Digital Health News

In honour of this year’s Digital Health Week, which is happening November 16 – 22, we’d like to recognize and celebrate the incredible dedication and agility that healthcare providers have demonstrated throughout COVID-19, as they’ve incorporated new technologies into their workflows to enable them to continue providing high-quality care to their patients.

As part of Digital Health Week, we’ll be hosting a webcast/webinar that provides a comprehensive overview of how our suite of digital health tools can be used during COVID-19 and beyond.

You’ll have an opportunity to learn more about our innovative EMR decision support tools, virtual visit platforms, Ontario eServices Program (eReferral & eConsult), eCE Automates “bots”, tablets, and ePrescribing, as well as hear from a primary care physician on how these tools have impacted his practice.

Please join Ted Alexander, our VP of Partnerships and Clinical Innovation, for this webinar (with an interactive Q&A session to follow). 

When: Monday, November 16 – 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM

Space is limited, so register below today!

Digital Health Week (November 11-17, 2019) is an annual celebration and recognition of how digital health tools are transforming the delivery of care across Canada.

In honour of this week, we’d like to invite you to two webinars we will be hosting:

• Tuesday, November 12th – 12 PM - 1 PM: Patient-Facing Digital Health Tools
  • Sign up here to learn more about how patients benefit from our innovative Virtual Visits and Tablets programs
• Thursday, November 14th – 12 PM - 1 PM: Enhancing Communication between Healthcare Providers across the Care Continuum
  • Sign up here to learn more about how eReferral and eConsult work to connect healthcare providers

There will also be lots of activity on our website and on twitter (#ThinkDigitalHealth) throughout the week! Be sure to follow along as we highlight the many benefits of our digital health toolbox.

Did you miss our webinar on Virtual Care? We've included the presentation deck and video for Big White Wall that was featured in the presentation.

Description

Virtual care allows patients to securely connect with their health care providers online. In this presentation, the QBIC program will provide an overview of various online solutions, including Virtual Visits, PCVC, and Big White Wall, and how they can support both patients and providers in the region.

Download the PowerPoint presentation here.

Big White Wall Video

Have a question? Please email: [email protected] or [email protected].

Did you miss our webinar on Leveraging Partnerships to Enhance Patient Care? We've included the presentation deck below!

Description

Effective use of digital health tools is key to ongoing process efficiency within the healthcare sector. The SCA program, in collaboration with our system and vendor partners, is increasing efficiency and improving access to care through the implementation of an innovative eReferral solution.

Download the PDF version of the presentation here.

Have a question? Please email: [email protected]

Did you miss our webinar on Standardizing Primary Care Information through the use of EMR tools? We've includeded the presentation deck below for you to review!

Description

Looking to demo an EMR tool that support clinicians with data quality clean up and then explain the clinical value for primary care providers and their patients.

Download the PDF version of the presentation here.

Have a question? Please email: [email protected]

Digital Health Week is right around the corner! This year, Digital Health Week will be held from November 12th – November 16th.

The focus of Digital Health Week is to increase awareness and provide further education on the ways digital health is transforming health care. Increasing awareness about digital health provides further opportunities for collaboration and continued discussion about how our health care system can be more connected through digital tools and services.

To celebrate Digital Health Week, members of our eCE team will be hosting daily webinars.

Interested in signing up?  

Take a look at our webinar schedule and secure your spot today!

Webinar Schedule

Tuesday, November 13th

Title: Virtual care in WWLHIN: exploring innovative methods for healthcare delivery to support patient care

Description: Virtual care allows patients to securely connect with their health care providers online. In this presentation, the QBIC program will provide an overview of various online solutions, including Virtual Visits, PCVC, and Big White Wall, and how they can support both patients and providers in the region.

Date & Time: Tuesday, November 13th  2018 at 12:30pm-1:30pm

Wednesday, November 14th

Title: SCA Program and eReferral - Leveraging Digital Health Tools and Partnerships to Enhance Patient Care

Description: Effective use of digital health tools is key to ongoing process efficiency within the healthcare sector. The SCA program, in collaboration with our system and vendor partners, is increasing efficiency and improving access to care through the implementation of an innovative eReferral solution.

Date & Time: Wednesday, November 14th 2018 at 12:30pm-1:30pm

Thursday, November 15th

Title: Clinical Value of Standardized Primary Care Information Through the Use of EMR Tools

Description: Looking to demo an EMR tool that support clinicians with data quality clean up and then explain the clinical value for primary care providers and their patients.

Date & Time: Thursday, November 15th 2018 at 12:30pm-1:30pm

Registration: Please email [email protected]

Can’t make any of the scheduled webinars? We will be posting all webinar content on our blog following Digital Health Week!

We look forward to you joining us! If you have any questions, please email [email protected]

Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia

As part of Digital Health Week 2017, the eHealth Centre of Excellence will feature posts from guests discussing why digital health is important to them. eCE Director Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia is back to deliver this week’s final post.

I wanted to update you on the exciting news which we announced here last week: that virtual visits are coming to Waterloo Wellington!

Virtual visits will allow primary care providers to ‘see’ their patients via secure messaging, audio, and clinical video-conferencing. 

