Winter 2020 (Volume 30, Number 4)
Report from the ORA
By Philip A. Baer, MDCM, FRCPC, FACR
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We are six-plus months into the pandemic in Ontario,
with all the challenges that has entailed.
ORA members pivoted immediately to virtual care
in mid-March 2020. We ran five ORA Town Halls throughout
April and May 2020 to update members on the evolving
situation. All of these are archived on the ORA website
www.ontariorheum.ca (via the members-only portion), where
we also house links to multiple COVID-19 resources, including
financial and infection control information.
Unfortunately, our ORA Annual Scientific Meeting
(ASM) scheduled for mid-April 2020 fell victim to the
pandemic and had to be cancelled. We will definitely be
holding our 2021 ORA ASM from May 28-30, 2021, either
virtually or in a hybrid format. Our entire star-studded roster
of speakers confirmed for the 2020 event has agreed to
participate. They include Drs. Joseph Smolen, Maya Buch,
Michelle Petri, Jeffrey Curtis, Christopher Ritchlin, Robert
Inman, Shahin Jamal, Robert Bell and Jason Lee. Full details
can be found on our website.
In the background, all ORA committees continue to
function and deal with their mandates. Drug shortages,
biosimilars, virtual medicine and transitions in and out of
practice are key areas we continue to focus on. The Informatics
Committee has officially launched phase 1 of the
ORDER project, aiming to create a dashboard for a rheumatology
elecronic medical record (EMR), which will allow
participants to view their own practice outcomes, and compare
themselves to the aggregate of participating rheumatologists
within the province. The ultimate goal is to develop
an enhanced EMR experience, while improving patient
outcomes in a measurable fashion. Also, a new Northern
Ontario committee has been created from our RheumOpportunities
Committee, chaired by Sahil Koppikar.
Our new ORA Board and Executive took over their roles
as of May 25, 2020. Special thanks to our three departing
board members for their hard work on behalf of our members:
Drs. Vandana Ahluwalia, Rick Adachi and Vinod Chandran.
We welcomed to the ORA Board Drs. Shelly Dunne,
Raman Rai and Faiza Khokhar. All of us are working hard
advocating on behalf of the ORA membership and our patients
during these challenging times. Other transitions include
the retirement of our long-time Executive Director,
Denis Morrice, who was instrumental in leading the ORA to
its current strong position, well-known to all stakeholders
in the arthritis space. Sandy Kennedy, previously our ORA
Project Manager, has taken over Denis’ position.
There are always opportunities for ORA members to participate
in ORA activities and committees. Check out our
website for more information.
The ORA board at a past meeting:
From left to right; Back row: Dr. Carter Thorne, Dr. Tom Appleton,
Dr. Henry Averns,
Dr. Rick Adachi, and Dr. Imtiaz Khan; Middle row:
Mr. Denis Morrice, Dr. Vinod Chandran,
Dr. Art Karasik, Dr. Felix Leung,
Dr. Philip Baer, Ms. Sandy Kennedy, Dr. Nikhil Chopra, and Dr. Deborah
Levy; Front Row: Dr. Thanu Ruban, Dr. Janet Pope, Dr. Jane Purvis,
Dr. Vandana Ahluwalia, and Dr. Julie Kovacs
Philip A. Baer, MDCM, FRCPC, FACR
Editor-in-chief, CRAJ
Scarborough, Ontario
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