eHealth Speaker Series – October 2011 – Bios and Abstracts

Wed, October 5, 2011; 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm; Centre for Global eHealth Innovation

ABSTRACT:  From Suspicion to Diagnosis: Improving the Patient Experience

Judy Burns, Acting Vice President, Planning and Regional Programs, Cancer Care Ontario

Melissa Kaan, Manager, Diagnostic Assessment Program, Cancer Care Ontario

The Diagnostic Assessment Program (DAP) of Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) is designed to streamline and coordinate the diagnostic process making it easier for patients to access and understand the care they are receiving during this phase of the cancer journey. It is also aimed to improve the patient experience by decreasing anxiety and the time to wait for diagnosis. The three main objectives of the DAP Program are: to decrease the time from suspicion to diagnosis thus improving patient outcomes where possible, to optimize the satisfaction among primary care providers and specialists and improve the patient experience.

For healthcare providers, the diagnostic phase of the cancer journey continues to be a manual paper-based process where patient information cannot be easily shared amongst providers. These current workflow processes contribute to a lack of coordination, communication and consistency throughout the continuum of care for patients as they progress through the diagnostic phase of the cancer journey and decrease the workflow efficiencies of DAP staff and providers.

While there are many electronic tools supporting treatment, tools to assist patients and their providers during the diagnostic phase are limited. The DAP-EPS (DAP-Electronic Pathway Solution) tool has been developed, in collaboration with the Canadian Cancer Society to support the DAPs in their work. The DAP-EPS is designed using CCO’s evidence-based disease pathways for lung and colorectal cancer. These pathways set out a map to the patient journey and serve to inform patients and providers of the next steps while also setting expectations for care delivery during the diagnostic phase. It is designed to provide patients with diagnostic information and support as a patient progresses through the diagnostic journey thus empowering the patient with knowledge in a time of uncertainty.

BIOS:

Judy Burns, BScN. MHSc, CHE

Judy Burns joined Cancer Care Ontario (CCO) in November, 2006.  CCO is the provincial agency responsible for guiding cancer care delivery in the province.  Judy is responsible for the development of the cancer plan for the province which will guide cancer work for the next four years.  She is responsible for working with the fourteen regional cancer programs to ensure that cancer priorities are implemented.  Judy is responsible for the development and management of contracts with hospitals across the province to provide incremental cancer services.  She also provides leadership in the performance management for the regions through a formal quarterly reporting process, maintenance of a regional performance scorecard and ongoing performance review with the regions.

Judy has a Bachelor of Science degree in Nursing, a Masters degree in Health Administration and is a Certified Health Services Executive with the Canadian College of Health Service Executives. She began her career as a critical care nurse at Toronto Western Hospital.

Melissa Kaan, BSc, RMT(NM), MBA

Melissa Kaan is currently the Manager of Diagnostic Assessment Programs (DAPs) at Cancer Care Ontario, a provincial agency responsible for continually improving cancer services, and the government’s cancer advisor. Her responsibilities include management of the planning, implementation and evaluation of Diagnostic Assessment Programs across the province with the aim to reduce wait times, improve the patient experience and provider satisfaction. She also manages the development of the DAP – Electronic Pathway Solution (DAP-EPS) jointly with the CIO.

Melissa received her Bachelor of Science in Medical Radiation Sciences from the University of Toronto. She also obtained a Masters degree in Business Administration specializing in Health Industry Management and Strategy from the Schulich School of Business. She sits on the board of directors for the Ontario Association of Medical Radiation Technologists where she also chairs the Strategic Planning and Analysis Committee.

Wed, October 12, 2011; 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm; Centre for Global eHealth Innovation

ABSTRACT: Designing Unforgettable Client Healthcare Experiences

Mary Lou Ackerman, Vice President, Business Capabilities, Saint Elizabeth Health Care

The introduction of a new vision at Saint Elizabeth, To Honour the Human Face of Health Care, has been the catalyst that defined our corporate strategy to profoundly enhance the client’s experience.  To gain a greater understanding of what it means to have an exceptional client experience and how we can create this within our organization, we have looked outside of the health care sector to other organizations that are examples of best practices in this area.  We have embarked on a journey to enhance the client experience using the concepts initially developed by the Disney Corporation (Experience Based Design) which incorporates concepts including CQI, lean thinking and emotional intelligence by integrating the collective intelligence of clients and staff in the service/care redesign process. Using a multifaceted approach we identified drivers of client satisfaction and insights into our current processes and their impact on the client’s experience. This session will outline our journey and share approaches and techniques implemented at all levels of the organization to profoundly enhance the client experience.

