Impact of a Remote Patient Monitoring Platform on Outcomes Following a Total Hip or Knee Arthroplasty.

Background: The coronavirus pandemic highlighted the need for remote patient monitoring to deliver and provide access to patient care and education. A mobile-based app providing interactive tools for patient education and monitoring was piloted at Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre (TBRHSC) in November 2020. We aimed to examine the platform's impact on postoperative length of stay, hospital readmissions, and emergency department (ED) visits 60 days postsurgery in total hip and knee arthroplasty patients in Northwestern Ontario.

Comparison of a validated decision-support tool to a standard of care triage system for knee osteoarthritis assessment: a proof-of-concept study.

Background: Patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) in northwestern Ontario are referred by their primary care provider (PCP) to a centralized assessment clinic for evaluation by an advanced practice physiotherapist (APP) to determine if they will require surgical management. However, many patients are found to not require surgical management, resulting in delays for patients who do. A decision-support tool was developed to address this issue and to guide treatment options by determining the need for surgical or nonsurgical approaches.

Improving spine surgical access, appropriateness and efficiency in metropolitan, urban and rural settings.

Background: The Inter-professional Spine Assessment and Education Clinics (ISAEC) were developed to improve primary care assessment, education and management of patients with persistent or recurrent low back pain-related symptoms. This study aims to determine the effect of ISAEC on access for surgical assessment, referral appropriateness and efficiency for patients meeting a priori referral criteria in rural, urban and metropolitan settings.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective review of prospective data from networked ISAEC clinics in Thunder Bay, Hamilton and Toronto, Ontario.

The Need for Multidimensional Stratification of Chronic Low Back Pain (LBP).

Unlabelled: MINI: The authors wanted to determine which existing primary-care low back pain stratification schema is associated with distinct subpopulations. Initial stratification by DMPP identified potentially distinct epidemiological groups. DMPP stratification resulted in discrimination beyond that provided by disability or chronicity risk stratification alone.