This article originally appeared in the July/August 2020 issue of the Ontario Medical Review magazine.
The first Digital Health and Virtual Care Day takes place virtually October 1, and will showcase digital health and virtual tools that are increasingly indispensable in practice to manage patient information and patient care.
“The need for digital tools and the enabling the virtual delivery of care has changed fundamentally in our health system response to the COVID-19 pandemic” says Dr. Darren Larsen, Chief Medical Officer at OntarioMD. “Our virtual conference is focused on virtual care, and how to take advantage of technology in practice to deliver quality patient care from anywhere.”
The virtual conference runs from 8:30 a.m. until noon, with two additional workshops and seminars specific to Ontario clinicians taking place from 1 p.m. until 5 p.m. Registration is now open and comes at no cost, as OntarioMD recognizes the challenges faced by physicians as a result of the pandemic. Physicians can claim Continuing Medical Education credits for attending.
“Virtual care opens up a whole new world of opportunities, but there are also issues that deserve our consideration,” says Sarah Hutchison, OntarioMD’s CEO. “OntarioMD’s virtual conference will walk us through key issues that are emerging from virtual care, from the legal aspects, to secure messaging in the post-pandemic world, and physician burnout and technology”
Kicking off the event with a keynote address are former federal Health Minister Dr. Jane Philpott and Matthew Anderson, who was appointed in February as president and CEO of Ontario Health.
Dr. Philpott has been named special advisor to the Ontario government in supporting the final design and implementation of the new Ontario Health Data Platform. The data platform, formerly known as PANTHR, will provide recognized researchers and health system partners with secure access to better and more consistent population data with the goal of improving decision-making in health care and supporting efforts to better detect, plan for, and respond to COVID-19.
“We are so fortunate to hear from Dr. Philpott, whose engagement with the province of Ontario to combat COVID-19 using a digital data platform is such a timely subject for our audience,” says Hutchison.
Other topics at the virtual event include:
Some of the morning events are concurrent, and webcasts of each session will be captured and posted on OntarioMD’s website at www.ontariomd.ca for future viewing.
In the afternoon, physician, nurse, nurse practitioner and clinic manager Peer Leaders who are expert users of OntarioMD-certified EMRs will lead training workshops full of practical tips and tools. A how-to seminar on virtual billing for family physicians to end the day will be led by Dr. Rick Tytus.
The virtual conference is ideal for physicians, nurse practitioners, nurses, allied health professionals and administrative staff interested in how to get more clinical value for their practice and for their patients from digital and virtual care tools.
Care has been taken to ensure OntarioMD’s first Digital Health and Virtual Care Day will provide the same quality educational experience as the award-winning in-person EMR: Every Step Conference. To register, please visit the conference page on OntarioMD’s website.
The virtual conference is hosted using Microsoft Teams. It is recommended that registrants download Teams for free from Microsoft in order to take part. Download Microsoft Teams For queries or assistance, please contact support@ontariomd.com and support will be provided.