BY JERRY ZEIDENBERG

MARKHAM, ONT. – Kinark Childand Family Services, one of On-tario’s largest providers of men-tal health services for children

and youth, is in the midst of migrating all ofits computerized clinical and administrativesystems to the cloud. The transformation isexpected to result not only in lower costs, butwill also boost the ability of clinicians, clientsand families to share information.

“More information will be available, soour clinicians will be able to make the bestdecisions,” said Karim Ramji, Kinark’s ChiefInformation Officer. “And parents will haveaccess to information about their kidsthrough a secure portal.”

Kinark is one of the first large healthcareproviders in Canada to transfer all of itscomputer and communications systems tothe secure cloud. It’s a transformation thatwill have benefits for clinicians, administra-tors and families, Ramji said.

He noted that over the past 30 years, Ki-nark built up an assortment of computer-

ized equipment and operating systems at its25 sites across Ontario, where the agency’s850 employees work with over 10,000 chil-dren each year.

Not only was it getting difficult to accessinformation on these systems from one siteto another, but the equipment was gettingrickety and in need of a refresh.

Ramji and his colleagues realized that asecure cloud solution, with state-of-the-artsoftware solutions and communications,

would keep the technology up to date. Itwould also enable staff, clients and familiesto stay better connected.

After an RFP was issued, they settled onTelus as their cloud and systems provider.“With their cloud solution, we’re spendingless on I.T. overall than we did before,” saidRamji. He noted that staffing has actuallycontracted, as the need for in-house I.T. ex-

perts was lessened. “We’re getting out of thebusiness of managing technology,” he said.“This is allowing us to focus on our kids, ourdata and our research.”

As part of the solution, Telus is providingKinark with an updated electronic clientrecord system that can be easily sharedamong sites and clinicians. The Telus Clini-cal Information System offers a leading-edgecharting system that works in the cloud.

At Kinark, the system has been rebrandedas KIDS 5. It is a major upgrade from Kinark’searlier patient record, called KIDS 3 and 4.

The KIDS 5 system will also be integratedwith the new Kinark telecommunicationssystem. So, when the intake department or aclinician gets a call from a parent, the child’srecord will immediately pop-up.

Kinark plans to integrate its electroniccharting system with a number of partners,so that encounter information at other sites isautomatically fed into the KIDS 5 record.Ramji said this will likely happen first withmajor sites like hospitals, doctors’ offices andhealthcare centres, which also have busy prac-

Kinark moves I.T. to the cloud to enhance care delivery

CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

Kinark is among the healthcare leaders in Canada when it comes to the deployment of advanced technologies. The team includes (picturedabove, l to r): Cynthia Weaver, VP Strategic Initiatives; Dr. Vicki Mowat, Senior Director; Dr. Laurel Johnson, Clinical Director; Karim Ramji,CIO; Lynn Holloran, Account Executive with TELUS Healthcare; Cathy Paul, President and Chief Executive Officer of Kinark. SEE STORY BELOW.

Cloud computing improvescommunication, and also ensuresthat systems are up-to-date.

INSIDE:

Early warning scoring (EWS)A hospital in Brooklyn, N.Y., hassurged ahead in the developmentof early warning system by au-tomating both the collection of vi-tal signs data and the transmittalof alerts to the most appropriatecare-givers.Page 4

AI in the operating room St. Michael’s Hospital, in Toronto,is making use of artificial intelli-gence to help spot medical errors

in the operating room. Awarenessof the errors can then be used toeducate physicians and improvesurgeries in the future.Page 6

An app for infection controlA team at St. Joseph’s Healthcare,Hamilton, has produced an appthat speeds up infection controlaudits, improves communicationamong teams, and allows photosto be included. The pictures oftenhelp tell the story.Page 8

Radioactive controlA spin-off company at the Univer-sity Health Network, in Toronto,has created software that dra-matically reduces the time hospi-

tals spend on quality assurance oftheir linear accelerators and CTscanners.Page 12

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FEATURE REPORT: DIRECTORY OF HEALTHCARE I.T. SUPPLIERS – PAGE 18

CANADA’S MAGAZINE FOR MANAGERS AND USERS OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS IN HEALTHCARE VOL. 22, NO. 5 JUNE/JULY 2017

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tices with children and teens and where pa-tients are seen by multiple organizations.

As well, Kinark is doing pioneeringwork in the Internet of Things – it is plan-ning to securely connect its systems to thedevices that youngsters are using.

“If you ask teenagers how they’re feel-ing, they won’t always tell you,” said Ramji.“But they will talk about their feelings onsocial media. We want to talk with themthis way.” Kinark is looking into the possi-bility, moreover, of linking to wearable de-vices to get even richer data that wouldhelp therapists and clients.

The entire system – clinical and admin-istrative – is being deployed on mobile de-vices, including both Apple and Androidtablets and phones. That makes it mucheasier for clinicians to securely access theinformation they need, anywhere, anytime.

On the administrative side, a sophisti-cated Human Resource Information Sys-tem will be integrated with the Clinical In-formation System. Lynn Holloran, Ac-count Executive at Telus, noted the humanresource system was deployed by Telus at

another large Ontario health organization,and much of it will be made available toKinark. “We can leverage the expertise andexperience from our existing client,” saidHolloran. The system can also log visitsmade by clinicians on their mobile device.

Pricing will be lower than if Kinarkpurchased this kind of system on its own –

another benefit of a cloud-based solution.Just as Kinark is making use of an ad-

ministrative solution produced by anotherhealthcare provider, it will itself make itsown solutions available to partners whowant to modernize their clinical systems.This may include smaller providers ofmental health services across the provincewith antiquated and outmoded softwareand hardware.

