Dialogue Volume 12 Issue 2 2016 | Page 29

150th anniversary A doctor treating a baby as part of a public health initiative in Toronto, c. 1920s. 1915 Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae, a member of the College, wrote In Flanders Fields while serving in the First World War. He was inspired to write it after presiding over the funeral of a fellow soldier who died in the Second Battle of Ypres. 1925 The Drugless Practitioners Act is passed to allow osteopaths, chiropractors and other practitioners to selfregulate. The title of “doctor” is restricted to medical practitioners. 1916 1919 1939 1966 CPSO member Dr. Norman Bethune receives his medical degree from the University of Toronto. World War II begins. Between the two world wars, 50 Ontario physicians gave their lives in active duty. 5,992 Doctors in ontario 1974 The Health Disciplines Act passes after a lengthy period of consultation. The Act formalizes the appointment of public members to Council and establishes the Health Disciplines Board to coordinate activities between the professions. 1994 The Regulated Health Professions Act comes into force, including Bill 100, which adds legislation relating to patient sexual abuse. 1981 The Peer Assessment program begins to monitor ongoing physician competency by randomly selecting physicians for office practice assessments. 1997 The College launches its website, making it the first medical regulatory website in Canada. 2012 The Canadian Department of Health is formed. The first initiatives are sharedcost funding programs with the provinces to battle tuberculosis and venereal disease that returned with soldiers from the war. The Federal Medical Care Act passes, extending insurance coverage for hospital care to doctors’ services, and officially beginning Canadian Medicare. 1990 Discipline hearings and the governing council’s meetings are opened to the public. The College launches its transparency initiative to review ways to provide the public with more useful physicianspecific and process information on the College website. 2013 1921 CPSO member Dr. Frederick Banting and his assistant Charles Best discover insulin. 5,320 doctors 1970 Journalist Betty Kennedy is appointed as the first public member of the Complaints Committee with the goal of encouraging “participatory democracy within the affairs of the College”. 11,828 Doctors in ontario 1992 Canada’s first female astronaut, Dr. Roberta Bondar, receives the CPSO President’s Award. The College registers Doctor #100,000: Dr. Alaina Aguanno of London, Ontario. 2016 The College marks 150 years of regulating the practice of medicine. 35,000 Doctors in ontario Issue 2, 2016 Dialogue Issue2_16.indd 29 29 2016-06-16 12:27 PM