September 2024 eTips Newsletter

Tips and advice on EMRs and digital health tools you can use NOW

From the CMO's Desk

OMD Educates: Digital Health In-Person Conference: It's a Wrap!

Thanks to all attendees, presenters, exhibitors and sponsors for making last week's conference a huge success!

Some of the many highlights:

Panels on the future of AI in health care, clinician insights on AI scribe use, and legal and clinical impacts of AI scribes
Solutions to help tackle tech burnout following feedback from OMD's latest clinician survey
Conversations on the ingredients for a digitally optimized clinic
Thoughts on a healthier Canada and the future of AI in health care from the Honourable Jane Philpott MD, Helen Angus, former Ontario Deputy Minister of Health, and Jimmy Yang, Accenture's Canadian Health Industry Leader and Managing Director

Watch this space for our next webinar on AI scribes and other learning opportunities! Don't miss out - come to our next one.

OMD AI News

Findings of OMD-Led AI Scribe Evaluation Study Now Available

The AI scribe evaluation study yielded promising results for family doctors, nurse practitioners, and their patients. Read more details of the study's findings in the comprehensive report.

So, what's next? At last week's conference, you let us know about your AI scribe wish list – a comparative site of tools and their capabilities to help you comply with privacy and security obligations. We're talking to decision makers on possible next steps to addressing your AI scribe needs.

OMD Partners and Peer Leader Featured in Canadian Medical Association Journal

Kudos to Drs. Payal Agarwal (Co-Leader, AI Scribe Evaluation Study, Women's College Hospital Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care), Rosemarie Lall (OMD Peer Leader), and Rajesh Girdhari (Clinical Lead, Patients Before Paperwork Initiative, Ontario Health), for their recent Canadian Medical Association Journal article, which corroborated the findings of the OMD-led AI scribe evaluation study. If you have an AI scribe question, Dr. Lall, or another Peer Leader, can help you. Contact support@ontariomd.com.

Tip from a Peer Leader

OMD Peer Leaders comprise a network of over 60 physicians (family doctors and other specialists), nurse practitioners, nurses, and clinic managers. As expert users of OMD-certified EMRs and other digital health and virtual care tools, they work with our Advisory Service Team to help you with your EMR and digital workflows. Discover what our complimentary Peer Leader Program and Advisory Service can do for you.

Intro to AI and AI Scribe

Looking for an AI scribe crash course? Missed the AI scribe panels at our conference? Watch this video from Dr. Rosemarie Lall, a practising family physician in Toronto to hear about AI scribe and how it may help you and your practice.

Advice from the General Counsel and CPO

Patient Consent in the AI Scribe World

As a physician, the key to building patient trust is privacy. As regulatory guidance on AI scribe use continues to develop, physicians using these tools should know the associated privacy risks, and how to mitigate them. Here are some tips to consider:

Inform patients about how the scribe will be used for documentation purposes (recording conversations, note-taking, etc.) and obtain their express consent before its first use with each patient.
Update privacy policies to include AI references, de-identification of personal health information for AI use, and data storage, and post signage like notices of recording and data retention for the use of AI during visits.
Provide patients with the ability to "opt out" of the use of AI during visits without it impacting their health care.
Review your AI scribe output after each patient encounter to ensure notes and documentation summarized by the AI scribe are accurate and complete. Recordkeeping remains your responsibility as a physician.

These aren't all-encompassing tips. Physicians should consult the Canadian Medical Preventive Association, the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Ontario, or the Ontario Medical Association for AI scribe guidance.

OMD Digital Health Services

Update on i4C Dashboard

The OMD Insights for Care (i4C) Dashboard, a tool integrated with several certified EMRs, will be sunset, effective September 30, 2024, in favour of a broader provincial focus on other clinical tools. Clinicians may opt to assume the licence costs to continue using the dashboard. TELUS EMR users can use a toolkit developed by OMD as an alternative to the i4C Dashboard, with self-serve support materials to come via the OMD Educates website.

Login Change to Privacy & Security Training Modules

OntarioMD (OMD) is modernizing our digital services to ensure we continue to provide valuable learning resources to community clinicians. As of October 1, 2024, the OMD website link used to access our privacy and security training will no longer be available. If you completed the privacy and security training over the last 12 months and would like a copy of your certificate(s), please log in and download them before October 1, 2024. We can help in retrieving your certificate if you're unable to download it before October 1 by contacting support@ontariomd.com. To access the privacy and security modules as part of the recommended refresher training after October 1, please log in to the OMD Learning Portal.