“We’re taking it to the next level, andmaking it available to our entire network,”

said Ramji. He said the cloud system is seg-mented, so that partners could have theirown secure portion of the cloud, using Ki-nark’s systems under licence.

It won’t be done to make a profit, hesaid, but to help other organizations get upto speed with solutions that can improvecommunications and lead to better out-comes for youngsters.

Kinark is currently in the first year of afive-year plan to overhaul its computerizedsystems and to move to the cloud and inte-grate the Internet of Things.

The new telecommunications systemhas already been deployed, and the organi-zation is implementing the KIDS 5 chart-ing system over the next year.

It’s a moderately paced rollout, to en-sure that staff and clinicians are comfort-able with the new systems. “We want tomake sure our clinicians are well-trainedon this,” said Ramji.

Kinark is also working on rules for datagovernance, including who has access tothe information of its clients – which ofcourse is highly sensitive and private.

There is also a parents’ portal in theworks, something that will be extremely

useful to parents who are active partici-pants in the care of their children. Theywill be able to communicate with care-givers more easily.

One more aspect of the systems beingpioneered at Kinark: the organization isalso a major researcher, and its work onbest practices is often adopted acrossCanada and worldwide. It is now building aleading-edge data warehouse that will assistwith business intelligence and analytics.

“We do fantastic research here,” saidRamji. “Our clinicians and researchers arethought leaders.”

He continued, “It’s all about evidence-based practices and data-driven decisionmaking. We produce a lot of data aboutour clients. And it’s all in an effort to pro-duce better outcomes for children, youth,and families.”

Art DirectorWalter Caniparoliart@canhealth.com

Art AssistantJoanne Jubasjoanne@canhealth.com

CirculationMarla Singermarla@canhealth.com

Publisher & EditorJerry Zeidenbergjerryz@canhealth.com

Office ManagerNeil Zeidenbergneilz@canhealth.com

Address all correspondence to Canadian Healthcare Technology, 1118 Centre Street, Suite 207, Thornhill ON L4J 7R9 Canada. Telephone: (905) 709-2330.Fax: (905) 709-2258. Internet: www.canhealth.com. E-mail: info2@canhealth.com. Canadian Healthcare Technology will publish eight issues in 2017. Featureschedule and advertising kits available upon request. Canadian Healthcare Technology is sent free of charge to physicians and managers in hospitals, clinicsand nursing homes. All others: $67.80 per year ($60 + $7.80 HST). Registration number 899059430 RT. ©2017 by Canadian Healthcare Technology. Thecontent of Canadian Healthcare Technology is subject to copyright. Reproduction in whole or in part without prior written permission is strictly prohibited.Send all requests for permission to Jerry Zeidenberg, Publisher. Publications Mail Agreement No. 40018238. Return undeliverable Canadian addresses toCanadian Healthcare Technology, 1118 Centre Street, Suite 207, Thornhill ON L4J 7R9. E-mail: jerryz@canhealth.com. ISSN 1486-7133.

CANADA’S MAGAZINE FOR MANAGERS AND USERS OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN HEALTHCARE

Volume 22, Number 5 June/July 2017

Contributing EditorsDr. Sunny MalhotraTwitter: @drsunnymalhotra

Dianne Danieldianne.l.daniel@gmail.com

Richard Irving, PhDrirving@schulich.yorku.ca

Rosie Lombardirosielombardi@hotmail.com

Andy Shawandy56@telus.net

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Kinark migrates its clinical and administrative systems to the cloud

Kinark is pioneering the Internetof Things, and is planning tosecurely connect its systems tothe devices that youngsters use.

VANCOUVER – The recent launch ofCanada’s first tele-pediatric intensive careservice (tele-PICU) provides children withincreased access to specialized care closerto their home community. The new servicewas established by BC Children’s Hospi-tal’s Child Health BC in partnership withprovincial health authorities – VancouverIsland Health Authority and InteriorHealth Authority.

Through the tele-PICU, healthcare pro-fessionals can assess children using real-time, two-way videoconferencing. Highresolution cameras and digital stetho-scopes enable physicians and nurses to seepatients as well as to listen to and amplifysounds of the heart and lungs of seriouslyill or injured children.

“This is just one of the many innovativeexamples of how healthcare providerswork together to leverage technology toenhance medical care throughout ourprovince,” said Dr. Maureen O’Donnell,executive director, Child Health BC, BCChildren’s. “Through Child Health BC, apartnership with the BC health authori-ties, we collaborate to improve children’shealth and healthcare services.”

The service is currently available atKootenay Boundary Hospital in Trail,Nanaimo Regional Hospital and VictoriaGeneral Hospital, with intensive careteams located at both BC Children’s andVictoria General. Using the tele-PICU, in-tensive care teams can now collaboratewith healthcare providers in several com-munities across BC to help children receivediagnosis and treatment sooner and oftenwithout leaving their communities.

Tele-pediatric intensivecare program launched

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N E W S A N D T R E N D S

BY JERRY ZEIDENBERG

By combining smart technologieswith an Early Warning Scoring(EWS) system in its surgical de-partment, a large hospital in New

York City has reduced ‘failure to rescue’deaths by a whopping 35 percent. Failureto rescue patients are those who have ex-perienced a treatable complication anddied in hospital.

It’s an astounding achievement, and Dr.Ron Kaleya, director of GI surgical oncol-ogy at the Maimonides Medical Center, inBrooklyn, N.Y., recently spoke at a Philips-sponsored webinar about how the hospitalaccomplished this.

“We believe we have built a safer surgi-cal service,” said Dr. Kaleya, who was partof the team that devised the BrooklynEarly Warning System, or BEWS. The pro-ject was started in 2014, and involvedPhilips as a partner.

He noted that the BEWS crew at Mai-monides Medical Center created a proac-tive early warning system to catch deterio-rating patients before it was too late. Theteam automated the collection of six vitalsigns, and produced an algorithm that de-termined when experienced cliniciansshould be notified.