BIO: Mary Lou Ackerman, BScN, MBA

Mary Lou Ackerman is Vice President of Business Capabilities with Saint Elizabeth Health Care. In her current role, Mary Lou is responsible for ensuring efficient and effective business practices.  Over the past few years, she has led the development and implementation of many business improvement projects, ensuring clients receive optimal service.  Joining Saint Elizabeth Health Care in 1987 as a visiting nurse, Mary Lou has augmented her clinical background with a graduate business degree and many years experience in health informatics. Mary Lou has a passion for community health care, combined with a desire to advance home health care through a greater understanding of the client experience, care delivery processes and the mobile work force that care for them.

Wed, October 19, 2011; 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm; Centre for Global eHealth Innovation

ABSTRACT: The application of an evidence base to the development and implementation of health informatics tools – making sure we are really doing knowledge translation

Femida Gwadry-Sridhar, PhD, Director, Health Informatics, Lawson, and Medical Health Informatics, Computer Science, The University of Western Ontario

The growth and complexity of medical and health-related information compounded by readily available new evidence, places significant strain upon clinicians, providers and other healthcare end users in their ability to effectively disseminate information into usable forms.  This, in fact, has spurred significant interests in eHealth, which is the development of tools for finding, processing and making sense of currently available knowledge, so that it can be utilized to improve people’s health.  Although eHealth offers great potential for the implementation of an evidence-based approach to healthcare, sometimes in the rush to provide solutions, the evidence-based approach is compromised.  This presentation will provide a framework for understanding how evidence-based medicine and its aim to apply the best available evidence from scientific methods to medical decision-making, can be incorporated into eHealth systems while realizing the challenges that this presents.  We will also discuss the effectiveness of the approaches used and outline our approach for overcoming some of the challenges with eHealth strategies.

BIO:  Femida Gwadry-Sridhar, BSc(Phm), MSc, PhD

Dr. Femida Gwadry-Sridhar is Director of Health Informatics at the Lawson Health Research Institute. She is a pharmacist, epidemiologist and methodologist with over 15 years of experience in clinical trials and disease registries. Her research is in the area of medication compliance, development of conceptual frameworks for understanding causal inferences in disease outcomes and processes to understand knowledge translation.

Dr. Gwadry-Sridhar holds a number of peer-reviewed grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Ontario (Canada) and from CIHR to evaluate knowledge translation. In 2006, she was awarded a five-year CIHR New Investigator Award in Knowledge Translation (2006-2011). Through the CIHR-funded trial, Dr. Gwadry-Sridhar and her colleagues at The University of Western Ontario, intensivists in the Critical Care Research Network (CCR-Net) and cardiologists in London and Hamilton are using novel business methodologies to determine systems and process differences within institutions that lead to disparities in outcomes in patients with acute myocardial infarcts across Ontario ICUs.

As Chair of the “Determinants of Compliance” working group at the International Society of Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR), Dr. Gwadry-Sridhar is leading new methodologic inquiry into the areas of pharmacoeconomics and health outcomes research. She is also a core member of the Analyses Standards Group on compliance research at ISPOR. This group has developed methodologies to conduct and analyze retrospective and prospective compliance research.

Wed, October 26, 2011; 4:00 pm to 5:30 pm; Centre for Global eHealth Innovation

ABSTRACT:  Incorporating Mobile Devices in Patient Care: A Physician’s Experience

Dr. Wendy Graham, President and CEO, Mihealth Global Systems Inc.

The last 10 years has seen an incredible shift away from doing business through traditional means. The failures of companies such as Blockbuster, Borders, and major record retailers have been accompanied by major success stories like Netflix, Amazon, and Apple iTunes. There is no doubt that there is a shift toward a new digital way of doing business as existing companies scramble to incorporate technology into their products and services that goes beyond having a simple website.

The Canadian healthcare industry has not faced this same pressure, as the patient-doctor healthcare experience is largely identical to what it has been during the last century. mihealth aims to change this by empowering patients with the information they require to take better control of their own health and wellness. This is accomplished by giving patients secure access to their physician-validated medical records through their computer or smartphone, and promoting secure-instant messaging with their physician.

BIO: Wendy Graham, MD, CCFP, FCFP

Dr. Wendy Graham is CEO of the newly founded Company, Mihealth Global Systems Inc. at  www.mihealth.com.

Dr. Graham is the Founder of The Association of Family Health Teams and the past Medical Director and Lead Physician with North Bay’s Blue Sky Family Health Team. She is an influential physician in primary care reform and collaborative care models for Canada, publishing and speaking on patient healthcare reform at numerous international conferences including addressing 60 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) gathered at the UN. Dr Graham is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards from the College of Family Physicians of Canada, Canadian Medical Association, and the Ontario Medical Association. Past memberships have included the Institute of Optimizing Patient Outcomes Board, the Canadian Council for Integrated Health Care, and Ontario Medical Association Board of Directors. Presently, she is a member of the Local Integrated Health Network ALC Committee, eHealth Ontario. Dr. Graham also acts in a consulting capacity to several healthcare technology companies, including the Board of Directors of Pharmatrust and presently holds an Assistant Professorship at Queen’s University.