(New York, N.Y.): A ground-breaking Canadian blood pressure education program will be a powerful tool in fight to reduce stroke around the world. This morning, Dr. Sheldon Tobe, Chair of the Canadian Hypertension Education Program (CHEP) and a long-standing Heart and Stroke Foundation researcher, unveiled a new and powerful tool in the management of hypertension at the American Society of Hypertension (ASH) Scientific Meeting —The Heart&Stroke Hypertension Management Program.

The May 2011 edition of Canadian Family Physician reports on a study of team members in Ontario's FHTs, by Dr. Michelle Howard and others from McMaster University. Click here to access the full report.

Key findings are:

• Interprofessional teamwork, by way of family health teams (FHTs), shows promise as a strategy to facilitate optimal primary health care.

A number of leading experts from Canada and abroad comment on Ontario's experience in setting up Family Health Teams.  The Annals of Family Medicine has published these responses to an article on FHTs in the March 2011 edition of this American journal. The original article had been written for the benefit of Americans trying to come up with models of their own, by a team led by Walter Rosser of Queen's University. This publication was reported by Canadian Press, and the story picked up in a number of Ontario newspapers.

Atikokan -- Two years in, the Atikokan Falls Prevention Team has proven its value – so much so, the team plans to stay together, and continue helping seniors maintain the quality of their lives. “There isn’t another program in the region like this,” said occupational therapist Amanda Dickson, the team leader. “It would be pretty rare to get the professionals we have to be able to work so closely together on a team. In a small town, we are able to do that.” Originally, the group was one of 33 community-based fall prevention teams funded for two years by the Northwest LHIN and St.

Virtual wards are a model pioneered in England. They use the systems, staffing and daily routine of a hospital ward to provide case management to patients in the community but without the walls of the hospital. Patients who are admitted to the SETFHT Virtual Ward receive post-hospital discharge follow-up and interventions by a team of health care professional under the supervision of a physician.

AFHTO's membership year begins on April 1. Notices and registration forms were e-mailed to all FHT leaders on March 3. Why join? - click here. What are AFHTO's plans? - click here to see the AFHTO Strategic Plan 2011-2013. What are the fees? - click here. Need a registration form? - click here. AFHTO is the only group that advocates on behalf of ALL family health teams.

The most recent posts include: ·         Ideas and resources for FHT planning ·         The Progress of FHTs in Ontario, recently published in Annals of Family Medicine ·         AFHTO Strategic Plan 2011-13 and FHT Survey Results ·         Updated information on learning events On our Members Only website, you’ll find new posts on the following pages: ·  &nb

This strategic plan charts the next steps in the journey to establish FHTs as a highly-valuable and valued model for delivering primary health care to Ontarians, and to develop the capacity for its representative body, AFHTO, to be their strong and effective voice. A draft plan, built upon the consensus achieved among 150 FHT leaders in November 2009, was sent out to all FHT leaders for consultation at the end of January.

A web-based meeting attended by over 70 FHT leaders on February 9 indicated agreement with AFHTO’s general direction.  We would like to hear more from you about where we place our priorities and how we resource the work needed to advance them.