HRM Task Force Updates

Wheels in Motion on Axing the Fax

This month, The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) and Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) will implement the Stop Paper initiative, aligning with the Health Report Manager (HRM®) Task Force recommendations to reduce the number of faxes to clinicians. This means that SickKids and CHEO will stop sending duplicate, faxed reports for Radiology Imaging Orders, Discharge Summary Notes, Operative Notes, and Admission Notifications to HRM subscribers. All other HRM reports will continue to be faxed until further notice.

Kudos to these hospitals for actively decreasing administrative burden in the clinical community. We hope more hospitals follow their lead.

OMD Change Management & Adoption Services

Still Using Paper MTO Forms? There’s a Better Way!

With eForms, OMD is making form completion easier for you. eForms are digital forms that you can complete from the convenience of your EMR and submit electronically. Other forms that are available in your EMR are delivered through FAX to the recipient. With eForms, you no longer need to fax paper or digital forms, only to have them sent back because they are outdated or have incomplete information. There are 16 forms available from the Ministry of Transportation (MTO), with more on the way!

Make form submission easier for yourself and request eForms today!

Leverage Our Expertise to Meet Your OHT’s Digital Health Needs

OMD is involved with Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) in every area of Ontario. We deliver digital tools to clinicians in all OHTs. We can support clinicians in your OHT with:

Training and education
Change management and adoption of existing or new digital health tools
Preventive care and integrated care pathway projects

Digital Health Drug Repository (DHDR): A Valuable Item in Your Patient Care Toolkit

It’s crucial for clinicians to know about the medications that patients are taking to avoid adverse drug events. DHDR provides up-to-date information on drugs dispensed to patients, which you can access seamlessly through your EMR. Join the many clinicians who have access to DHDR. (Please note: DHDR is still not available to TELUS Health EMR users. Please speak to TELUS Health if you are their client and want access to DHDR.)

Contact support@ontariomd.com or your local OMD Advisor to connect DHDR to your EMR.

OMD Education

We present at many events and conferences to engage with you, your staff and other health system stakeholders. View our events calendar for a complete list of conferences and webinars. Hope to see you at one of them!

Need Help with Your EMR?

Your EMR should be a benefit, not a burden. If you need help, our OMD Advisory Service can assist you! We can help you use your EMR better to save you time and frustration.

We are experts in all OMD-certified EMRs! Through our EMR Lab, we can develop tools and suggest helpful workflow improvements.

Have you joined our EMR Communities of Practice (CoP)? CoP is a virtual place for EMR and digital health tool users, including clinicians and office staff, to come together and improve upon their knowledge, discover upcoming changes, ask questions and learn from colleagues. Find out more about OMD EMR Communities of Practice and join the CoP for your EMR!

We can connect your EMR to drug information, eConsult, eForms, hospital reports, and lab results.

If you prefer to talk to a peer, our Peer Leaders can also help you. Contact support@ontariomd.com, and help will soon be on the way!

We can help you protect your patient data through our FREE CME-accredited online Privacy & Security training.

Important Reminders

Changing EMRs or Practices, Moving Your Practice? OMD Needs to Know! 

All EMR Users 

To help us provide the best support to optimize your EMR use, please notify OMD at support@ontariomd.com when switching to another EMR, moving offices or joining a different clinic. We also need to know if you have changed your email address or phone number.

HRM Users

If you’re moving, switching Internet providers, changing your Internet plan, or switching EMRs, your IP address may be changing and OMD needs to know! We need to update our records to make sure your EMR continues to receive patient reports through HRM. Please notify OMD at support@ontariomd.com a minimum of 7 business days in advance of the change with a complete change request and a valid IP address to ensure you don’t experience any service interruptions.

Partner News

Registration for Ontario Health's Secure Messaging Pilot Extended

Registration to participate in the provincial patient-to-physician Secure Messaging Proof-of-Concept pilot running until March 31, 2026, has been extended. Ontario physicians may now register until October 31, 2024. More information is available in the Ministry of Health's INFOBulletin.

Ideal Primary Care Practice Model Webinar – Coming Soon!

The eHealth Centre of Excellence (eCE) has launched a new webinar series on creating the Ideal Primary Care Practice Model. eCE is working with clinicians to showcase workflow improvements and relevant supports and processes to help reduce administrative burden and enhance clinician and patient experiences.

The next webinar is on improving patient access and experience of care:

When: Tuesday, October 22, 2024, 12:25 p.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Who: Co-hosted by Dr. Daniel Pepe, Family Physician, and Kindra Murphy, Clinic Office Manager

Register here today!

For more information on the Ideal Primary Care Practice Model or to access previous webinars, please visit the eCE website.