Further, they automated the notifica-tion process by sending wireless alerts us-ing the Philips IntelliSpace Event Manage-ment (IEM) System to the smartphones ofclinicians, so the right person could re-spond in a timely manner, without the de-lays of voice and pager systems that havetraditionally been used in the healthcareenvironment.

According to Philips, the IntelliSpaceEvent Management (formerly Emergin)helps care teams manage and respond effi-ciently to multiple event notifications,alerts and alarms by providing useful in-formation directly to communication de-vices, improving efficacy.

Numerous hospitals have created earlywarning systems, but they haven’t tiedthem to an automatic alerting system. As aresult, they haven’t experienced an im-provement in outcomes.

“It’s what you do with the score thatmatters,” said Dr. Kaleya. “You may have aparachute when you jump out of a plane,but unless you pull the ripcord, nothinghappens.”

It wasn’t easy to create this system, saidDr. Kaleya, who noted that much of thecomputerized monitoring and communi-cations equipment was technically incom-patible and wouldn’t talk to each other.

It included the Philips spot check vitalsign monitors and Philips Guardian Solu-tion, Voalte phones and servers, and theAllscripts electronic health record system.The BEWS team urged the vendors to inte-grate the various pieces of the system, sothat seamless communication could takeplace – a process that took about a year.

Moreover, the team had to determinewhat signs to monitor, how they should beweighted, and at what point experiencedphysicians and nurses should be alerted.

The six vitals the team decided to collectare blood pressure, oxygen saturation, pulse,respiration rate, temperature and mentalstates. They’re collected every four hours, re-

viewed by a nurse, and then sent to a server;if a certain threshold has been reached, wire-less alerts go out to care providers.

“Most patients have scores less thanthree,” said Dr. Kaleya. “Patients withscores of up to four can be stabilized withfluids and oxygen therapy, and they cancontinue to be managed on the ward.” Pa-tients with scores of five or more tend torequire more urgent care, sometimes in-cluding transfer to the intensive care unit.

Initially, the BEWS team decided that itwould alert teams of experienced clini-cians when post-op patients hit a score offive. This method was used in 2014 and2015 without much change in mortalityoutcomes.

“When analyzing our 2015 results, wewere unhappy,” lamented Dr. Kaleya.“There was not the improvement we hadpredicted. We had chosen the activationthreshold of five – and this was justwrong.”

He asserted that the BEWS escalationtrigger was then reduced to four – and adramatic change occurred.

In 2016, there were 637 patients with ascore of four or more, and rapid notifica-tion of care providers occurred. Only 21 ofthese patients subsequently died, and someof them were palliative care patients.

“Of 15 patients who were transferredfrom the floor [to the ICU], 14 were res-cued and left the hospital,” observed Dr.

Kaleya.“Most of the others only needed ad-

justments in fluids, oxygen, diuretics andantibiotics.”

The hospital’s internal record-keepingshowed a 30 percent drop in failure to res-cue patients in 2016. “We didn’t’ really be-lieve our results, as they were our own in-ternal calculations,” said Dr. Kaleya. How-ever, the New York City patient indicatorsfor 2016 confirmed the breakthrough –there was actually a 35 percent reductionin risk-adjusted mortality.

“External validation is a wonderfulthing,” said Dr. Kaleya.

He also noted that BEWS is cost-effec-tive. It requires an investment of $850 perpatient in hospitalist staffing – hospitalistsare used to check on the status of patientswith rising BEWS, but with scores less thanthe trigger threshold.

However, about $900 per patient wassaved in the reduction of complications, asthe deterioration of patients was caught atan earlier stage.

This alone pays for the cost of the hos-pitalists, he said.

There is also an investment in technol-ogy, of course. Dr. Kaleya noted that$250,000 was spent on the technology re-quired, including 10 vital signs monitors at$10,000 apiece. There was a large expendi-ture on communication systems, to perfectthe integration and alerting solution.

He said to extend the solution to addi-tional wards, each with 70 patients, wouldcost $150,000 per ward.

At the same time, there are additionalbenefits. BEWS results in a shorter Lengthof Stay (LOS) for patients and reduced lia-bility costs. It also produces better medicaloutcomes and patient satisfaction.

The BEWS project has been so success-ful at Maimonides Medical Center that thehospital now intends to expand the systemto all parts of the hospital.

Moreover, the plan is to become evenmore proactive, and to start preemptiveinteractions at the BEWS score of three.This will catch complications at an evenearlier stage.

Reflecting on the original project, Dr.Kaleya explained that the success of surg-eries depends as much on the level of post-operative care as on what happens in theoperating room.

He noted that in the past, in hospitalswithout early warning systems, nurseshave often been afraid to escalate and tonotify an experienced physician whenpost-operative patients deteriorate.

When they did notify a doctor, it wasoften an intern or resident they contacted.“The most inexperienced person wasasked to assess the sickest patients. It justdidn’t make sense,” said Dr. Kaleya. Theseinexperienced doctors were in turn reluc-tant to call their superiors, fearing theywould be deemed inadequate.

As a result, patients on the verge of crash-ing often didn’t receive the care they need.

A 2005 article in The Hospitalist jour-nal estimated that 60,000 AmericanMedicare patients under the age of 75 dieeach year in failure to rescue situations –episodes in which they have developedtreatable complications, but did not re-ceive appropriate care.

The traditional model of care leading tothis situation has been dubbed ‘track andtrigger’. Nurses and other clinicians trackpatients on the floors, and determine whento trigger an escalation alert.

“This model is, and always was, a com-plete disaster,” said Dr. Kaleya. “It had togo, and it did.” More hospitals are now us-ing early warning systems as a way of esca-lating the alerting process at an earlierstage.

