Stay up to date on Choosing Wisely Canada events and other happenings.
Sign upA number of hospitals across Canada have taken significant steps to eliminate unnecessary tests and treatments and in the process, have become Choosing Wisely Canada Hospitals. Find out how your hospital can be part of this movement.
Event DetailsThis webinar will provide an overview of how contemporary behavioural theories and frameworks can aid with the development of Choosing Wisely Canada de-implementation initiatives. Join us on Wednesday, January 15 at 12:00 p.m. (ET) for this webinar presented by Dr. Andrea Patey, a Senior Research Associate at the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and Assistant Professor (adjunct) in the Faculty of Medicine, Queen’s University.
Event DetailsEmergency Departments (EDs) are often the highest volume area of a hospital, in part due to their provision of care for patients 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. With increasingly large patient volumes and growing pressure to manage patients as efficiently as possible, comes the potential for overuse of tests and treatments. Join emergency physicians Drs. Lucas Chartier and Shawn Dowling on Wednesday, January 8 at 12 p.m. (ET), as they discuss the synergy of quality improvement and Choosing Wisely in the ED, including compelling cases and examples. The goals of the webinar are to have attendees reflect on their work and how they can incorporate these ideas locally.
Event DetailsMany older adults are often prescribed multiple medications for different health conditions. While some of these medications are necessary, polypharmacy and inappropriate medication use can be harmful and result in poor outcomes in older adults.
This webinar will provide an overview of the usage of polypharmacy and deprescribing within Canada. Join us on Wednesday December 18, 2019 at 12:00 p.m. (ET) for this webinar presented by Dr. Emily McDonald, an attending physician at the McGill University Health Centre, and an Assistant Professor at McGill University.
It is widely recognized that implementing Choosing Wisely recommendations is a necessary next step to achieving system-level improvements in health care. However, a lack of capacity among health professions can be a key challenge in driving successful implementation efforts to reduce unnecessary use of health care resources. On Wednesday, December 4th Dr. Brian Wong, Associate Professor and Director of Continuing Education and Quality Improvement in the Department of Medicine at the University of Toronto, will be joining us to describe innovative strategies aimed at building capacity through training and education across the learning continuum.
Event DetailsCanadian low-value care experts, Dr. Sacha Bhatia and Mr. Zachary Bouck discuss their lessons learned from the measurement and evaluation of Choosing Wisely Canada recommendations; benchmarking unnecessary ordering practices and creating indicators in both acute and primary care settings that have been adopted locally and nationally.
Event DetailsThe Using Antibiotics Wisely campaign has leveraged antimicrobial stewardship efforts to reduce unnecessary antibiotics for the two most inappropriately treated conditions: respiratory tract infections (RTI) in primary care and urinary tract infections (UTI) in long-term care. Join Drs. Jerome Leis and Andrea Moser on Wednesday, November 13 for a review of practical tips on how to use antibiotics judiciously in the management of these conditions, based on practice change recommendations developed by healthcare professional across the country.
Event DetailsChoosing Wisely Canada is hosting a one-hour webinar for patients and the public to learn more about the campaign. The webinar will be presented by Choosing Wisely Canada's Dr. Wendy Levinson, Chair and Todd Sikorski and Amy Ma, Patient and Public Advisors.
Event DetailsTaking place at the Vancouver Convention Centre in Vancouver, British Columbia, Family Medicine Forum is an annual conference for family physicians, hosted by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Event DetailsHosted by Choosing Wisely NS, the 2019 Choosing Wisely with Academic Detailing Conference is a one and a half day small group event designed to engage audiences in case based, inter-professional informed discussions.
Best evidence suggests the patient you are seeing right now doesn’t need imaging for their low back pain. The patient thinks imaging will help his recovery like it did for his neighbor. There are other patients in the waiting room and you’re already behind. What do you do? Can you communicate the message that imaging is not needed, build trust, and stay on time?
Event DetailsHosted by the Ontario College of Family Physicians, Practising Wisely will focus on reducing over-prescribing, over-imaging, over-screening and over-monitoring.
