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What's Happening at the RMTAO
The RMTAO is Your Voice- Renew Today!
 The RMTAO is the only organization that can advocate on behalf of the massage therapy profession. We are your voice with the government, with the insurance industry, with other health professions and the CMTO.
Your membership and professional liability insurance if purchased expires on October 1, 2020. Renew today!
Now more than ever it’s important to be a part of your professional association so you can have your voice heard on important issues as we chart a new course for the profession into the future.
This year we will be:
- Facilitating new research, including a scoping review that is currently in the works.
- Focusing our advocacy efforts on including massage therapy in government and multidisciplinary health care initiatives, including meetings underway to work more closely with Family Health Teams.
- Advocating to the insurance industry focusing not only on continued coverage of massage therapy, but also for accountability in insurance companies' actions.
- Developing increased options for webinars and other continuing education opportunities.
- Developing further ways for our members to connect both with their patients and each other, through regular posts on our blog, increased engagement with Community-Based Networks and many other initiatives.
These are just some of the ways we will be moving forwards as we all continue to adjust to this new normal.
Welcoming Christian Hall
The RMTAO is pleased to welcome our newest staff member,  Christian Hall!
Christian will be the Member Services Coordinator and will be at the front line of answering all member questions as well as taking the lead on engaging with our Community-Based Networks (CBNs), our school ambassadors, and our program partners. He looks forward to increasing RMTAO's outreach capabilities, engaging with our members and CBNs, and continuing to work with our program partners to provide value to our members!
He is a Western University Alumni with a history of outreach work in the non-profit sector. Christian is keen to get to know more of our fantastic members, so please don’t hesitate to give him a shout if you ever want to share suggestions, comments, or concerns, or just chat! Christian can be reached at christian@rmtao.com.
RMTFind.com Listings
RMTAO members have access to one free listing on RMTFind.com, which is a resource to help the public find an RMT in their area.
RMTFind.com can be searched by postal code, city or therapist.
If you have more than one practice location, you can purchase an additional listing at $12 per listing per year.
Thousands of people search RMTFind.com every month, so your RMTFind listing is a great tool to market your practice and one of the great benefits of membership.
Be sure to keep your RMTFind listing up to date by logging into your account and clicking on My RMTFind.com Listing on the left side of your screen.
Online ClinicSense Intake Forms = Less Cleaning
With the new requirements for RMTs, reducing the amount of surfaces that clients touch will:
- Reduce the amount of time you spend cleaning between treatments
- Give your clients more peace of mind
RMTAO partner, ClinicSense, offers online intake forms, which will reduce the amount of touching of paper, clipboards, pens, pencils, etc.
Here’s how it works:
- A client books an appointment and ClinicSense will automatically detect if this is either (a) a new client or (b) an existing client who is due to update their intake form
- ClinicSense will then email your intake form to the client for them to complete online
- Once your client submits the intake form, it will immediately be available for you to view on their client file
The intake form is customizable so you can tailor it to your specific needs. RMTAO members get a 14-day free trial of ClinicSense and access to discounted rates.
This program is only available to RMTAO members. Click here for more info.
Social Media Toolkit
Many RMTs would like to use social media to promote their practice and connect with patients and potential patients, but they may be uncertain how to go about it.
As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, many RMTs were also turning to social media to stay connected with their patients when they couldn't do so in person.
The RMTAO offers our members a Social Media Toolkit which offers you advice on how to use social media effectively to benefit your practice. This is just one of the great practical resources available to RMTAO members.
This toolkit also covers examples of what to post and what not to post to ensure you get great results while still remaining conscious of privacy concerns and your obligations as a health professional.
Download the Social Media Toolkit
Adventures from Karen's Clinic
Member Question of the Week
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I need advice about a legal issue and am looking for a lawyer. Is there anything the RMTAO can do to help me?
RMTAO members who renew their professional liability insurance through the Trisura Portal have access to a free unlimited legal hotline
You can contact that hotline as often as you want for as long as you want, and speak with a lawyer who has experience dealing with issues similar to yours.
Information about how to access the hotline will be on the second page of your insurance coverage certificate, which can be found on the Trisura Portal. You will require your policy number when you call the hotline, so you will also need your insurance certificate handy to access that information.
If you did not purchase your insurance through the Trisura Portal and purchased it directly through the RMTAO all in one transaction, or have insurance through a different company, the RMTAO has a list of lawyers we can recommend who have experience with issues RMTs may face.
