Spanfull enables clinical exercise prescription for family physicians in Ontario. Send an eReferral through Ocean, right from the patient’s chart, and we build them a 12-week home exercise program. A one-page summary comes back to you, and it costs you nothing.
12 weeks at home, no equipment. Strength and talk-test cardio, starting gently.
Exercise is one of the most effective things you can recommend, and almost every patient you see could use more of it. Yet a cardiology referral takes seconds, while “try to be more active” has never had a referral pathway at all.
When family physicians who wanted to start prescribing exercise were followed for a year, belief wasn’t what held them back. Time, habit and workflow were. Spanfull is designed around all three.
Gagné et al., BMJ Open 2017
Spanfull is listed on the Ocean Healthmap and accepts eReferrals. Ocean is the provincially funded eReferral network built into the EMRs most Ontario clinics use, including TELUS PS Suite, Accuro and OSCAR Pro.
No fees, contracts or billing. The patient pays $80 for the full twelve weeks, and no one is paid for referring, in any form.
Choose the referral reason, confirm the patient may begin low-to-moderate activity, and add a note if you like. We handle the intake, the program and the patient’s questions.
What happens after you send a referral, and who does each part. Everything marked “You” is yours, and most of it is reading.
From the patient’s chart, find Spanfull in Ocean, choose the reason, tick the clearance box and send.
They get an email from us with a personal link to their intake.
Covering activity, everyday function, pain, balance, a symptom check and when they’ll exercise. They pay $80 at the end.
Starting with the symptom check, before any program is built.
If the patient reports something new since your referral, we hold the program and ask you first.
Twelve weeks, set to the patient’s level, using the framework below.
By email, with their own weekly schedule up front.
Through Ocean, for the chart. When nothing needs you, the first line says so.
Strength and cardio at home, on the days they chose.
About the exercises and fitting them into the week. Health questions still go to you.
The patient stays under your care, as they always were.
It reads like a consult note. The first line tells you whether anything needs your attention, so most summaries take seconds.
12 weeks at home, no equipment. Held until you confirm clearance.
Adults who are sedentary or under-active and can safely begin low-to-moderate intensity exercise at home. There’s no diagnostic threshold: you choose the referral reason, and the program’s rationale follows it.
Muscle is what keeps patients strong, steady on their feet and independent as they age. During weight loss, structured strength training is what helps preserve it, and walking alone does less.
Strength is also the part of exercise patients rarely start on their own. Every Spanfull plan includes it, set to the patient’s level and progressed gradually, alongside their medication and any weight management program they’re in.
Our clinicians program all patient plans using our scientifically-backed framework for exercise: strength and cardiorespiratory fitness together, set to the patient’s level, progressed gradually, and never above moderate intensity.
Every plan builds both, as Canada’s physical activity guidelines recommend. Strength is the part patients rarely start on their own.
Strength programming is based on functional movement patterns: the movements behind everyday tasks like rising from a chair, lifting and staying steady on your feet.
Starting points come from the patient’s intake, so nothing starts too hard, and easier options are there when a day calls for them.
Plans progress in phases, and each phase changes one thing, so the patient adapts before anything else gets harder. Gradual progression is what ACSM recommends to reduce the risks of exercise.
For cardio, intensity is set by the talk test rather than pace or heart rate, so every patient stays at a moderate, conversational effort, whatever their fitness.
Adherence science shows that people who decide in advance when they’ll exercise are more likely to follow through. Patients choose their own days, and plan ahead for the sessions they might miss.
The framework draws on Canadian and international physical activity guidelines and the exercise prescription literature.
Our approach has been reviewed by a CSEP Clinical Exercise Physiologist.
Each check adds to your clinical judgment. None of them replaces it.
If the intake turns up a symptom that’s new since your referral, or one that was never mentioned, it comes back to you before the patient begins.
Cardio stays at a conversational pace and strength work uses bodyweight only, for all twelve weeks, with easier options to drop back to.
Patients are told to stop and contact you for chest pain, severe breathlessness, dizziness, an irregular heartbeat, sudden joint pain, or calf pain with swelling.
Spanfull is general exercise guidance, not medical treatment or supervised rehabilitation. Referred patients remain under your care.
Coverage is usually the first question, so here it is up front.
No fees, contracts or software, and no payment or benefit to referrers of any kind.
Open Ocean from the patient’s chart in your EMR and search for “Spanfull” in the Healthmap. Choose the referral reason, tick the clearance box, add a note if you like, and send.
Email us at mahmoud@spanfull.com and we’ll work out the simplest way to get the referral to us.
Their own 12-week plan by email, with their weekly schedule up front, step-by-step instructions for every exercise, guidance for their cardio, and what to do if something doesn’t feel right.
There’s no app, login or equipment. They need a sturdy chair, a counter and a bit of floor.
No. Patients email us with questions about the exercises and how to fit them into their week. Questions about their health go to you, as they always would, and they remain under your care.
We hold the program. Your summary asks for final clearance and lists exactly what was reported. If you’re comfortable with the patient starting, tell us and we release it. If not, tell us what to modify or withhold.
Our clinicians program every plan from your referral and the patient’s intake, using our scientifically-backed framework for exercise. The framework has been reviewed by a CSEP Clinical Exercise Physiologist.
Alongside them. Those programs cover nutrition, medications and self-management, with exercise as one part. Spanfull is the exercise prescription itself, strength training included, and a patient can do both.
After a cardiac event, cardiac rehabilitation remains the right referral.
No. There is no payment, gift or other benefit to referrers of any kind. Referring is simply free for you and your clinic.
Send the referral and read the summary when it comes back. If it’s useful, refer another. Questions first? We’re happy to walk you through it.
