Infectious Disease & e-Referral Development 

Please join us for the 101st in our series “Changing the Way We Work” on Friday, January 16, 2026! In this session, we will have an update on circulating infectious disease, including managing an intense flu season. We will also provide the latest update on e-Referral developments along with a preview of upcoming Patients before Paperwork (Pb4P) workstreams. The main program will be held from 7:55-9 a.m., with a potential extension until 9:15 a.m. for additional Q&A. We appreciate you submitting questions at registration to help us plan the session.  View Past Sessions and Materialshttps://dfcm.utoronto.ca/changing-way-we-work-community-practice Panelists:            Host:  Moderator: The Changing the Way We Work Community of Practice for Ontario Family Physicians is co-organized by the Quality and Innovation Program, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Toronto, and the Ontario College of Family Physicians.  This one-credit-per-hour Group Learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians of Canada and the Ontario Chapter for up to 32.00 Mainpro+ credits

Antimicrobial Stewardship in Primary Care: Audit and Feedback to Improve Antibiotic Prescribing

Antimicrobial resistance is a rising global public health crisis with an estimated 1.27 million attributable deaths per year worldwide. Overuse and misuse of antibiotics are important modifiable drivers of rising drug-resistant infections. The majority of antibiotics are prescribed by primary care physicians. Peer comparison audit and feedback on antibiotic prescribing is a potentially scalable and effective intervention shown to improve antibiotic prescribing. Public Health Ontario, in partnership with OCFP and Choosing Wisely Canada, provides mailed antibiotic prescribing feedback letters to eligible family physicians in Ontario. This session will review recent evidence for this work as well as offer an opportunity for questions and feedback. Learning objectives: Moderator: Dr. Jobin Varughese, OCFP President, Family Physician, Interim Assistant Dean of Primary Care Education for the School of Medicine at Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU), Brampton, ON.  Panelists: Dr. Kevin Schwartz, MD MSc FRCPC DTM&H, is the division head for infectious diseases at St. Joseph’s Health Centre in Toronto and co-medical director for antimicrobial stewardship at Unity Health Toronto. He is an academic infection control and antimicrobial stewardship physician at Public Health Ontario, an assistant professor at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto, and an adjunct scientist at ICES. His clinical area of interest is adult and pediatric infectious diseases and tropical medicine. His research interests include vaccine preventable diseases and antimicrobial stewardship with a particular focus on improving community antibiotic use to slow the emergence of drug-resistant infections. Dr. Noah Ivers, MD, CCFP, PhD, is a family physician at Women's College Hospital Academic Family Health Team, and also leads a research program in implementation science at Women’s College Hospital. He is a full Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Toronto. He holds a Canada Research Chair in the Implementation of Evidence Based Practice. Noah's research focuses on the use of data to drive evidence-based, patient-centered improvements in healthcare. Watch the recording: