.ca. Contact information is welcome if you have it since warm introductions work better than cold calls.
All are welcome. Please pass this along to your peers, colleagues and network including those from other healthcare sectors, non-profits, and the academic and research communities.
Reduced registration fee for concurrent session presenters: For each approved concurrent session, up to 2 presenters will each be granted a discount off the conference registration fee (now available). Additional discounts apply for patients presenting at the conference. (Discount doesn’t apply for poster displays.)
Nominate your team, partnership or colleague for a Bright Lights Award and promote your work.
Awards will be presented at the AFHTO 2020 Conference Awards ceremony, to be held on the morning of October 8, 2020. As a virtual event, people around the world can find out more about all the great work you do. Past winners have also gotten media coverage and gone on to win even more awards.
It’s also an opportunity to raise your profile even if you don’t win. Nominations are some of the best resources we use to publicise your work with external stakeholders and the public at large.
You can:
Nominate your own team – you should be proud of your own work.
Apply without submitting an #AFHTO2020 abstract.
Nominate your initiative if you’re not an AFHTO member but work in partnership with one.
We look forward to seeing your nominations and recognizing ALL the excellent work being done!
Conference key dates:
July 8, 2020 Call for concurrent session, poster and Bright Lights opens
July 29, 2020 Deadline for concurrent session, poster and Bright Lights submissions
August 2020 Conference registration opens
October 8-9, 2020 AFHTO 2020 Conference
Do you know anyone with interesting and innovative initiatives to share? Please forward this email to your colleagues, community partners and stakeholders to make sure everyone has an opportunity to present their initiatives.
And don’t forget, the deadline to join a working group is today, July 15. Come behind the scene and become among the first to learn about new developments in the field, influence conference programming and discover the innovators in your areas of interest.
Not sure if your work is a good fit? Feel free to ask us! Email (info@afhto.ca) or call 647-234-8605x 200. We’d be happy to help.
Tectonic shifts: rebuilding primary care in a new world
We asked and you answered. This year’s conference will be a streamlined virtual event- a little shorter but with even more variety in presentation format. We’ll be curating content for our 5 core themes, focused on interactive sessions, and we want your help.
Podcasts. Webcasts. Rapid Fire sessions. These are some of the new options this year. Podcasts and webcasts will be released on the day of their relevant theme, while interactive sessions e.g. workshops will be live.
We want your insight, from system and policy-level discussions to patient-focused inquiries into the ways teams can better serve their communities in a pandemic.
The deadline to submit for an #AFHTO2020 presentation is July 29, 2020 at 5:00 PM (EDT)
Reduced registration fee for concurrent session presenters: For each approved concurrent session, up to 2 presenters will each be granted a discount off the conference registration fee (coming soon). Additional discounts apply for patients presenting at the conference. (Discount doesn’t apply for poster displays.)
Shine a light on your team’s achievements. Nominate an outstanding team or individual for a “Bright Lights” Award by July 29, 2020.
AFHTO’s “Bright Lights” Awards recognize AFHTO members’ leadership, outstanding work and the significant progress being made to improve the value interprofessional primary care teams across Ontario deliver.
Bright Lights Award recipients are:
Innovators – making small changes for maximum impact to improve patient experience and outcomes
Team Players – interprofessional teams, collaborators and relationship builders
Demonstrating Impact – can show how their work is benefitting the health care system
Awards will be presented at the AFHTO 2020 Conference Awards ceremony, to be held on the morning of October 8, 2020.
Award Categories
Awards will be presented in six categories, including the conference themes and special recognition for team(s) that demonstrated a community response to COVID-19. The winner(s) will be selected based on the strength of their nomination to one of the five categories above.
Shine a light on your team – Make a nomination today:
Review the nomination categories in advance (see nomination guide pg. 3 for descriptions).
Review the nomination evaluation criteria (see nomination guide pg. 2 for details).
Complete the online nomination form and send all supporting materials before July 29, 2020
1-4high-quality photos of nominees in png. or jpg. format to be featured at the Awards Ceremony on October 8th (Photos should be at least 500 KB in size.)
Take a video (up to 10 seconds long) with your smartphone and share with info@afhto.ca.
Any supporting evidence and materials as appropriate.
Deadline to submit photos and video is August 12, 2020.
We look forward to seeing your nominations and recognizing ALL the excellent work being done!
Conference key dates:
July 8, 2020 Call for concurrent session, poster and Bright Lights opens
July 29, 2020 Deadline for concurrent session, poster and Bright Lights submissions
August 2020 Conference registration opens
October 8-9, 2020 AFHTO 2020 Conference
Do you know anyone with interesting and innovative initiatives to share? Please forward this email to your colleagues, community partners and stakeholders to make sure everyone has an opportunity to present their initiatives.
And don’t forget, the deadline to join a working group is next Wednesday, July 15. Come behind the scene and become among the first to learn about new developments in the field, influence conference programming and discover the innovators in your areas of interest.
