Evidence-based practice guidelines for traffic injuries in Ontario

Professor Côté was the Principal Investigator (PI) of the Ontario Protocol for Traffic Injury Management Collaboration (OPTIMa), a project that developed evidence-based clinical practice guidelines for the management of common traffic injuries. Côté received a $2.8 million peer-reviewed grant from the Ontario Government for this work. To meet the project’s goal, Côté convened a panel of local, national and international experts; led more than 40 systematic reviews; and guided the development of evidence-based recommendations. Côté’s report, entitled Enabling Recovery from Common Traffic Injures: A Focus on the Injured Person, was submitted to the Ontario Minister of Finance to guide reforms of the Ontario automobile insurance system. Côté’s report was influential in informing the study led by David Marshall who was appointed as a Special Adviser to the Minister of Finance to review and make recommendations to improve the system of auto insurance in Ontario. This research involved two trainees supervised by Côté: Maja Stupar (postdoctoral fellow, Ontario Tech University) who developed a clinical prediction rule for the recovery of whiplash; and Rachel Goldgrub (MHSc, Ontario Tech University) who conducted her thesis on the rehabilitation of shoulder injuries. More than 30 papers resulted from this research and were published in leading journals (Spine Journal, Physical Therapy, JOSPT, Clinical Journal of Pain, Manual Therapy, European Journal of Pain and European Spine Journal) and presented at international meetings in Australia, France, Germany, Sweden and the USA.