New Initiatives from BJD Canada: Bone and Joint Health Canada

James P. Waddell, M.D., FRCSC
Coordinator, Canadian National Action Network
Toronto, ON

The Bone and Joint Decade Canada is launching a new initiative tentatively entitled “Bone and Joint Health Canada”. We want to address the two principle issues we see as pivotal to improving musculoskeletal care in Canada. The first is access to care – not just for hip and knee replacement patients but for all MSK patients requiring both non-surgical and surgical treatment. We have an excellent opportunity at this time to engage in planning with provincial and federal government agencies regarding improved access to care. The second issue is MSK education. This education should not be thought of as medical student education only but also continuing education for practitioners, appropriate education for allied health personnel and, of course, improved educational content in the undergraduate curriculum.

To this end we are planning a meeting in conjunction with the Canadian Orthopaedic Association Annual Meeting in Toronto this June. This meeting will bring together individuals who have been identified as appropriate champions for MSK care in their home provinces as well as appropriate individuals from the COA and Bone and Joint Decade Canada. We hope to address a number of issues including:

1) The establishment of a knowledge network between orthopaedic surgeons in all provinces regarding wait time strategies and programmes that have been established to look at improving access to care. We are interested in learning about the successes and failures in different provinces so that we can have a more uniform approach and a more successful approach to wait list management.

2) High volume arthroplasty institutions are developing a number of strategies to increase the volume of arthroplasty without decreasing access to orthopaedic surgery for non-joint replacement patients. We are inviting representatives from these institutions to this meeting so that there can be an exchange of ideas regarding these programmes, how they were established and how they are run. We are hopeful that lessons from high volume arthroplasty providers can be implemented in smaller centres to ensure that all orthopaedic patients have equitable access to the resources.

3) A national strategy with regard to osteoporosis based on the very successful programme instituted by the government of Ontario with the Ontario Orthopaedic Association. There will be a meeting of provincial champions, surgical and non-surgical, with representations from the Ministry of Health of Ontario regarding how they established the strategy in Ontario and how this can be implemented across the country.

4) The musculoskeletal curriculum as developed by Dr. Veronica Wadey will be front and centre in our discussions regarding improvement of the MSK curriculum not only in medical schools but in other professional schools. We anticipate that the same individuals who are championing access to care will be prepared to champion the improved MSK curriculum.

I feel that these series of meetings in June will set the tone for orthopaedic involvement in Canadian health care for the next five years. I am delighted that so many people have already accepted our invitation to participate and I feel that all of orthopaedic surgery in Canada will benefit from these initiatives.

I will report back shortly!