athletes. Together, Klein and Comeau run The Town Chi-ropractor as CEO and COO, respectively, overseeing a network of clinics throughout New Brunswick. Beyond their sports-focused interest, these two CMCC alumni share a strong passion for chiropractic and its po-tential to become a significant and recognized player in the bigger health care spectrum. That passion drives them to constantly engage in initiatives that serve this ultimate goal. Klein sits on the board of New Brunswick’s Hori-zon Health Net-work, which over-sees 12 hospitals, more than 100 medical facilities and some 13,000 employees – in-cluding 1,000 phy-sicians – across New Brunswick. He was appointed Dr. Erik Klein and Dr. Daniel Comeau are to the board by the working to address inefficiencies in the minister of health health care system. in 2012. “It’s like I’ve been given a MBA in health policy because I now have an intricate understanding of how the health system works,” Klein says, adding, “I also have increased frustration of how the health system works as well.” Notwithstanding his eye-opening experiences, Klein ac-knowledges that through the work they do at the Health Network “things are much better.” “When I first showed up, all the talk was, ‘we need more MRI; we need more physicians; we need more family doc-tors,’ Now the strategic plan is formally in the direction of, ‘we need to keep people healthier; we need to keep them out of facilities; we need people to be more responsible for their health; we need to focus on preventative health strategies.’” This “cultural shift” in public health policy may be paving the way for new initiatives that promote a more preventative and patient-centred approach to health care. Over the last three and a half years, Kline and Comeau have been laying the groundwork for the establishment of a spinal triage program in New Brunswick – not unlike On-tario’s Interprofessional Spine Assessment and Education Clinics launched in November 2012. New Brunswick’s planned spinal triage program aims to alleviate the current backlog of people waiting to see a spine surgeon for consultation and reduce unnecessary utilization of MRIs. “Ninety-two per cent of referrals that spine surgeons are seeing are not surgical candidates. So [patients] are referred for an MRI and then they are sent to a spine surgeon, and they wait and they wait and they wait up to a year, just to be told that they don’t need surgery. They are not given any other options,” Klein explains. The spinal triage program would screen patients and identify immediately whether they are surgical candidates www.canadianchiropractor.ca Order from the store and give more Your purchases at the Bookstore and Supply Center help reduce CMCC tuition fees for young upcoming chiropractors. Buy more, give more. Visit our online store at cmccstore.ca
Chiropractic + Naturopathic Doctor April 2016: Page 21