For more information, you can contact us by phone (647-234-8605) or e-mail (info@afhto.ca).
The COVID-19 pandemic has turned Stratford-based family physician Sean Blaine into an internet sensation of sorts — as a YouTube commentator offering tips to navigate the health emergency.
Blaine says he has “a couple of ideas on how we can get through this thing together.” He has been sharing his views on why masks are an essential part of public health practice and why everyone should always have one at the ready.
According to Blaine, the whole thing started because he was disappointed in the response to COVID-19.
‘Too late’
“It began in April or so right in the heat of the pandemic. I was talking with a friend and … I was just frustrated because it felt like we were just kind of always behind it, always too late with everything we were doing,” Blaine told CBC News.
At that time, he said the only reasonable exit strategy for dealing with the pandemic is to adopt widespread immunity testing to determine who among us possesses the required antibodies to keep the virus at bay.
“I was feeling helpless and frustrated, and I remember one day I was on the phone chatting with a friend. I heard at the time that there were some Canadian companies that were developing some serological tests or immunity tests and I thought the government should just pour money into this.
“I was ranting on the phone with my friend and he said … I want to film you doing this,” Blaine added.
The rest, as they say, is history.
With the help of documentary producer Craig Thompson, Blaine has been making short videos designed to help people protect themselves and others from COVID-19.
The latest video, Matter of Masks, was posted on June 19. Within a week it amassed nearly 20,000 views.
Positive reaction
Based on the viewer comments, people appreciate what Blaine is doing.
“This is a clear message. Thank you Dr Blaine,” Dorothy Byrne-Jones wrote.
“And yes carry a mask with you … Remember it is not about making a fashion statement. You don’t need to have one to match what you are wearing.”
Meanwhile, Anne Anderson said the public should know, “my mask protects you, and your mask protects me,” and if everyone has a mask, we are all protected.
“Thanks for this, but people who won’t wear one believe they don’t need to because they are not sick or they are young … People still have it in their head that a mask doesn’t protect them and that’s all they care about,” Anderson added.
“We have the ability to know whether people are immune to this disease or not, and that’s our ticket to de-escalating the measures we’re in and getting our economy back on track,” Blaine said.
“Let’s solve the problem here and then share it with the rest of the world.”
The Change Foundation’s Future Innovator Awards recognizes six people, teams and/or organizations who have a strong vision for positive change for patients and caregivers and have the potential to make notable impact going forward. Members and member-affiliated organizations and individuals were recipients, including:
Peterborough Family Health Team– one of the pioneers of advisory councils. Peterborough is a city of just more than 80,000 people about 125 kilometres northeast of Toronto. Because the FHT also serves surrounding Peterborough County, the team has a total of 111,000 patients on its roster and a budget of $11.2 million. There is an estimated 8,000 residents who don’t have a primary care provider locally; the team has opened two nurse-led clinics to serve them and summer residents from nearby cottage country, with one of the clinics providing virtual care. Efforts to create its patient council have been carefully thought out and focused on balanced representation.
St. Michael’s Academic Family Health Team– The team serves 46,000 people in a catchment area that encompasses both the city’s poorest neighbourhoods and some of its wealthiest. Forty per cent of its patients were born outside of Canada and 8% have immigrated in the past 10 years. Just over a third of patients own their homes, 5% are “marginally housed” and 30% live below the low-income cut off. Involving members of vulnerable communities and trying to ensure an equal voice to all have been among the challenges it has worked on.
Dufferin Area Family Health Team– just northwest of the Greater Toronto Area. It serves some 48,000 patients, who are spread over several communities including former small towns that are transforming into suburbs — some with a high percentage of visible minorities, others not — as well as rural residents who may struggle to make ends meet. As a result, accurate representation of the population has been a concern.
This report aims to explore neighbourhood-level trends among laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 cases reported in Ontario who do not reside in long term care (LTC) from a health equity perspective. It combines individual case data with neighbourhood-level data on race and immigration as measured by the “ethnic concentration” dimension of the Ontario Marginalization Index (ON-Marg).
The report findings improve our understanding of how COVID-19 impacts neighbourhoods differently in Ontario, particularly those with greater diversity that may already experience marginalization related to racism and discrimination. This information could be used to inform planning and equitable prioritization of public health and health system resources and interventions.
Highlights
The most ethno-culturally diverse neighbourhoods in Ontario, primarily those concentrated in large urban areas, are experiencing disproportionately higher rates of COVID-19 and related deaths compared to neighbourhoods that are the less diverse.
After adjusting for differences in the age structure between neighbourhoods, the rate of COVID-19 infections in the most diverse neighbourhoods was three times higher than the rate in the least diverse neighbourhoods.
People living in the most diverse neighbourhoods were also more likely to experience severe outcomes (hospitalizations, ICU admissions and deaths) than people living in the least diverse neighbourhoods:
