News

Feb. 25- The Superior Family Health Team is collaborating with community partners to reduce the amount of drug misuse, drug-related crime and incidents of overdose in the Algoma region with the Fentanyl Patch 4 Patch Exchange Program. The program is a collaborative effort between area physicians, pharmacists, and agencies, including Algoma Public Health, Sault Ste. Marie Police Service, Group Health Centre, A New Link, Sault Area Hospital, the North East LHIN, and Dr. Alan McLean and the Superior FHT.

There is a compelling association between comprehensive primary care and system efficiency and effectiveness. The lifelong work of the late Barbara Starfield observed that an investment in primary care was associated with improved system quality, equity and efficiency (reduced cost)^{[i],[ii],[iii] ,[iv]}. In British Columbia this efficiency was quantified by Marcus Hollander.

Feb. 25 - On The Agenda with Steve Paikin, Claudia Mariano, Nurse Practitioner at West Durham FHT and AFHTO Board Member, appeared on the show to discuss the need for increased support for recruitment & retention in primary care. The program, "Health Care in a Time of Austerity" focused on primary care reform in a time of fiscal restraint.

Feb. 19- Espanola and Area FHT’s Care of the Elderly Program is a pilot in which the team’s family physician, Dr. Hama Abdel-Salam pays an average 40 house calls a week to frail elderly patients. This results in better health outcomes for them, and reduced ER visits and lengths of stay at the hospital.

Feb. 17 - Nunatsiaq News interviewed Akausivik’s executive director, Connie Siedule on the team’s significance for the Inuit community and its recent independence from the Tungasuvvingat Inuit community health centre. The only Inuit FHT in Ontario, they address the often complex needs of their patients (in Inuktitut if needed or desired), diverting them from emergency care where most Inuit patients would go before they opened.

Feb. 17 – Provincial funding for Barrie and Community FHT’s pilot project, Most Valuable Player (MVP) Clinic was announced last Thursday. The clinic gives priority to unattached medically complex patients. Each patient (the MVP) is supported through a process that provides an example for interprofessional collaboration. Click here for the Barrie Examiner article.

Feb. 5 - Almost overnight, 51 AFHTO members have taken up a new tool to extract data from any custom forms in PS Suite EMR, something that was not possible for teams to do previously. The tool emerged from the Innovation project developed by the East Wellington FHT and has spread like wildfire via Quality Improvement Decision Support Specialists (QIDSS) in family health teams. As a result, Dr.

Feb. 4- Researchers at the Centre for Family Medicine FHT conducted an environmental scan of 102 FHTs with the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Waterloo to gain a better understanding of the current use of physical activity as medicine among Ontario’s FHTs. Their findings were published in the journal Applied Physiology, Nutrition, and Metabolism. Click here for further details.

Feb. 3 – Global News profiled “Reach Out and Read”, a literacy program launched by St. Michael’s Hospital Academic FHT in partnership with the Toronto Public Library. The initiative aims to start children reading earlier in life to aid in their physical and mental development. Click here to see the video.