There are also articles on the RMTAO blog written by lawyers that cover some common legal issues RMTs may face.
Do you have a question? Email info@rmtao.com
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Business Tip of the Week
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Are You Taking Self-Care Seriously?
You probably already know that sufficient sleep, proper nutrition, physical exercise, human connection, and time to relax are important — but do you actually carve out time for them? When you consider caring for yourself as unrelated to work, you’re likely to let your business priorities come first. But your resilience is a high-priority business issue, especially when you’re leading a team through the stress of our fast-paced world. Research shows that our decision-making dramatically suffers when we neglect to properly rest and refuel, so make self-care a daily priority. You don’t need to dedicate hours a day though. You can boost your short-term resiliency by taking a short walk or reaching out to a friend you haven't talked to in a while just to check in. Investing in yourself isn’t indulgent — it’s mission critical. It's time to tell yourself, “It’s so busy at work right now, I can’t afford NOT to take care of myself!”
Adapted from “Reframe How You Think About Self-Care,” by Liane Davey
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Research Article of the Week
A prospective observational study on trajectories and prognostic factors of mid back pain
Background: Although mid back pain (MBP) is a common condition that causes significant disability, it has received little attention in research and knowledge about trajectories and prognosis of MBP is limited. The purpose of this study was to identify trajectories of MBP and baseline risk factors for an unfavorable outcome in MBP patients undergoing chiropractic treatment.
Methods: This prospective-observational study analyzes outcome data of 90 adult MBP patients (mean age = 37.0 ± 14.6 years; 49 females) during one year (at baseline, after 1 week, 1 month, 3, 6 and 12 months) after start of chiropractic treatment. Patients completed an 11-point (0 to 10) numeric pain rating scale (NRS) at baseline and one week, one month, three, six and twelve months after treatment start and the Patient's Global Impression of Change (PGIC) questionnaire at all time points except baseline. To determine trajectories, clustering with the package kml (software R), a variant of k-means clustering adapted for longitudinal data, was performed using the NRS-data. The identified NRS-clusters and PGIC data after three months were tested for association with baseline variables using univariable logistic regression analyses, conditional inference trees and random forest plots.
Results: Two distinct NRS-clusters indicating a favourable (rapid improvement within one month from moderate pain to persistent minor pain or recovery after one year, 80% of patients) and an unfavourable trajectory (persistent moderate to severe pain, 20% of patients) were identified. Chronic (> 3 months) pain duration at baseline significantly predicted that a patient was less likely to follow a favourable trajectory [OR = 0.16, 95% CI = 0.05-0.50, p = 0.002] and to report subjective improvement after twelve months [OR = 0.19, 95% CI = 0.07-0.51, p = 0.001], which was confirmed by the conditional inference tree and the random forest analyses.
Conclusion: This prospective exploratory study identified two distinct MBP trajectories, representing a favourable and an unfavourable outcome over the course of one year after chiropractic treatment. Pain chronicity was the factor that influenced outcome measures using NRS or PGIC.
Knecht, C., Hartnack, S., Sick, B., Riner, F., Schweinhardt, P., & Wirth, B. (2020). A prospective observational study on trajectories and prognostic factors of mid back pain. BMC musculoskeletal disorders, 21(1), 554.
Read the full article...
The Learning Curve - The RMTAO Education Series
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The Learning Curve - The RMTAO Education Series
The Learning Curve provides education to massage therapists in a variety of hands-on workshops and lecture-based seminars across Ontario focused on three main areas-Competency, Business, and Modality. The Continuing Education Program is designed to help massage therapists increase their knowledge base to continuously improve for both their own personal success and that of the client.
Click here for more information about the courses that are offered by the RMTAO.
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Upcoming Community Networks and Related Activities
The RMTAO has created a feature on RMTAO.com for Community Networks. Members and non-members can access information about the latest upcoming network activities on our list of upcoming events!Don't see a Community Based Network near you? You can contact Christian Hall at christian@rmtao.com to learn more about starting one!
North Bay Community-Based Network
Date: October 1, 2020
Time: 8:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.
Location: Virtual. This meeting is exclusively for RMTs and massage therapy students in North Bay and the surrounding area. Contact Kelsey Quinn for details on how to access the meeting.
Topic: This will be a round 2 of re-opening and is open to RMTs and RMT students in North Bay and Parry Sound district only to keep the agenda tight and focus on northern practice. This meeting will be via Zoom.
Contact: Kelsey Quinn , info@breatheinwellness.ca
Read more about the meeting
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