However, as Dr. Kaleya noted, there arestill problems, as the early warning systemsused in most other hospitals haven’t beenautomated. Nor have they been tied to analerting system.

Studies have shown, he said, that whenEWS scores are calculated by hand, only 20percent are correctly tabulated. Further,the same resistance to escalate occurswhen nurses and residents have responsi-bility to alert more experienced clini-cians.

With BEWS, however, the vital signs areautomatically collected and scored. Whenthe threshold is reached, moreover, wire-less alerts are sent out to experienced care-givers, without human intervention.

“Immediate wireless alerts are gener-ated, according to the algorithm, withoutclinical input,” said Dr. Kaleya. Experi-enced caregivers respond quickly, resultingin saved lives. “BEWS delivers the rightcare, right now,” said Dr. Kaleya.

Maimonides Medical Center, in Brooklyn, NY, is one of the first hospitals to tie EWS to automated alerts.

Hospital’s early warning system dramatically lowers post-op mortality

The Philips Guardian System, withEarly Warning Scoring (EWS), aids inidentifying subtle signs of patient dete-rioration at the point of care, hours be-fore a potential adverse event. As a re-sult, caregivers and Rapid ResponseTeams can respond earlier – in time tomake a difference. The Guardian solu-tion automatically acquires vital signs,calculates an early warning score, dis-plays it at the point of care, and notifiesresponsible caregivers to intervenequickly.

According to the company, Guardianautomated EWS helps to reduce ICUtransfers and readmissions, adverse

events, and length of stay. Plus the sys-tem can be tailored to a hospital’s esca-lation protocols to improve clinicalworkflow, financial outcomes, and pa-tient care.

For hospitals that do not have anAlarm Management Notification Sys-tem, Philips says that it offers an enter-prise event management solution calledCareEvent. CareEvent includes a mobileapplication to send informative alertsdirectly to smartphones so that care-givers can make informed decisionsand take action when required. Ca-reEvent delivers alerts, including nu-merics, waveforms and associated data.

Guardian of the automated solution

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N E W S A N D T R E N D S

BY KELLY O’BRIEN

The team behind the operatingroom black box is working to in-corporate artificial intelligenceinto its reporting on surgical safety.

Dr. Teodor Grantcharov, a surgeon-sci-entist at St. Michael’s Hospital in Torontowho specializes in advanced minimally in-vasive procedures, such as gastric by-passes, is the leader of the OR black boxresearch project.

St. Michael’s has one black box, used byDr. Grantcharov. A second black box is atthe Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdamand four more are to be added in Torontoand New York by the end of the year.

What continues to be the key to the suc-cess of the black box project is the post-surgery data analysis. The research teamreceives all surgical data from the twoboxes and produces a weekly report sum-marizing each of the hospitals’ procedures.

“The problems a black box detects inAmsterdam are going to be different fromthose problems detected in Toronto,” saidDr. Grantcharov. “We have the ability to tai-lor it to the individual, to the specific team,the institution, the province, the country.That’s the advantage of expanding the pro-ject. We can make educational interventionsbenefitting a wide range of people.”

The black box team consists of 15 peo-ple, including eight data analysts whocomb each case for errors or adverseevents. It takes approximately two to threehours to rate, or log all the errors andevents in each case. With interest in theblack box increasing, the team has begunusing computer vision to improve the effi-

ciency of its reporting and meet the grow-ing demand.

Computer vision, a form of artificial in-telligence, is a science concerned with theautomatic extraction, analysis and under-standing of useful information from a sin-gle image or a sequence of images.

Dr. Grantcharov said the team was“teaching” the computer to identify an ad-verse event by feeding it existing clips ofevents from procedures that a human hasalready analyzed.

“Take bleeding for an example,” he said.“Our library has thousands of clips of dif-ferent types of bleeds. The human analystsare able to pinpoint what each bleed lookslike, whether it’s an inconsequential bleed,

or it’s perfusing a bit more, making it moresignificant. Then we create what’s called anevent matrix, which allows us to identifyand map out every different bleed.”

“So we take that data and we enter itinto the computer, which runs its ownanalysis, and then we’re able to comparethe human analysis to the computer analy-sis and see how accurate it is.”

Karthik Raj, Dr. Grantcharov’s researchprogram manager, said each time theprocess is repeated, the accuracy of thecomputer report improves. The team hascreated a computer-aided framework foranalyzing all the audio in a case with 62percent accuracy.

“The more parameters we bring in,

such as error detection, bleeding detection,all of those things added together, themore accurate the computer analysis willbe,” he said. “When we reach 99 percent ac-curacy, we could actually allow the com-puter to help us.”

Dr. Grantcharov was recently appointedthe Keenan Chair in Surgery at St.Michael’s for his research on surgical edu-cation and patient safety with focus on cur-riculum design, assessment of competenceand impact of surgical performance onclinical outcomes-specifically his workwith the OR black box.

Similar to the black boxes used in the air-line industry, the OR black box is about thesize of a PlayStation. It can record nearlyeverything that happens in the OR, includ-ing video of the surgical procedure, conver-sations among healthcare professionals,room temperature and decibel levels.

It works only for laparoscopic, or mini-mally invasive surgeries that insert videocameras in thin plastic tubes into small in-cisions in the body, allowing the surgeonto see what’s going on inside the patient.

Until earlier this year, the team focusedon improving safety by reporting on per-formance issues, communication andteam dynamics. But in May, Dr.Grantcharov and his team hosted a retreatfor 17 principal investigators from acrossToronto, with areas of expertise rangingfrom art and design to engineering, to be-gin examining all the ways in which thedata they collect can be used to improvesurgical safety.

