The annual Government of Ontario Progress Report on Ontario's health care performance is a province wide look at progress to date in home and community care, health human resources, telehealth, access to care in the North and health indicators. The 2012 Report, released on October 26, highlights the Government's efforts to improve access to care through an increased role for Family Health Teams in primary care in Ontario. As the report indicates, maximizing human resources and equipping health professionals with the tools they need to provide care most effectively increases the health care system's efficiency. See the report here.      

In September, Statistics Canada released its study Overweight and obesity in children and adolescents, which found that nearly one third (31.5%) of Canadians between the ages of 5 and 17 years of age are either overweight (19.8%) or obese (11.7%). See the article here. 

Statistics Canada has also made available a variety of tables from the 2009 to 2011 Canadian Health Measures Survey. Tables on the distribution of the household population by musculoskeletal fitness norms, by age and by sex between 2007 and 2009 were included. See available tables here.   

As part of the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care's (MOHLTC) Low Back Pain Strategy, the Ministry is funding a pilot project to implement and test a rapid assessment and chronic condition management approach to care for low back pain patients. The Interprofessional Spine Assessment and Education Clinic (ISAEC) project, the development of which was aided by the OCA and administered by the University Health Network, launched in three sites in Toronto, Hamilton and Thunder Bay, on November 1. Advanced Practice Clinicians have been hired to provide assessments for LBP patients referred by a centralized referral portal based at the respective spine centre, (i.e. hospital) in each location. Practice Leads at each of the hospitals will manage the referral process and ensure that patients are sent, where appropriate, to the assessment clinics as opposed to further diagnostics and surgical consults. Notably, 50% of the Advanced Practice Clinicians are chiropractors and 2 of the 3 Practice Leads secured are chiropractors. This pilot project will continue until November 1, 2013. Learn more about the Provincial Strategy here.