Category: News

At Winterberry we’re honoured and proud to be nominated for three Reader’s Choice awards. We’re dedicating each of these nominations to our hardworking and skilled team as a way to thank them for helping our patient’s live their best life all year long.

Our clinic is nominated as best in these categories:

We would love your support and vote:

Visit: www.hamiltonnews.com/readerschoice/business/winterberry-family-medicine

It takes less than 10 seconds to vote in all three categories!

Two large scale studies provide evidence that higher-intensity (i.e., 12 or more sessions per year) interventions delivered by trained interventionists result in greater weight loss (13).  These 2-year pragmatic cluster-randomized weight-loss trials conducted in underserved primary care settings were funded by the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) in 2015 and were recently completed. The cluster design was used to minimize contamination between groups. To read the full study, click here.

Photo by Hush Naidoo Jade Photography on Unsplash

At Winterberry we are proud to be part of our community’s COVID-19 vaccine efforts.

We are happy to announce that we will be offering COVID-19 vaccinations to children 5+. Appointments are available on our easy to use, instant booking page.

For full details see the COVID-19 information published by Ontario.ca.

TORONTO — Following Health Canada’s approval of the paediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, children aged five to 11 will be eligible to book their appointment to receive the vaccine beginning Tuesday, November 23, 2021. Approximately one million children aged five to 11 are eligible to receive the vaccine which will help protect Ontario’s progress in the fight against COVID-19 and keep the province’s schools safer and open for in-person learning as more people move indoors and attend family gatherings during the colder months this winter.

“The approval of the Pfizer vaccine for children aged five to 11 is exciting news for families and represents a bright light at the end of the tunnel,” said Christine Elliott, Deputy Premier and Minister of Health. “Offering the protection of the vaccine to children aged five to 11 is a significant milestone in Ontario’s fight against COVID-19 in advance of the holiday season. We continue to encourage all Ontarians to roll up their sleeves and get vaccinated to protect themselves, their families and their communities.”

As of 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, November 23, 2021, children aged five to 11 across Ontario will be eligible to schedule a COVID-19 vaccine appointment through a variety of channels including the COVID-19 vaccination portal and contact centre, directly through public health units using their own booking system, participating pharmacies which individuals can find on Ontario’s website using the pharmacy locator, and select primary care providers.

To book an appointment online, children must be turning five years old by the end of 2021 (born in 2016).

Ontario is expected to receive 1,076,000 doses of the paediatric Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government, which will then be immediately distributed to public health units, pharmacies, and primary care settings across the province. Appointments across the province are expected to begin as early as November 25 when the federal supply arrives at vaccine clinics across the province.

“Receiving vaccine approval for children aged five to 11 is another critical milestone in our vaccination efforts,” said Solicitor General Sylvia Jones. “Across the province, Ontarians have rolled up their sleeves to get vaccinated to stop the spread of COVID-19 and now parents can take comfort in knowing their children will also have the opportunity to be protected.”

“Increasing vaccine rates will help to further minimize disruption and keep students learning in a more normal in-class experience,” said Stephen Lecce, Minister of Education. “As a result of widespread ventilation improvements, increasing investments, and comprehensive testing options, Ontario has one of the lowest case rates for youth under 20 in Canada.”

In addition, the province, in conjunction with Health Canada’s First Nations and Inuit Health Branch, has launched Operation Remote Immunity 3.0 (ORI 3.0) to support the administration of COVID-19 vaccines for children aged five to 11 in Northern and Remote First Nation communities, as well as booster doses to eligible populations. ORI 3.0 will run until March 2022.

“Keeping a low rate of infection in our communities is vital to keeping our schools, our businesses and our social settings as safe as possible while minimizing disruption,” said Dr. Kieran Moore, Chief Medical Officer of Health. “The paediatric Pfizer vaccine offered to children aged five to 11 will be a lower dose that is safe and effective at protecting this age group from COVID-19 and the Delta variant. I strongly encourage every parent and caregiver to get their younger children vaccinated and protected.”

Achieving the highest vaccination rates possible is key to limiting the risk of transmission and protecting our hard-fought progress against COVID-19. Together with its partners the government continues its Last Mile Strategy to administer thousands of first and second doses to adults and youth already eligible for their shot as we also continue to provide booster doses to nearly three million eligible Ontarians.

At the beginning of this month, I had the pleasure of attending Obesity Week 2019 alongside a delegation of physicians from Obesity Canada. In the middle of the bustling Las Vegas strip, we hunkered down and immersed ourselves in the latest advancements in obesity research. From the TOS/WOF Joint Symposium on sugar consumption to the presentation of the Obesity Risk calculator from the team at the Cleveland Clinic, the future of the field proved bright. Despite the wide variety of topics covered over the course of the week, two specific points struck a chord with me, weaving themselves through every discussion and presentation. First, was the importance of the recognition of obesity as a chronic disease rather than a choice; and second, that weight bias poses one of the most difficult barriers to the treatment and management of obesity.

The recognition of obesity as a chronic disease with a defined pathology is a key milestone in the evolution and emergence of modern obesity treatment and management. Yet while obesity has been given “disease” status by the WHO, approaches to treatment have failed to evolve in tandem. Our traditional approach to care treats obesity as a risk factor rather than a disease, simplifying this complex and chronic condition to a case of exceeding the energy balance equation In the simplest terms: patients need to eat less and exercise more.

While exercise is an excellent way to improve your health, it does little to assist weight loss. And while a healthy diet is key to management, it fails to account for a broader range of factors that impact obesity. The science has shown that obesity isn’t a simple equation; it’s a multivariate system. Age, genetics, environment, emotional stability, sleep patterns, lifestyle and co-morbid diseases all play into disease progression. Consequently, physicians and clinicians need to take these factors into account when designing and implementing systemic approaches to treatment and management. We must focus on a holistic approach intended to improve the patients’ overall health and wellbeing, rather than simply focusing on weight loss.

One of the greatest barriers to this new system of care is obesity bias, or the negative attitudes and views about obesity, and the people that suffer from it. While obesity bias is most easily recognizable when it manifests as verbal or physical discrimination, it can present in a multitude of ways. From the lack of appropriately sized chairs in a doctor’s office to denial of healthcare affiliated costs by insurance providers, weight bias can have serious implications for patients’ well-being and may even lead to further weight gain. By perpetuating the traditional view of obesity as a self-inflicted condition rather than a biological disease, it redirects “blame” onto patients and creates negative associations with weight and self-care, resulting in a reduced efficacy of treatment and increasing the likelihood that patients will not seek out treatment.

So how can we, as physicians, combat obesity bias in our everyday practice? An easy first step is to revisit the language we use when discussing obesity. Many of my colleagues at Obesity Week 2019 advocate for the use of “people first language” to reduce stigma and avoid reinforcing negative attitudes around obesity. Initial studies from the Perelman School of Medicine looking at the implementation of this practice are encouraging, suggesting that patients are more likely to engage with healthcare providers about their weight. By avoiding defining patients by their disease, we can facilitate positive and productive discussions around weight and overall health, improving treatment outcomes and preventing the development of comorbid diseases. 

Want to learn about a few more key takeaways from Obesity Week 2019? Check out these top ten highlights from our week in Vegas: https://bit.ly/2qvfXp6