Event DetailsTaking place at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, Ontario, AFHTO's 'Health System Integration Built on the Foundation of Team-Based Primary Health Care' features many relevant Choosing Wisely themes including patient and family-centred care, and comprehensive team-based care.
Event DetailsTo provide evidence-based treatments and reduce unnecessary care, identifying what needs to change is only half the battle – figuring out how to change is the next step. In this webinar, Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw, Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Uptake and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Implementation Research, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, will introduce us to implementation science and discuss how we implement change using models, theories and frameworks using case study examples.
This webinar is the first in a series on Implementation Science. Future webinar topics include barriers assessments, process and outcome evaluations and work in progress discussions from others who are currently implementing CWC recommendations.
The College of Family Physicians of Canada’s (CFPC) newly launched Practice Improvement Initiative (Pii) harnesses quality improvement (QI) approaches, practice-level data, and research to enable family physicians, family medicine residents, and the teams they work in to undertake QI. Pii aims to leverage, scale-up, and share existing QI resources and create new ones where there are gaps. On Wednesday, September 4th, we will be joined by Dr. José Pereira, Director of Research in Academic Family Medicine, CFPC to hear more about the Pii program as well as explore how family physicians could earn Mainpro+ credits for implementing quality improvement in their practices.
In February 2019, The C.D. Howe Institute released a commentary titled What the Doctor Ordered: Improving the Use and Value of Laboratory Testing, stressing the distinct opportunity for quality improvement around laboratory testing in Canada. The article, co-authored by Dr. Christopher Naugler and Rosalie Wyonch, further details the importance of prioritizing patient outcomes when it comes to lab testing, addressing variation, as well as reducing inappropriate testing and limiting unnecessary cost to the system. Join us on Thursday June 6th, to hear from Dr. Christopher Naugler, Department Head and Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Calgary.
Event DetailsThe Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, along with the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, will be offering an ASPIRE workshop May 28 - 31, 2019, in Ottawa, Ontario.
Improve your skills in teaching patient safety and quality improvement.
Taking place in Montreal, Quebec at the Centre Mont-Royal, Choosing Wisely Canada's National Meeting is an opportunity for clinicians, patients and system leaders to come together to discuss, engage, and network on topics related to reducing unnecessary tests and treatments.
Event DetailsResidency is a critical period for physicians to gain as much experience as possible as they prepare for independent practice. Behaviours, including resource stewardship, are developed in residency and continue throughout careers. Join us Thursday May 2 to hear from Dr. Chris Hillis, a hematologist at McMaster University and Postgraduate Medical Education Specialist at Choosing Wisely Canada, and Dr. Chandandeep Bal, a PGY 1 resident at The Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.
Event DetailsThe Ontario Hospital Association, in partnership with Choosing Wisely Canada and Health Quality Ontario, will be hosting a three-part webinar series to support Ontario hospitals that may be looking to start, or advance, their local Choosing Wisely efforts. The third webinar of the series, Diving into Overuse in Hospitals: Organizational Leadership & Culture Change, will be held on Thursday April 18th at 12 p.m. ET.
For this webinar we will be joined by two hospitals taking the ultimate plunge, integrating Choosing Wisely into their hospital’s culture and demonstrating transformative leadership, as described in Level 3 of the Starter Kit : North York General Hospital and Bluewater Health.
Taking place in Halifax Nova Scotia, Choosing Wisely Nova Scotia is hosting a public discussion for patients and providers to talk about unnecessary tests and treatments, and to explain why these conversations are important.
Event DetailsIn 2015 data showed that urea, LDH, AST, CK, ferritin, and uric acid were being ordered in high volumes by family physicians in Eastern Health (EH), the largest health authority in Newfoundland and Labrador. Partnering with Quality of Care NL, EH was able to reduce these six tests by 20-70% in just two years by implementing a range of interventions. Tune in to Choosing Wisely Talks Thursday April 4 at 12 ET to learn more about EH’s experience significantly reducing potentially unnecessary biochemical testing and the importance of high leverage interventions as well as academic detailing.
