Blog: Infoway Connects

Posted on November 15, 2018 by Abigail Carter-Langford

Do you know how safe your personal health data is? When the Cambridge Analytica Facebook data scandal exploded onto news headlines, it put into question what we as consumers are willingly, and likely unknowingly, sharing about ourselves, and how that same data may be used to the advantage of others. In fact, it has become abundantly clear that our personal information has become a valuable commodity.

Posted on November 14, 2018 by Michael Green

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As Canadians, we’re proud of our health care system — it saves lives. For 50 years it’s stood for equality and compassion, but Canada is no longer a world leader in health care. We’re in the innovation age, but our health care has not kept up.

Posted on November 9, 2018 by Derek Ritz

In my digital health work here in Canada and around the world, I regularly hear the ill-framed, but nonetheless pertinent question, “With the rising popularity of FHIR, what is the role for IHE?” This question is pertinent because of how much hype currently surrounds the FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) initiative.

Posted on October 30, 2018 by Julie Drury

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Patients spend 8,760 hours a year managing their health. There is no doubt they are health care experts and have an incredible depth and breadth of lived experience invaluable to a learning health care system.

Posted on October 16, 2018 by Tanya Achilles

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I was honoured in February to be asked to lead the work on the PrescribeIT™ Opioid Digital Health Strategy. It is a critical piece of work as we continue to see the number of deaths from opioid overdoses increase. In my time as a pharmacist, I have seen both the benefits and struggles these drugs can bring, and I believe that there are steps we can take to make opioid prescribing safer.

Posted on September 25, 2018 by Andrea MacLean

For as long as I have been working in health care, I have been hearing, reading and/or discussing the need for disparate IT and health care solutions to talk to each other — to communicate and share information.

Posted on September 18, 2018 by Poonam Khanna

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Email, auto-fax and e-prescribing — one of these methods of prescribing is not like the other. While on the surface, emailed and auto-faxed prescriptions may look the same as e-prescribing, there's a big difference between them when it comes to patient safety.

Posted on August 7, 2018 by Bobby Gheorghiu

Prescriptions for medication are a regular part of the lives of most Canadians. A recent survey conducted by Nielsen and commissioned by Infoway found that 65 per cent of Canadians aged 18 and over have obtained a prescription in the past two years, with seniors filling over eight prescriptions on average just in the past year.

Posted on July 12, 2018 by Bobby Gheorghiu and Seema Nayani

It may be a surprising stat to some, but roughly 30 per cent of prescriptions generated in Canada by prescribers for their patients go unfilled.¹ Reasons range from prescriptions that are lost or damaged, to the cost of the medications, to forgetfulness, to not wanting to take the medication, and many others. Medication non-adherence could result in a worsening of a patient’s condition and, potentially, more frequent hospitalization and/or emergency department visits. According to a World Health Organization report, medication non-adherence accounts for five per cent of Canadian hospital admissions and five per cent of physician visits, resulting in an additional $4 billion in health care costs annually.¹

Posted on June 5, 2018 by Poonam Khanna

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I recently had an appointment with a specialist and she provided me with a prescription and booked a follow-up appointment in a month to check whether the medication was working. She also mentioned that sometimes the medication takes a good two weeks to start working. So the clock was ticking…I wanted to start the medication right away so it would have time to kick in (if it worked) before my follow-up.

Posted on May 24, 2018 by Krista Balenko, Jennifer Conn and Simon Hagens

Over the past decade, Infoway has been investing in telehomecare (also known as remote patient monitoring or RPM) programs in Canada, delivering health services to patients in the comfort of their own home. A provider (typically a nurse or paramedic) has electronic access to the patient’s information for review, interpretation and coaching opportunities to enhance the patient’s self-management abilities. These programs are available across much of the country and have served 31,500 Canadians since 2010. View the previous blog post for more information or videos on telehomecare in general.

Posted on May 8, 2018 by Michael Green

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As I mentioned in Part One of this blog post, Infoway recently released the results of a pan-Canadian study about the value of connected health information. Connected Health Information in Canada: A Benefits Evaluation Study, found that the growing use of connected health information — the information exchanged using interoperable electronic health records (iEHRs) and complementary solutions for sharing information between providers and organizations — is producing significant financial and time saving benefits for patients, providers, our health system and our economy.

Posted on May 1, 2018 by Timothy Luk, Maggie Clark, and Shahab Shahnazari

MaRS Discovery District (MaRS), the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research officially announced the winners of the Healthy Behaviour Data Challenge at Health Datapalooza in Washington D.C. on April 26, 2018.

Posted on April 24, 2018 by Michael Green

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Infoway’s commitment to accountability for taxpayers’ funds has been recognized once again in an independent performance evaluation.

Posted on February 20, 2018 by Michelle Wright

At Island Health, we believe in assessing the value of the projects we undertake, and I was brought on to Island Health’s Home Health Monitoring (HHM) team to help evaluate the program and produce a report measuring the program’s overall success. One of the key factors I looked at was the use of acute care (inpatient admissions and ED visits) for clients who are eligible to participate in Home Health Monitoring at Island Health for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) or heart failure.

Posted on February 13, 2018 by Matt Smith

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Now in its 18^th year, the e-Health Conference continues to provide a unique opportunity for attendees to collaborate under one roof with professionals from technical, policy and business backgrounds. Whether you go for the keynote presenters and expert panelists or the receptions and social events, there is no shortage of ways to stay connected with Canada’s digital health leaders.

Posted on January 30, 2018 by Michael Green

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Canadians are proud of our universal health care system, but despite the money we spend on it, research shows that our country ranks at or near the bottom in international comparisons of timely, equitable access to appropriate care.

Posted on January 9, 2018 by Sukirtha Tharmalingam

What does connected health information mean to you? For me, it means that when I show up at my upcoming medical appointment with my midwife who is managing my pregnancy, she can see my latest lab test results to make sure my iron and glucose levels are in check. She can also see that I’ve recently had a wrist injury and had an ultrasound done. The ultrasound, ordered by my family doctor was conducted in a private lab. Results were sent back to my family doctor, who referred me to a sports medicine specialist for diagnosis and treatment. That is my health information connected.

Posted on January 2, 2018 by Rashaad Bhyat

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We live in the age of information.

Medicine in particular is experiencing a rapid expansion of the volume of knowledge¹, and physicians must manage this information efficiently to care effectively for their patients.