We have been working with primary care providers to make sure the virtual visit model fits within their workflow. Thank you to all the providers who have given us feedback and signed up to participate! 

The roll-out of virtual visits will be great news for all 775,000 residents in our region, but particularly for those who may struggle with mobility, live in a rural area far from their physician, cannot take time off of work, and/or lack transportation or other resources required to make an in-person appointment.

Digital health tools are making the healthcare system more equitable for everyone, and that’s just one more reason that digital health is important to me.

The eCE, in collaboration with the Ontario Telemedicine Network (OTN), was recently one of six successful applicants for the second round of the REACH (Resources for Evaluating, Adopting and Capitalizing on Innovative Healthcare Technology). Funding from REACH is supporting us to work with providers and patients to develop a more streamlined technology for delivering virtual visits. 

Follow us on twitter (@eHealthCE) and join the Digital Health Week conversation using #thinkdigitalhealth!

And even though Digital Health Week is coming to a close, we'll be back on the blog next week with a great new eConsult spotlight, so keep watching this space!

Karen Keith

As part of Digital Health Week 2017, the eHealth Centre of Excellence (eCE) blog will feature posts from guests discussing why digital health is important to them. Today’s post is from the connecting South West Ontario (cSWO) Program Manager Karen Keith. The eCE is the cSWO Program’s Change Management and Adoption Delivery Partner for the Waterloo Wellington region.

Clinicians from across the continuum of care need access to the most up-to-date patient information in order to make safe, informed decisions for their patients. In the past, this was challenging because the information they need typically comes from many different places – such as labs, x-Ray facilities, primary care clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, home and community care, etc. Trying to collect all of this information was an administrative burden, and often it would be faster and less effort for the clinician just to duplicate the test, as no one wants to delay a necessary treatment. 

That’s why the electronic health record (EHR) is so important. The connecting South West Ontario (cSWO) Program’s Regional Clinical Viewer, ClinicalConnect™ – funded by eHealth Ontario – is an EHR digital health tool: a secure, web-based portal that provides physicians and clinicians with real-time access to their patients’ electronic medical information from all acute care hospitals, Local Health Integration Networks’ Home & Community Care Services (formerly Community Care Access Centres) and Regional Cancer Programs in south west Ontario, plus various provincial repositories that provide access to lab and drug data.

Digital health is important to me because it’s enabling clinicians to make well-informed decisions for their patients at the point of care, so patients can receive the care they need when they need it.

Don’t just take it from me – here’s what one ClinicalConnect user in our region has to say:

“ClinicalConnect lightens the clerical burden for everyone and promotes a more seamless encounter with the patient: I can just pull up the relevant records right away, respond to the clinical concern, and make a relevant plan – instead of having the clerical staff try and find those records and then recall the patient weeks or months later, which can put patients at risk.”

 Danika Walden

As part of Digital Health Week 2017, the eHealth Centre of Excellence (eCE) blog will feature posts from guests discussing why digital health is important to them. Today’s post is from QBIC (Quality Based Improvements in Care) Program Manager Danika Walden.

In collaboration with the Canadian Mental Health Association of Waterloo Wellington (CMHA WW), the eHealth Centre of Excellence is supporting primary care providers in the screening and management of mental health concerns through the use of tablets.

How it works: Patients use the tablet while they are sitting in the waiting room prior to their appointment to complete 

mental health screening and other assessments. A secure transmission automatically updates the patient’s chart in the electronic medical record (EMR) with the information that the patient has entered into the tablet, prior to the patient’s appointment.

Not only does this significantly decrease administrative tasks, but it also allows the primary care provider to review the information prior to seeing the patient, thereby enabling them to focus on areas that need more attention.

And most importantly, what we’ve found is that the tablet screening actually enhanced some patients’ ability to communicate.

Sensitive health issues, particularly related to mental health, can be hard to talk about. Of the patients surveyed who used a tablet to complete an assessment, 34.7% indicated that using the tablet helped them provide more honest answers, and 22.4% said they would not have liked to answer the questions during a face-to-face chat with their doctor.

We’ve become a society were using technology to communicate has become the norm – and in some cases, it’s even preferable to other methods!

Digital health is important to me because it helps patients to feel more comfortable answering tough questions – which in turn gives doctors the information they need to enhance the quality of care.

If you are a primary care provider who is interested in participating in our tablet program, please contact QBIC Change Management Specialist Meghan Brenner-Burgoyne today!

Follow us on twitter (@eHealthCE) and join the Digital Health Week conversation using #thinkdigitalhealth!

Digital health is important to me because technologies like our new eReferral system bring the patient into the conversation and provides them with the information they need to feel in control of their own health. 

Just this month, the eCE was delighted to receive a Bright Lights award from the Association of Family Health Teams of Ontario (AFHTO) in the category of Optimizing Use of Resources!

This award is a credit to the efforts of the SCA program – you can read more about it here!

The SCA program is funded by the Waterloo Wellington Local Health Integration Network (WWLHIN) and the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care (MOHLTC).

Follow us on twitter (@eHealthCE) and join the Digital Health Week conversation using #thinkdigitalhealth!