Event DetailsThe Ontario Hospital Association, in partnership with Choosing Wisely Canada and Health Quality Ontario, will be hosting a three-part webinar series to support Ontario hospitals that may be looking to start, or advance, their local Choosing Wisely efforts. The second webinar of the series, Diving into Overuse in Hospitals: Using Quality Improvement to Drive Change, will be held on Thursday, March 28th at 12 p.m. ET.
For this webinar, we will be joined by two hospitals that have experience in implementing Choosing Wisely recommendations using quality improvement (QI) methods and frameworks outlined in Level 2 of the Starter Kit: Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre and Hôpital Montfort.
Nurses make up 48% of all health-care professionals in Canada and play a major role as leaders and advocates in reducing overuse of unnecessary tests, treatments and interventions. They are ideally placed to engage in conversations about appropriate care with patients. Join us on Thursday, March 7, to hear from the Canadian Nurses Association on how it has partnered with Choosing Wisely Canada to develop nurse-led Choosing Wisely Canada lists in collaboration with nursing specialties.
The Ontario Hospital Association, in partnership with Choosing Wisely Canada and Health Quality Ontario, will be hosting a three-part webinar series to support Ontario hospitals that may be looking to start, or advance, their local Choosing Wisely efforts. The first webinar of the series, Diving into Overuse in Hospitals: 5 Quick Wins to Get Started, will be held on Wednesday, February 13th at 12 p.m. ET.
For this webinar, we will be joined by two hospitals that have demonstrated leadership in implementing the quick wins described in Level 1 of the Starter Kit : St. Michael’s Hospital and Trillium Health Partners.
CFHI is working closely with organizations and provinces in Canada to improve patient care through quality improvement, taking us from ‘the land of pilot projects’ to the land of spread and scale. For February’s Choosing Wisely Talks we will be joined by CFHI to learn how they support healthcare organizations adapt, implement, spread and measure improvements with organizations in New Brunswick and Quebec.
Event DetailsDiving into Overuse in Hospitals is a new campaign that aims to reduce unnecessary tests and treatments in hospital settings. The goal is to encourage hospitals across Canada to join the global Choosing Wisely movement by making changes, small or large, to reduce overuse. Join the launch webinar January 31st at 12pm ET to learn more!
For the first time ever, and to kick off the 2019 series, Choosing Wisely talks will be in French and speak to the experience of clinicians and organizations engaging in the Choisir avec soin campaign in Quebec. Dr. Rene Wittmer, a Montreal based family physician as well as a facilitator and member of the scientific committee for the CFPC and Practicing Wisely, will be joining us for January’s webinar.
Event DetailsIn 2010 the NBA adopted data and analytics to optimize player performance. Not surprisingly, this improved the accuracy of players’ shots, made them shoot to their best abilities, and brought transparency to scores. If this is what data did for basketball imagine what it can do for health care! For December's CW Talks we will be joined by Dr. Sacha Bhatia. Dr. Bhatia will explore how data can improve physician and team performance and discuss current barriers to transformative data analytics in healthcare through a Choosing Wisely context.
Event DetailsTaking place at Metro Convention Centre in Toronto, Family Medicine Forum is an annual conference for family physicians, hosted by the College of Family Physicians of Canada. Choosing Wisely Canada will have a booth at this year's forum to share primary care resources related to the campaign.
Event Details‘Tis the season! Join us Thursday November 1st from 12pm-1pm ET to hear how the Using Antibiotics Wisely campaign has progressed since last year’s Antibiotic Awareness Week. Participants can look forward to Dr. Guylene Theriault, Choosing Wisely Canada Primary Care Co-Lead, speaking about practice changes the Working Group has put together and showcasing selected clinical tools that match to each syndrome helping front line clinicians choose wisely when it comes to antibiotic prescriptions for upper respiratory infections.
Event DetailsTaking place at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, Ontario, AFHTO's 'Relationship Design with Starfield in Mind' features many relevant Choosing Wisely themes including scale and spread of programs, and the future of regional approach to health care. This year's AFHTO conference focuses on the importance of primary health care and investing in interprofessional team-based care for better patient care in Ontario.
Event DetailsTaking place at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto, Health Quality Transformation focuses on putting quality into action with themes focused on improvement, measurement, and fostering a culture of quality in health care. Choosing Wisely Canada will have a booth a this year's conference to share and discuss new campaign resources.
Event DetailsTaking place in the Banff Centre in Alberta, CSIM's Annual Meeting brings together clinicians, educators, researchers and trainees in internal medicine. This year's conference features a workshop on implementing a Choosing Wisely recommendation on safe opioid prescribing.
Event DetailsOver the past two years, five hospitals and six family health teams in Ontario have worked jointly on a groundbreaking initiative to implement and spread the Choosing Wisely recommendations across their sites. They have achieved significant reductions in overuse across more than 10 clinical areas, but have also encountered a number of challenges along the way. Join us for retrospective on the project, ARTIC-Choosing Wisely: An Idea Worth Spreading. The webinar will be delivered by the project leads of this initiative at North York General Hospital.
Ontario College of Family Physicians' Practising Wisely workshops focus on reducing overuse using the latest evidence and tools. Upcoming workshops are available in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario, and Quebec.
Event DetailsDid you know The Canadian Pharmacists Association has a list of 'Six Things Pharmacists and Patients Should Question'? For September's webinar we'll hear from Dr. Shelita Dattani, Director of Practice Development and Knowledge Translation, and Dr. Phil Emberley, Director of Practice Advancement and Research, about why it was imperative the CPhA join the campaign as well as to hear about how pharmacists can incorporate Choosing Wisely concepts in practice.
Event DetailsThe EQUIP program’s enriched content and deeper dive into QI methodologies should make projects more likely to succeed, and will pre pare participants to maximize their project’s impact and receive academic recognition for their work.
Event DetailsWhen health care providers have a solid understanding of their performance and ordering patterns in comparison to their peers, it can help drive change and improve health outcomes for all. For June’s Choosing Wisely Talks, presented by the Canadian Medical Association, we will be joined by data driven quality improvement expert, Dr. Noah Ivers - Scientist and Family Physician at Women’s College Hospital, Toronto.
Event DetailsThere are many unique challenges and opportunities for tackling overuse in rural and remote communities. For May’s Choosing Wisely Talks we will be joined by Drs. Sarah Cook and David Pontin, from the Northwest Territories, to discuss the implementation of Choosing Wisely Canada recommendations within the realities of northern and rural Canada.
Event DetailsTaking place at the Globe and Mail Centre in Toronto, Ontario, Choosing Wisely Canada's National Meeting is an opportunity for clinicians, patients and system leaders to come together to discuss, engage, and network on topics related to reducing unnecessary care. Registration and call for abstracts are now open!
Event DetailsTo reduce unnecessary or harmful care, identifying what needs to change is only half the battle - figuring out how to change is the next step. Join Choosing Wisely Canada and Dr. Jeremy Grimshaw, Canada Research Chair in Knowledge Transfer and Uptake and Senior Scientist at the Centre for Implementation Research, Ottawa Hospital Research Institute, where he will guide participants through the science of implementation and how these methods can be used locally to improve de-implementation of unnecessary care at your institution.
Event DetailsOn March 1st, the Opioid Wisely campaign launches with the release of 7 new specialty-specific opioid recommendations. In addition to the opioid recommendations already published, this brings the total number of Choosing Wisely Canada opioid related recommendations to 14. Tune in to see the new recommendations and accompanying patient resources. Joining us will be Dr. David Juurlink, one of Canada’s leading experts on appropriate opioid prescribing, discussing how clinicians can prescribe opioids more safely, as well as some of the barriers to practice change.
Event DetailsSometimes patients don’t fully understand the risks and benefits of treatment options, and sometimes clinicians don’t either! This lack of understanding often leads to overuse. Join us and our Primary Care Co-Lead, Dr. Kimberly Wintemute, for February's Choosing Wisely Talks where will discuss what the literature says clinicians could be doing better in terms of communication with patients - and what tools exist to help them get there.
