Evidence review: Prescribing activity underused, beneficial

A review of accumulated evidence recently published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal concluded that:

• Physical activity is underused as a health intervention in the community and for older adults.
• Older adults who become more active can potentially add years to their lives with a higher quality of life.

You can use two programs to help prescribe physical activity to your patients:

• PaRx, a prescription for nature that can help increase activity
• Prescription to Get Active

Our aim is to keep you current on helpful information, tools, and programs so you can concentrate on what is most important: Your patients.

To become a PaRx prescriber, you can register online and then prescribe one free annual Parks Canada Discovery Pass per month to eligible patients:

• Once registered, you will receive a nature prescription file customized with a unique provider code and instructions for prescribing and logging prescriptions.
• You can then provide a patient a prescription that you both log with PaRx so that they can send your patient the parks pass.

For details, check out our PaRx community partner spotlight (a one-minute read).

Open the PaRx spotlight

Prescription to Get Active offers your eligible patients many free benefits (open the one-page overview). All members can give a prescription in one of three ways:

• Verbally during a virtual or phone appointment
• The EMR form (integrated into Accuro, AVA, CHR, Health Quest, Med Access, and PS Suite) during in-person visits
• The prescription pad during in-person visits

Your patient can then register with the program’s website or by calling 1.866.212.7552 (toll free).

For physicians, more details and resources are available on a dedicated web page on this website.

Get the physician-specific details