Blog: Infoway Connects

Posted on May 30 by Timothy Luk and Shahab Shahnazari

Traditionally, public health data are collected at the institutional or local level using a variety of methods including self-reported surveys, telephone interviews or online questionnaires. This information is then transferred to a regional authority before reaching a central, nationwide repository for aggregation and analysis.

Posted on June 6, 2017 by @healthadvoc_ca

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Last fall, I attended the Infoway Partnership Conference to bring the patient voice to the conference floor.

Posted on May 30, 2017 by Selina Brudnicki

The world of patient portals and patient engagement is on the verge of transformational change. The change has the potential to transition ‘patients’ from being passive recipients of health care to ‘people’ taking charge and becoming more responsible leaders of their own health.

Posted on May  23, 2017 by Bobby Gheorghiu

Between March 19 and 23, I had the privilege of attending the eTELEMED 2017 Conference in Nice, France. It all began with an invitation to sit on the conference’s Editorial Board with the opportunity to shape the content and agenda of this year’s conference. Through this collaboration, I was nominated to Chair a special track with the freedom to select the topic of the track and invite contributors to submit research papers or presentations. I saw this as a great opportunity to showcase Infoway’s work on the international stage, not just through our perspective, but also through that of our stakeholders.

Posted on May 16, 2017 by Poonam Khanna

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“I won’t understand my lab results if I access them online.” “The introduction of virtual visits means I won’t see my doctor anymore.” “The government and insurance companies will be able to see my digital health records.” These are just a few of the myths surrounding digital health we’ve encountered over the years, which is why Infoway launched a digital health myths-busting campaign last month.

Posted on May 9, 2017 by Kate Perkins

The Infoway Evaluation Services team works with its partners to assess the impact of digital health projects and whether objectives have been achieved with our investments. These evaluations help Infoway and its partners understand how our investments are impacting Canadians and the health care system and help us improve projects for the future.

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Krista Balenko

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In today’s digital age, we get automated reminders for everything... birthdays, meetings, appointments, prompts to take medications, encouragements to take more steps in a day and the list goes on... Most are helpful, some are useful, but I know of a couple that have been quietly contributing to a significant reduction in hospital and emergency department admissions for some high-risk patient populations.

Posted on April 26, 2017 by Justin Noble

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In the game show Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, aspiring millionaires must answer trivia questions to receive a $1 million prize. If they need help, they can reach out to others by phoning a friend or asking the audience.

Posted on April 19, 2017 by Simon Hagens

The Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) in partnership with Choosing Wisely Canada (CWC) has released an important new report: “Unnecessary Care in Canada.”

Posted on April  11, 2017 by Cassie Frazer

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Who are we in the health system? Are we patients? Consumers? Citizens, clients, Canadians? No matter what you call us – we are people. Unique individuals with unique interests and health care needs; and it is important that we are at the table when decisions about our care are being made.

Posted on April 05, 2017 by Marco Lo

My partners and I started Magenta Health, a family medical clinic in Toronto, as an opportunity to innovate, particularly when it comes to the use of technology to improve patient access, convenience, and care.

Posted by Chad Leaver on March 21

Digital health and connected care services are evolving and gaining momentum in Canada. As they do, the link between patient experience and value-based outcomes is critical to both assess opportunities for improvement and determine scalability and integration of connected care solutions into Canadian models of care.

 Posted on February 02, 2017 by Michael Green

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Digital health solutions are key enablers that will help bridge gaps in delivering care and bending cost curves. These solutions are more important than ever as Canada’s federal, provincial and territorial governments participate in a dialogue that will fundamentally transform the services that Canadians want.

Posted on January 19, 2017 by Bobbi Reinholdt

2016 has been a busy year for PrescribeIT^TM.

Since Infoway began working on a multi-jurisdiction e-prescribing solution, we’ve had more than 150 meetings with key stakeholder groups, including provinces, territories, vendors, retail pharmacy, prescribers, regulators, privacy experts, insurers and patients.

Posted on December 16, 2016 by Dennis Giokas  Follow @Dennis_Giokas

Everyone wants digital health systems that interoperate. Virtually every day I see some article about the subject. They all speak to the challenges and offer some solutions, but we have not been able to truly crack open the core of the problem. Why is that? How should we think about this differently? In my view, the challenge of interoperability among digital health systems is akin to a grocery store trying to predict the multitude of permutations and combinations its items can be used for to create a personalized meal.

Posted on December 5 by Alan Leung

Reflecting on the Infoway Partnership Conference last month, the major themes were collaboration and interoperability. There was also a reminder from a number of speakers to design software or standards in an environment where feedback is actively incorporated and a real-world problem is being solved. It was a great conference for me — I was able to finally meet with many people I've worked with virtually over conference calls. The impromptu conversations also may lead to valuable outcomes. I was impressed by the knowledge and skill of the moderators to prompt discussion and summarize the proceedings.

Posted on November 29, 2016 by  Shelagh Maloney

Thanks to all who participated in Digital Health Week (Nov. 14-20)! The event was very successful in sparking conversations with Canadians about how digital health is empowering them in moving from patients to partners in their care. Collectively we generated over 4,800 tweets that garnered over 23.8 million impressions! Several themes emerged from these conversations. The two that resonated most with me are 1) the importance of including patients in the design of digital health solutions and 2) the ability of digital health to transform the delivery of care.

Posted on November 21, 2016 by Cindy Hollister

With Christmas just around the corner you might wonder, why with great glee, I’ve marked December 15 as “the special day” in my calendar. My eager anticipation of this date actually started on November 8, the launch of the Infoway 2016 LEADing Practice Challenge.

Posted on November 16 by Gilles Leclerc

Will information technology transform healthcare? Like most of you I believe that, without a doubt, it will. Digital records, e-prescribing, connected devices, mobile apps, robotics, telehealth, and artificial intelligence are just a few examples of ongoing changes in health care across the country. But, as the health care system continues its inescapable digital mutation, it may be surprising that up to now limited focus has been put on e-health student education and training in our universities.