Is there a cost to participate in the collaborative? 

No, participation in the learning collaborative is free! 

Will all the resources be available in French? 

Yes, all the resources are being translated into French, both patient- and provider-facing. Our learning sessions will be conducted in English. If you require/prefer French translation during the learning sessions, please contact Nicole Simms at [email protected] to discuss arrangements. 

Do I have to be a physician to participate in the learning collaborative?

No, you can participate if you are involved in the support or delivery of primary care. This includes nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists, nurses, pharmacists, IT staff, managers, QI staff, and patient-partners. Teams that are multidisciplinary benefit from having various insights into the care pathway of patients being prescribed inhalers. 

I practice in a hospital-based care setting. Can I still participate in the learning collaborative? 

Our learning collaborative and resources are targeted towards primary care, so currently being in a primary care setting is one of the requirements to participate. If you work in collaboration with a hospital-affiliated primary care team, we encourage you to join with members of that setting. If not, you can still start a sustainable inhaler initiative in your care setting, which CASCADES staff can help support with the resources on our website. We are in the process of developing a change package aimed at acute care settings and will provide updates as it progresses. 

Is there a specific goal of prescribing change we need to achieve? 

During the first learning session, each team will set their own goals for practice changes that are suitable to their care settings. We will provide an outline for how to develop these goals and your team is encouraged to collect baseline data to aid in this process. 

Can I get credits or compensation for participating?

This 3 credits-per-hour Group Learning program has been certified by the College of Family Physicians for up to 33 Mainpro+ credits. CMQ accepts the hours of participation in the program as a recognized professional development activity. Pharmacists in British Columbia, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Newfoundland and Labrador, and PEI can claim hours of participation in the program as accredited continuing education units (CEUs). A certificate of completion will be provided at the end of the Learning Collaborative, and can be used to self-report hours of participation.

I/our team already has an initiative related to sustainable inhalers. Can I/we still participate, or do we need to pause our current project? 

Teams already engaging in sustainable inhaler initiatives are encouraged to join as well! We encourage that you build on your existing plans with the resources from CASCADES and we can support the creation/modification of new tools or strategies.  

I noticed that one of the recommendations is to consider switching from SABA to bud/form (Symbicort). That is expensive/not covered in my province. How has this been addressed? 

During the initiative based in Toronto, the working group met with the Ontario Drug Benefit team to discuss the removal of limited use (LU) codes on Symbicort to align the formulary with updated clinical guidelines. Additionally, we have also had multiple discussions with CADTH – the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health about the coverage of Symbicort and other dry-powder inhalers. We are keen to explore ways for the national spread initiative to inform policy development nationally in Canada. 

Is this learning collaborative funded by any pharmaceutical companies? 

The Climate Conscious Inhaler Prescribing Learning Collaborative is run by CASCADES, which is an initiative undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada through Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Climate Action and Awareness Fund for Community-Based Climate Action Projects. We have no relationships with any pharmaceutical companies or any other financial sponsors.