Event DetailsChoosing Wisely Canada encourages patients to ask clinicians 4 questions about tests and treatments they think might be unnecessary. But what questions should clinicians ask themselves? Join us and Dr. Sam Campbell on January 4th for a webinar on 5 questions clinicians should ask themselves to ensure that they are ordering the right test and what results they can expect.
Event DetailsFor December's Choosing Wisely Talks we will hear from Dr. Chris Harle, Chair of Ontario Anesthesiologist on how they developed their Beyond The Mask Choosing Wisely Implementation Guide, and how it could be scaled nationally.
Event DetailsTaking place in Ottawa, Ontario, the ASPIRE program is a national faculty development certificate program dedicated to advancing the teaching and education of patient safety, quality improvement and resource stewardship.
Event DetailsHosted by the Ontario College of Family Physicians at the Fairmont Royal York in Toronto, Practising Wisely will focus on reducing over-prescribing, over-imaging, over-screening and over-monitoring.
Event DetailsHosted by St. Michael's Hospital, at the Chesnut Conference Centre in Toronto, Lab Utilization Symposium will focus on strategies for improving best practices in lab medicine.
Event DetailsTaking place at Palais des congrès de Montréal, Québec, Family Medicine Forum is an annual conference for family physicians, hosted by the College of Family Physicians of Canada.
Event DetailsJust in time for Antibiotic Awareness Week, Dr. Jerome Leis, Physician Lead of Antimicrobial Stewardship and Medical Director of Infection Prevention & Control at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, will share with Choosing Wisely Talks participants interventions proven to be effective in reducing unnecessary antibiotic use across different healthcare settings.
Event DetailsTaking place at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto, Ontario, AFHTO's 'Improving Care Together' focuses on optimizing use of resources and reducing unnecessary treatments. The program will highlight how to make the most of opportunities and minimize challenges, both locally and regionally, to improve health, health care, and value for the people of Ontario.
Event DetailsFor October's webinar tune in to hear from Dr. Christopher Naugler, Choosing Wisely Alberta, and Ms. Sarah Kirby, Choosing Wisely Manitoba, about how their respective provinces saw 91.4% and 86% reductions in vitamin D testing, as well as how the strategies they used might be applied to other types of routine testing.
Event DetailsFor our season premiere, and back to school special, Choosing Wisely Talks we will be joined by Dr. Neil Kalra, Dr. Chris Hillis, and Karen Born, PhD to learn how residents and trainees are implementing the campaign in specialties such as radiology or through local quality improvement projects.
Event DetailsHosted by the Québec Medical Association at the Québec City Convention Centre, Preventing Overdiagnosis 2017 will be the first bilingual conference on overuse and too much medicine.
Event DetailsDr. Michelle Sholzberg, Dr. Lisa Hicks, and Dr. Julie Gilmour reviewed pervasive patterns of overutilization and discussed strategies to address this phenomenon without negatively impacting care.
Event DetailsMeera Paleja will discusses how Behavioural Insights have provided alternative approaches to tackling behaviour change challenges in the healthcare domain, and how this approach may be useful in achieving Choosing Wisely’s goals.
Event DetailsDr. Michael Parchman, Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute and the Director of the MacColl Center for Health Care Innovation, explained how the Taking Action on Overuse framework and change package can be used as a roadmap for engaging care teams in reducing unnecessary care and making efforts last.
Event DetailsDr. Shawn Dowling and Ms. Heather Hair, from Alberta’s Emergency Strategic Clinical Network (ESCN), informed participants about their infographic-based patient implementation strategy on CT scans for MTBI.
Event DetailsThe 2017 Choosing Wisely Canada National Meeting was held on Monday, February 27, 2017 in Calgary, Alberta, hosted by Choosing Wisely Alberta.
Event DetailsDr. Jeremy Friedman of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, addressed the importance of Choosing Wisely in pediatric practice, and discussed SickKids’ own Choosing Wisely ‘top 5’ list.
Event DetailsDr. Kimberly Wintemute, Ms. Emelyn Barlett, and Ms. Kate Walsh of Toronto focused on deprescribing in primary care.
