WHO cites CMCC, St. Mike’s Hospital integrated health care model

Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College (CMCC) congratulates its colleagues and staff at St. Michael’s Hospital’s Academic Family Health Team for recognition by the World Health Organization for ongoing work enhancing primary care delivery in Toronto’s inner-city community, at an event at the World Health Assembly, held May 27 in Geneva, Switzerland.

CMCC is proud to be a part of the team recognized by the WHO as part of a comprehensive program that includes specialists in income support, chiropractic, psychology and acupuncture services, a legal literacy program, and a committee dedicated to addressing the key determinants of health, the college said in a statement.

CMCC interns joined the new and innovative health team at St. Mike’s Academic Family Health Team (AFHT) in 2012, moving from a separate chiropractic clinic operating in the hospital since 2004 to function as a fully-integrated team, providing seamless patient care.

Drs. Deborah Kopansky-Giles and Igor Steiman have been with the chiropractic team since 2004, dividing their time between treatment, program evaluation and research and education. They were joined last year by Dr. Chadwick Chung, the newest addition to CMCC’s team at St. Mike’s.

Kopansky-Giles is a professor in the Department of Graduate Education and Research at CMCC and a clinician-scientist with St. Michael’s Department of Family and Community Medicine.

“We select services and design care around our patients’ needs,” says Kopansky-Giles. “We organize our people to improve team cohesion and satisfaction and measure quality improvement.”

She has been involved with the WHO’s framework on Integrated People-centred Health Services since 2014 and was in Geneva for the World Health Assembly.

“WHO’s recognition is a wonderful acknowledgement of the achievement of the model developed at St. Michael’s Hospital through the work of many within the institution, and notably, through the hard work of faculty member Dr. Kopansky-Giles,” says Dr. Anthony Tibbles, dean of clinics, CMCC. “It truly is a model of patient-centred interprofessional care that now can be replicated elsewhere in the world.”

“As one of the initial clinicians overseeing interns within St. Michael’s Hospital’s AFHT, Dr. Steiman has played a significant role in developing and refining the collaborative model from a chiropractic perspective. The newest member of the team, Dr. Chadwick Chung, has been trained over the past year within this model, the benefits of which can be seen within CMCC students, students from other disciplines, as well as present and future patients,” continues Tibbles.

During the assembly, the WHO shared St. Michael’s approach to health service reform with its new website.