“We wanted to find out whether otherresearchers were motivated by the data, as

IBM and ventureLab open new high-tech innovation hub in Markham

MARKHAM, ONT. – IBMand ventureLAB are un-veiling the IBM Innova-tion Space - MarkhamConvergence Centre, an

enterprise-led innovation hub in On-tario. Located at the IBM Canada head-quarters in Markham, the space bringstogether developers, startups, entrepre-neurs, funding agencies, researchers andexperts and mentors from IBM and ven-tureLAB in one collaborative space tohelp companies scale up developmentfaster and drive economic growth in YorkRegion and the Greater Toronto Area.

This hub is part of the IBM InnovationIncubator Project, a $54 million initiativeof the Province of Ontario, IBM, and On-tario Centres of Excellence (OCE) to helppropel ‘made in Ontario’ innovation byrapidly accelerating commercialization.

The IBM Innovation Space -Markham Convergence Centre enableventures at all stages of their business life-cycle to excel and grow through technol-ogy innovation by providing easy accessto the latest IBM technologies, includingleading cloud and cognitive solutions.

“The IBM Innovation Space -Markham Convergence Centre will be anopen environment where fresh ideas are

combined with the maturity of big busi-ness,” said Pat Horgan, Vice President ofManufacturing, Development and Oper-ations, IBM Canada. “By working shoul-der to shoulder with young enterprises,developers and entrepreneurs, we are alsohelping to transform industries. Thesecompanies are identifying opportunitiesthat will disrupt the status quo and ulti-mately improve the lives of Canadians.”

In addition to the on-site supportfrom IBM and ventureLAB, other orga-nizations driving entrepreneurship andcommercialization will work alongsidemore than 25 startups and entrepreneurswithin The IBM Innovation Space -Markham Convergence Centre to pro-vide networking, funding opportunities,mentorship, industry expertise, and sup-port services, as well as links to re-searchers and connections with estab-lished businesses and local markets.

These members include OCE, TheNational Research Council-IndustrialResearch Assistance Program (NRC-IRAP), Markham Board of Trade, TheMarkham Small Business Centre, Inno-vation York, and Seneca.

“The newly created IBM InnovationSpace - Markham Convergence Centrewill allow ventureLAB to help accelerate

the growth of high-potential companies,while making more room for startupswho wish to reside here with us to takeadvantage of the immense opportunitythat exists for them by collaborating withour ecosystem partners,” said Jeremy Lau-rin, President and CEO, ventureLAB. “Bybeing inside IBM Canada, our startups

have unprecedented access to IBM tools,staff and an unrivaled ecosystem purposebuilt to help them go further, faster. Over-all, it provides the foundation to meet ourgoal of helping to build 10 scale-up com-panies over the next 5 years.”

Studio1Labs, a pioneer member ofthe innovation hub, is collecting and in-terpreting data collected from bed sheetsensors to help monitor and predict the

onset of clinical emergencies like SuddenInfant Death Syndrome (SIDS) for ba-bies and infants. This local startup is alsocollaborating with Innovation York toestablish further opportunities in thehealthcare industry.

Peytec, another member of the space,uses IBM Cloud to support the com-pany’s Industrial Internet of Things(IoT) solutions that provide real-timephysical asset management in industrialsectors for improving and automatingsupply chain, packaging, warehousing,and distribution processes in manufac-turing and logistics sectors.

Businesses will tap into IBM’s industryexpertise, mentorship and global channelsto help stimulate entrepreneurship in YorkRegion and aid in the research, incuba-tion, development and commercializationof business ideas in an effort to invigorateindustries such as healthcare, energy, fi-nancial services, and transportation.

The Government of Ontario, IBM,and OCE invest in incubator ecosystemslike the IBM Innovation Space -Markham Convergence Centre to helpclose the Canadian innovation gap andnurture research and development pro-jects through collaborations with leaders

Dr. Teodor Grantcharov and his team have started to implement AI to help identify surgical errors in the OR.

Start-ups benefit from IBM’s extensive resources.

‘Black box’ founders use AI, collaboration to improve surgical safety

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N E W S A N D T R E N D S

HAMILTON, ONT. – Healthcare isa fast paced environment andaccess to up to date, accuratedata is key to ensuring patient

and staff safety. St. Joseph’s HealthcareHamilton explored the possibility of mov-ing away from paper-based infection-pre-vention audits to improve the auditingprocess and the timeliness of reports to theclinical units.

After completing a detailed environ-mental scan and looking at existing prod-ucts, the organization decided it wouldbe better suited to developing its owncustom application to meet SJHH’s spe-cific needs.

Representatives from IT and IPACteamed up with a local app developmentfirm, Weever Apps Inc., to create a cus-tomizable tool that could be used to sup-port a wide variety of infection preventionaudit types and workflows. The toolswould have to meet the auditing needs of avariety of different quality improvementworking groups and the infection preven-tion and control team.

The IPAC team initiated the project,and worked with the Information andCommunication Technologies ProjectManagement Office to scope the project,document all the requirements and coor-dinate the development efforts with Wee-ver Apps, to deliver a high quality product.

It took about six months to developthe app, which has been in use since Au-gust 2016.

The tool offers the ability to use AppleiPad devices to conduct IPAC auditsthroughout the SJHH organization, usingan efficient checklist entry model. Eachauditable point can be annotated with aphotograph and comment if required,which transforms the level of effectivenessin capturing and conveying the particularsof compliance items.

Once the audit data has been collected,the tool can generate summary reports,which allow the ability to email PDFs ofeach audit summary, including commentsand pictures to unit managers and others.As a result, the timeliness and impact ofthe reports is greatly improved.

Audit form content can be maintainedby the IPAC team using the flexible formmanagement tooling built into the sys-tem by Weever Apps. Changes to the au-dit tools can be made based on feedbackfrom the users and the clinical teams whoreceive the reports. A complex change re-quest process is not required.

