CareChain expands spine triage pathway with academic health centre

MONTREAL — CareChain today announced an expansion of its spine triage pathway in partnership with a major academic health centre, extending allied-health-led assessment to a larger share of the orthopedic wait-list.

In its initial deployment, the pathway triaged 85 percent of referred spine patients off the orthopedic wait-list, redirecting them to physiotherapy or supported self-management, and reduced the median time from referral to assessment from 27 weeks to four. Patient satisfaction with the assessment was 92 percent. The results were published following review.

The expansion extends the model to additional musculoskeletal conditions and to a wider group of referring physicians, with the same structure: an hour-long assessment led by an allied health provider, supported by AI-backed clinical decision tools, with specialist referral reserved for the patients who need it and delivered with full pre-assessment documentation.

"The wait-list was never mainly a capacity problem. It was a sorting problem," said a CareChain spokesperson. "This expansion is about doing the sorting earlier, for more patients, with evidence behind every decision."

CareChain is a marketplace platform that connects patients, physicians, allied health providers, specialists, and health systems to move outpatient specialty care faster and more appropriately. For media enquiries, contact the CareChain communications team.