Digital Health News

At this year’s National eHealth 2017 Conference & Tradeshow, which took place in Toronto from June 4-6th, the eHealth Centre of Excellence (eCE) was invited to participate and give presentations in a number of panels to share with attendees from across Canada some of the ehealth initiatives we’ve been leading.

First up, eCE Director Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia and QBIC (Quality Based Improvements in Care) Program Manager Danika Walden gave a talk called “Be Inspired by Easily Achieved Enhanced Use of the EMR!”  During the presentation, they spoke about how QBIC works with primary care providers in Waterloo Wellington to show them how to use their electronic medical record (EMR) in the most optimal way possible, enabling them to enhance the way they deliver care to their patients.

Next, in a panel called “Future Priorities in Digital Health”, System Coordinated Access (SCA) Program Manager Lori Moran spoke alongside Sharon Baker, Director of Innovation Procurement at the Waterloo Wellington Community Care Access Centre (WWCCAC) about the unique methods – called “innovation procurement” – used to find a vendor capable of designing and deploying an electronic referral solution for the Waterloo Wellington region, and potentially beyond. The eReferral Proof of Concept is now in full swing (read an update here), thanks in large part to the innovation procurement process. Creative approaches yield creative results!   Learn more about innovation procurement in this issue of Canadian Healthcare Technology.   The SCA program also had a poster presentation on the process, designed by SCA Program Coordinator Paula Lee.

Finally, Dr. Alarakhia co-presented with Dr. Kirk Hollohan, the connecting South West Ontario (cSWO) Program’s Clinical Lead and Dr. Ian Digby, Guelph General Hospital Emergency Department Physician, on cSWO’s “Primary Care Data Sharing Proof of Concept: Enhancing the EHR.” You can read about this presentation and more in cSWO’s latest newsletter.

All in all, the eCE team had a great time presenting on some of our current digital health projects and learning about other ehealth initiatives not only in Canada, but internationally as well. Already looking forward to next year!