“Having the ability to add pictures tothe audits brings the audit results to lifefor the clinical managers. They can seethe gap identified by the auditor, reduc-ing the needs for extensive written de-scriptions required by a paper tool,” saidDemetree Kallergis, Project Manager,and a member of the Information andCommunication Technologies Team.

The app is used primarily by the hospi-tal’s Infection Control professionals, butsince November working group mem-bers have also been using the tools andthis has made data collection and thesummary of findings even easier to com-plete. About five Infection Control auditsare done each week, but depending onthe week, it can be as high as 30.

Project ECHO will support primary care providers in underserved areasBY JERRY ZEIDENBERG

TORONTO – Canada boastssome top-notch pediatric fa-cilities, such as the Hospitalfor Sick Children (SickKids),where parents from around

the province bring their children for spe-cialized services. While specialists pro-vide important care for patients, theycan be overwhelmed by increasing de-mand for these services.

To help manage the demand, Sick-Kids is launching a project calledECHO (Extension for CommunityHealthcare Outcomes). Pediatric ProjectECHO aims to transfer expertise frompediatric specialists at the hospital tocommunity-based healthcare providersacross the province.

“People need access to specialty carefor complex health conditions,” saidAdam McKillop, PhD, the Project Man-ager at SickKids. “ECHO will helphealthcare providers to deliver best prac-tices in their communities, through theexperience of specialists at SickKids andother community-based providers.”

Starting in October, SickKids will usevideoconferencing technology to provideeducation and case-based learning op-portunities for clinicians. “We’re movingknowledge instead of patients,” saidMcKillop, who was a presenter at theApps for Health conference, held at Mo-hawk College in Hamilton, Ont., earlierthis year.

SickKids is organizing teams to trans-fer knowledge in four different areas:acute and chronic pain; bariatric care;complex care; and palliative care – allwith pediatric patients in mind.

Project ECHO is approved andfunded by the Ministry of Health andLong-Term Care. The program aims to

build capacity in the community so pa-tients can receive the necessary treat-ment locally.

It will also help reduce the load ontertiary centres, like SickKids, enablingspecialists to focus on the most urgentpatients that require hospital-basedtreatments and procedures, while pri-mary care providers are able to supplyspecialized care in the community.

Pediatric Project ECHO will includeregularly scheduled clinics for each spe-ciality. The Pain TeleECHO Clinics willbe held twice each month, beginning inOctober, while the Bariatric Care, Com-plex Care and Palliative Care TeleECHOClinics will take place monthly startingin January 2018.

McKillop explained that the ProjectECHO team at Sick-Kids is developing acurriculum for eachspecialty to deliverrelevant and up-to-date topics. He andhis colleagues havebeen collecting feed-back from potentialparticipants so theycan tailor the pro-gram to their needs.

The TeleECHOClinics will include a brief educationalpresentation, a patient case presentation,Q&A, and ultimately result in recom-mendations built on best practices.

The teams at SickKids will include amedical lead and a group of multi-disci-plinary clinicians to offer different per-spectives throughout the clinic. Otherattendees may include a guest presenter,students and trainees, and IT support.

While the patient cases will be basedon real people, the identities of the pa-tients will be redacted to preserve privacy.

The project will also include a CoreCompetency Curriculum for each spe-cialty. These workshops are designed tolook at certain topics in more detail, de-livered via videoconference twice peryear starting in February 2018. An in-person “boot-camp” at SickKids will alsobe offered for the Pain ECHO to develophands-on pain management skills.

The project also provides an opportu-nity for clinicians at SickKids to learnabout the pediatric needs in differentcommunities. “It enables us to learnwhat is happening in communities, atthe ground level,” said McKillop. “Wedon’t know everything, and this will cre-ate a two-way exchange of knowledge.”

SickKids is currently recruitinggroups in communities across Ontario

that are seekingto increase theirknowledge inthe four clinicalareas. The ProjectECHO conceptstarted in Albu-querque, NewMexico, whenDr. SanjeevArora, a liverspecialist, found

he was overloaded with patients suffer-ing from hepatitis C. Dr. Arora realizedthat most of the patients could be caredfor in their own communities, if onlytheir GPs and nurses received some ad-ditional training.

Dr. Arora, in 2003, helped launch avideoconferencing project in whichteams of specialists trained primary-careclinicians in outlying communities. Us-ing videoconference technology, theycreated a virtual classroom that edu-cated their colleagues in best practices,

including lab tests and treatments forhep C patients.

ECHO was so successful that otherclinicians and centres adopted Dr.Arora’s methods. “ECHO centres haveexploded since then,” said McKillop.

ECHO projects are now operatingworldwide, with Ontario leading thecharge for Canada-based ECHO pro-jects. The University Health Network, forexample, offers ECHO outreach for he-patitis C, pain management andrheumatology. The Centre for Addictionand Mental Health (CAMH) and Hol-land-Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hos-pital, in Toronto, and the Children’sHospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO)have also launched ECHO projects oftheir own.

At SickKids, Dr. Jennifer Stinson isthe project lead. McKillop noted thatSickKids will also be doing an evalua-tion of the ECHO demonstration pro-ject, which is slated to last two to threeyears. The evaluation will cover issuessuch as feasibility, acceptance, andchange in participant knowledge andconfidence to deliver specialty care intheir practice.

Of great importance, of course, iswhether patients are benefitting fromECHO. “We’ll want to find out whetherpatients are staying in their communi-ties, and if they are doing well or evenbetter because they are staying close tohome,” said McKillop. The team at Sick-Kids will seek additional funding forhealth system utilization and longitudi-nal patient-related outcome research.

