Digital Health News

Team members from the eHealth Centre of Excellence were recently invited to give several presentations at the Waterloo Wellington McMaster Clinical Research and Quality Improvement (WWCRQI) Symposium.

It was a busy day, with Benefits Realization Specialist Julia Bickford (pictured above) kicking things off with a presentation on the connecting South West Ontario (cSWO) Program’s Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR), which is currently being rolled out across the region. The DHDR is an enhancement to the cSWO Regional Clinical Viewer, ClinicalConnect™, that enables authorized users to view dispensed drug data covered under the Ontario Drug Benefit (ODB) program, as well as monitored drugs (narcotics) and community pharmacy services (in addition to information on hospital pharmacy services, which was already available through ClinicalConnect). To view some of the BR cases that research the benefits of the DHDR thus far, click here!

Benefits Realization Specialist Lira Hyseni was next to speak, presenting with QBIC’s Stephanie Chin (pictured below, left) on the Depression Screening tablets for Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) that are currently being tested by primary care providers in Waterloo Wellington. 

Lira (pictured above, right) was also responsible for a poster presentation on the benefits of EMR decision support tools.

Finally, System Coordinated Access (SCA) Program Manager Lori Moran teamed up with eCE Benefits Realization Practice Lead Lori-Anne Huebner and Orthopedic Specialist Dr. Tom Hupel to give the afternoon’s keynote address on “Diagnostic Imaging For orthopedic patients: The problem and how eReferral can help.” (Lori and Lori-Anne are pictured left.)   Their talk focused on the unnecessary use of MRIs in orthopedic care, which is adding up to delays in treatment for patients as well as high costs to the system. The new eReferral solution currently being developed in Waterloo Wellington has built in appropriateness guidelines that healthcare providers can consult when making a referral. These guidelines  will help the provider to determine whether or not their patient has the criteria that would necessitate an MRI – in most cases, a simple and quick x-ray will do the trick.   Overall, it was a great opportunity to get the word out on eCE initiatives and get feedback from people in our community – thank you to the WWCRQI for including us, and we hope to be back next year!