Region’s Practice Lead Team

I have been a physiotherapist since 2004 and the Clinical Practice Lead of the Ontario South East RAC LBP since 2018. I am based at Kingston Health Sciences Centre and we have an excellent team of 7 clinic based Advanced Practice Clinicians across our region to provide consultations close to a patient’s home. For surgical cases, we have an efficient referral pathway with our local spine surgeon sponsor, Dr. Julius Ebinu, and can coordinate referral to any of the other local spine surgeons. For lumbar radiculopathies < 12 months, we can refer for epidural steroid injections to the anesthesiologists at the HDH Pain Clinic or the interventionist physicians at KOPI as appropriate.

I am a big believer in promoting whole person health, interprofessional collaboration, and striving to improve health care efficiencies to optimize patient wellness, wait times, and outcomes. Aside from managing lumbar pain, I enjoy running, biking, ultimate frisbee, my dog, and adventures with friends and family.

Region’s Practice Lead Team

Ihab El-Sawaf is the Practice Leader and Manager of the RAC for Low Back Pain (LBP) in the Central East region. He is a licensed chiropractor that graduated from the Canadian Memorial Chiropractic College in 2002. He launched the RAC LBP program in 2019 and has worked at Scarborough Health Network (SHN), General site since the inception of the program. SHN is the regional spine surgical hub for the Central East area of Ontario. There are 18 Advanced Practice Professionals (APP) working with the RAC LBP in the Central East region. They are all licensed allied health professionals working in the Central East communities including: Scarborough, Durham, Northumberland, Peterborough and Kawartha Lakes.

The Central East RAC LBP has collaborative and working relationships with physiatrists and rheumatologist should the patient require consultation to non-operative specialists.

RAC LBP patients that require MRI imaging can be referred to the diagnostic imaging department of SHN by the Practice Leader.954

Region’s Practice Lead Team

We serve the Champlain region comprised of Ottawa, the Ottawa Valley and the eastern region of the province that borders Quebec. Bilingual RACLBP practitioners are located throughout the region, located in primary care and private healthcare settings. There is expedited access to spine surgery at the Ottawa hospital, rheumatology through the FASTRAX program, and various partnerships for improved access to spinal epidural injections.