For more information or to registerfor Pediatric Project ECHO at SickKids,please visit: www.sickkids.ca/projecte-cho. For information about otherECHOs please visit www.echoontario.caor http://echo.unm.edu/

Demetree Kallergis, Project Manager in Information and Com-munications Technologies, and Anne Bialachowski, managerof Infection Prevention and Control and Outpatients.

IT and IPAC collaborate to develop an app to improve data collection

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N E W S A N D T R E N D S

BY DIANNE CRAIG

At Cisco’s Toronto-based InnovationCentre – one of nine in totalaround the world, and the only one

in North America – healthcare takes centrestage in a display that includes technologyinnovations by several of the company’spartners. Dimension Data, Apple, JED-MED, Hill-Rom, Industry Weapon, andJibestream are presenting their technolo-gies, all running on a Cisco network.

The centre is designed to show how thecompany can innovate with partners andalso leverage relationships with universitiesto “co-create” new vertical solutions. Thereare three areas of specialization at the Inno-vation Centre in Toronto, including health-care, financial services, and the concept of‘smarter-connected’ buildings, homes,communities, etc. Currently healthcare isfeatured.

“We want to make sure we are solvingreal problems in healthcare,” says MarlonHarvey, Vertical Solutions Architect forCisco Canada. The three primary areas offocus in the Innovation Centre are: the In-telligent Bedside Experience, a Smart Hos-pital Environment, and Virtual Care.

Consider the patient bed. Now so muchmore than the largest piece of furniture inthe hospital room, smart beds, such as theone made by Hill-Rom in the Cisco Inno-vation Centre, are assisting healthcare

providers to make informed decisions inseveral ways.

Alerts can be set to signal for examplethat someone restricted to bed rest is try-ing to get out of the bed. “A smart bedcould identify whether someone is occu-pying that bed,” notes Harvey. “If you canstart digitizing things like beds, and lever-age the notifications, they can help tomake informed decisions.”

A whole set of rules tailored to theneeds of each patient can be built into thesmart bed. For example, it could be set sothe bed only reclines to a certain angle be-cause the patient has a tube inserted. Asmart bed can also indicate it’s time toturn the patient, to avoid bedsores. It canweigh patients – enabling constant weightmonitoring during a hospital stay that canbe used to assist in determining, for exam-ple, whether the patient is retaining waterand needs a diuretic.

A monitor on the wall that displays spe-cial patient notes can show that a patient isat risk for a fall. If the patient tries to getout of the bed, an alarm goes off that islinked to the nurse call system.

Hill-Rom contributed the smart bed,nurse call system, sensor board (that en-ables the bed to measure weight, etc.) andthe vital signs monitor that are featured inthe Innovation Centre.

Cisco is supporting the systems the bedsare connected to, such as the nurse call sys-tem, over the IoT enabler. “We ask how wecan ensure your bed is functioning opti-

mally on a Cisco network – that’s whereour partnerships are so important,” saysShanti Gidwani, National Senior Director,Healthcare, Cisco Canada.

The idea of constant patient surveil-lance, for those at risk of a fall, for exampleis a priority. “Now we have the technologyto do that. We can watch not just one, but10 or 12 patients at a time ... and we add inthe ability to interact,” says Gidwani.

Next to the smart bed in the InnovationCentre is a mobile Mono Cart, purpose-built by Dimension Data for Virtual PatientObservation that is outfitted with a Ciscosecurity surveillance camera with PTZ,DX70, and a wireless access point batterypack. It gives patients a video connectionwith the nurses, so that a patient couldcommunicate easily when they need help.

They can look into the video monitorand say, “I’m cold and I need a blanket.”“Seeing someone is reassuring to the pa-tient,” says Gidwani, and to the nurses, sheexplains, since it gives them a visual link tomonitoring the patient and determininghow they are, and their level of comfort. Itenables quick visual assessments that canimprove time management.

One of the key considerations, saysGidwani, is “how do we create clinicalworkflows that help us better manage pa-tient care?”

Alerts can be set up so that when a clin-ician wearing an RFID ID tag enters theroom, the alert stops, and the clinician in-teracts with the patient to ensure he re-ceives the right care. “

The combination of EMR informationwith clinical workflow can enhance patientcare management and efficiency. Whenalarms go off they can determine whichpatient can wait a few more minutes andwhich needs an immediate response.“There’s a cumulative effect of saving time,of becoming more efficient,” says SandySaggar, Chief Information Officer, HaltonHealthcare.

“It helps us to prioritize better, to be-come better clinicians,” adds Gidwani.

Notifications can be used in other waysto improve cost efficiencies. For example,they can help with identifying locationsand assessing usage of certain types of de-vices or equipment. “If we employ this typeof technology, we can find out for example,where the nearest pump is,” says Saggar.

“It’s very difficult to measure how muchyou’re using their devices (pumps for ex-ample) every day. We can say you are usingthis x hours that day, this day, etc. and hereare your real costs, what you really used.”

Hygiene stations are everywhere now inevery hospital setting, and visitors andstaff are encouraged to use them fre-quently. In the Innovation Centre, an I.D.tag added to a hygiene station can trackhow often individual clinicians, andgroups, also wearing I.D. tags, wash theirhands. “When we have the data, we havethe power to choose what to do with it,”says Gidwani. “Qualitative data helps usbecome more productive, efficient, andmove closer to clinical excellence.”

The concept of Virtual Care is also pre-sented in the Innovation Centre. A desk isset up for remote video collaboration withan Avizia cart that has Cisco video andcodec in it, with a JedMed Horus Scope di-agnostic peripheral that includes a generalexam camera with otoscope and dermas-cope attachments.

Above the desk a video is running thatprofiles Dr. John Pawlovich, an Abbots-

ford, B.C.-based doctor who has a thrivingtelehealth practice meeting the needs of aremote First Nations community in TaklaLanding, 1,000 km north of Vancouver.

