For Patients
Preparing for your appointment
Please arrive 10-15 minutes prior to your appointment to allow time for registration and completion of any forms.
You will receive an automated email or phone reminder 1-week prior to your appointment.
Please contact us as soon as possible if you need to cancel or reschedule an appointment. Out of courtesy for our staff and fellow patients, we ask that all appointments be cancelled at 24 hours in advance. This allows the clinic to free up a spot for another patient waiting for an appointment. Missed appointment without prior notice will be charged a fee.
When you attend appointments, it is always helpful to remember to bring your up-to-date list of medications. It is also helpful to write down any questions you may wish to ask.
We work as a multi-disciplinary team. You will thus sometimes find that you are seen initially by a different therapist or residents (qualified doctors in further training) prior to your rheumatologist as part of your appointment.
Patient forms
1. Office Policies
a. All patients must adhere to our office policies. Patients will be asked to review and sign our office policy and email consent forms prior to their first appointment. You can view our latest office policy form here.
2. Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ)
a. The ability to effectively measure health-related quality-of-life longitudinally is central to describing the impacts of disease, treatment, or other insults, including normal aging, upon the patient. The HAQ is one of the most widely used comprehensive, validated, patient-oriented outcome assessment instruments.
b. We ask our patients to complete a HAQ at each visit and monitor these changes over time
c. You can find the HAQ here.
3. BASDAI
a. The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) is the gold standard for measuring and following disease activity in Ankylosing Spondylitis and spondyloarthropathy.
b. You can find the BASDAI questionnaire here.
4. BASFI
a. The Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI) is a set of 10 questions designed to determine the degree of functional limitation in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS).
b. You can find the BASFI questionnaire here
Resources for Patients
Covid Information - https://covid-19.ontario.ca/
- Information on testing centres, vaccination clinic and all information pertaining to Covid-19
RheumInfo - https://rheuminfo.com/
- RheumInfo was created to provide free, honest, accurate, and reliable information and tools for patients and physicians that deal with rheumatic disease. All content on RheumInfo.com is produced independently by rheumatologists, allied health professionals, and patients.
Ontario Rheumatology Association - https://ontariorheum.ca/