Event DetailsChoosing Wisely Canada co-founders, Dr. Wendy Levinson, Chair, and Tai Huynh, Campaign Director, highlighted the collective progress of the Choosing Wisely Canada community in 2016.
Event DetailsDr. Cara Tannenbaum, the Principal Investigator of the EMPOWER trial, shared the evidence-based benzodiazepine deprescribing tool she created for community-dwelling seniors.
Event DetailsDr. Anthony Train, Calgary, and Dr. Kimberly Wintemute, Toronto, focused on four common clinical scenarios in family medicine that illustrated the tension family docs face when they need to say no to patient requests for low-value care.
Event DetailsDr. Christine Soong, from Sinai Health System (SHS), Toronto, presented their hospital-based Choosing Wisely interventions to reduce overuse.
Event DetailsDr. Jerome Leis, Infectious Diseases specialist and general internist at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, discussed his work on reducing inappropriate catheter use at Sunnybrook.
Event DetailsLeads from the Canadian Institute for Health Information discussed three Choosing Wisely Canada recommendations that are being measured across multiple regions: mammography screening, antipsychotic use for insomnia in kids and preoperative testing in low risk surgery.
Event DetailsDr. Scott Pugel, Kaiser Permanente Georgia, discussed their evidence-based care initiatives.
Event DetailsOn Wednesday, March 30th, 2016 Choosing Wisely Canada held its Inaugural National Meeting at the Bram & Bluma Appel Salon in the Toronto Reference Library.
Event DetailsDr. Justin Stinnett-Donnelly presented the grassroots Choosing Wisely approach he and Dr. Virginia Hood’s led at Fletcher Allen Health Care, University of Vermont.
Event DetailsMollie Cole, Manager of Seniors Health Strategic Clinical Network, Alberta Health Services, presented on behalf of the Appropriate Use of Antipsychotics (AUA) Toolkit Working Group.
Event DetailsDr. Irene Sadek, from Nova Scotia Health Authority, and Dr. Yulia Lin, from Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, presented local efforts to improve the quality of transfusion practice such as single vs. double unit transfusion, and hemoglobin thresholds.
Event DetailsChoosing Wisely Canada core team members presented the new and exciting initiatives underway in 2015.
Event DetailsDr. Lisa Hicks, hematologist and Choosing Wisely physician lead at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto presented their newest implementation projects.
Event DetailsDr. Eric Bohm and Jim Slater, Diagnostic Services Manitoba & George and Fay Yee Centre for Healthcare Innovation, presented on pre-operative testing audit & feedback trials that were conducted in Manitoba and their communications toolkit for physicians and other healthcare providers.
Event DetailsDr. Donna McRitchie, Vice President of Medical and Academic Affairs, and Mark Fam, Program Director of Strategy and Diagnostics, explained how North York General Hospital reduced test ordering by 40% in the Emergency Department.
Event DetailsDr. Sacha Bhatia, Choosing Wisely Canada’s Evaluation Lead, focused on measurement presented initiatives underway in several different provinces.
Event DetailsMedical leaders from across Alberta shared their experiences in implementing Choosing Wisely Canada recommendations and partnering for success.
Event DetailsDr. Christopher Moriates, Co-chair, Costs of Care/ABIM Foundation Teaching Value & Choosing Wisely Challenge, discussed the Choosing Wisely implementation experience at UCSF.
Event DetailsTai Huynh, Choosing Wisely Canada’s Campaign Director, reflected on the various ways in which organizations in Canada and the United States are implementing Choosing Wisely recommendations.
Event DetailsDr. Michael van Duren, Vice President of Variation Reduction at Sutter Health in California, discussed their experience with using data in conversations with physicians, and practice patterns as they relate to the overuse of certain tests, treatments or procedures.
Event DetailsGeoff Wilson, Director of Patient and Public Engagement at Nova Scotia Health Authority (formerly Capital Health), presented their patient and public focused communications plan for January – April 2015.
Event DetailsDo I really need to go to this?