Dr. Pawlovich drives a 4X4 to the com-munity for one week each month to see andcare for patients in person. He also set upvideo collaboration in his office and in theTakla Landing community health centre us-ing Cisco TelePresence with a stethoscope,an ENT camera, and a general exam camera.

From Abbotsford he can listen to heartand lung sounds, examine wounds, pro-vide other care, and also enable nurses inthe area to consult with him via iPad,smartphone or desktop screen. This allowshim to stay connected to patients the threeweeks of the month when he is not in thearea. “It empowers nurses too to becomemore competent,” says Gidwani. “Thecommunity has access to him four weeksout of four weeks.”

Virtual care for communities has savedthousands of dollars, and the possibilitiesfor virtual care are seemingly endless. Forexample, says Saggar, “If we need a pedi-atric neurologist, we have new ones in Os-hawa and can do a case consult right away.”

Digitization is transforming the deliv-ery of care. It is even affecting how newhospitals are built. “It’s the art of the pos-sible. How do you make it more patientand family-centric, and how do you designand put in these technologies so they areenabling clinicians, staff, and volunteers todo their jobs in the most cost-effectiveway?”, says Saggar. “For example,” he adds,“enabling the availability of informationwhen and where they need it.”

At Halton Healthcare in Oakville, theyhave made strides in that direction by inte-grating the nurse system with mobile de-vices. “If you’re in a patient room andyou’re in a bed and you need a blanket, cupof water, or help with something, you usethe nurse call system. We’ve integrated it tothe mobile phone. If you are away fromyour room you can talk through the nurses’call system. It’s immediate,” says Saggar.

Cisco simulates how smart beds, video monitoring and RFID tags can create an Intelligent Bedside Experience.

Cisco showcases the future of healthcare at its Toronto-based innovation centre

in government, industries, and acade-mia by rapidly accelerating the com-mercialization of Canadian innovation.

Collaborative environments create astrong foundation for high value job cre-ation by providing startups and develop-ers with the expertise, resources, and ad-vanced technologies needed to grow theirbusiness and compete on a global scale.Over the past 10 years, IBM Canada hasinvested more than half a billion dollarsof in-kind expertise and related tech-nologies to establish a series of collabora-tive innovation hubs across the country.

“Markham is home to one of the high-est concentrations of Information Com-munications Technology (ICT) and lifesciences companies in North America,”said Markham Mayor Frank Scarpitti.“The IBM Innovation Space - MarkhamConvergence Centre is a central part of

Markham 2020, the City’s economic strat-egy, and will help foster a collaborativebusiness environment, stimulate new busi-ness formation and commercialization, at-tract high quality employment, and en-hance Markham’s economic competitive-ness and prosperity.”

IBM is a cognitive solutions andcloud-platform company backed byover a century of business and systemsinnovation. With Bluemix, IBM’s cloudplatform, at its core, the company isproviding developers and organizationswith the fastest on-ramp to cloud tohelp them reach their full creative andinnovative potential. For more informa-tion about IBM’s continued investmentsin Canadian innovation, please visit:http://www.ibm.com/ibm/ca/en/cana-dian-innovation.html

To apply to become a part of the IBMInnovation Space - Markham Conver-gence Centre, please visit i3project.ca/.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 6

New high-tech innovation hub opens

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The idea of constant patientsurveillance, for those at risk ofa fall, is a priority. There arevarious solutions that can help.

N E W S A N D T R E N D S

Kim Wieringa, Assistant DeputyMinister of Health InformationSystems at Alberta Health, theprovincial government’s health

ministry, in conversation with Contribut-ing Editor, Andy Shaw.

CHT: Kim, Alberta has a reputation for be-ing innovative and far-reaching when itcomes to health information systems, so wehave a lot we can talk about. But let’s startwith you first. What would you say youpersonally bring to the job you have now?

Wieringa: Well, it’s been a journey to gethere. I spent a lot of time in my early careeras a business analyst working in corporatesystems. I’ve also had six years of academictraining, including certifications in humanresources, information technology andproject management. My goal in anythingI do is to serve the end-user in a way thatmakes sense to that individual, but alsoserves the organization well. My back-ground means I can take a concept fromlegislation and make it operational in areal-life environment.

CHT: I understand you left Alberta Healthand were out of healthcare and IT for sevenyears, but returned in 2013 to head up Al-berta Health’s electronic record servicesbranch before being promoted to your cur-rent position. You’ve been ADM going ontwo years now, so you can probably tell usexactly what your Health Information Sys-tems division does these days.

Wieringa: Our division administers theHeath Information Act, which sets out therules for the collection, use, disclosure andprotection of health information. We alsooversee three e-health systems: the personalhealth record, Alberta Netcare (theprovince’s electronic health record) and theProvincial Health Information Exchange.We also operate a number of Alberta Healthsystems such as the provincial health out-break surveillance system and the Pharma-ceutical Information Network, as well as allsystems that are used to pay doctors.

CHT: Wow, that’s a lot to look after. Doyou ever get time to go home?

Wieringa: It’s a busy job, for sure. But italso has a tremendous impact, both forhealthcare providers and Albertans. And Ihave a great team working with me.

CHT: How busy are you these days withAlberta’s patient portal?

Wieringa: We are continuing to expand itsfunctions and increase the amount of in-formation that’s available through the pa-tient health record. Right now, we are in atesting phase with about 1,200 volunteerusers. We’re moving forward in a prudentway, because we want to make absolutelysure we have a secure way of identifyingusers and providing the best possible pro-tection of people’s health information. Tothat end, we are working with Service Al-berta on a digital identity program thatwill actually allow Albertans to validatetheir individual identities and create anonline login that will then be used to ac-

cess other government services online. Thepersonal health record is the first service touse the government’s My Alberta DigitalIdentification system.

CHT: How much health information willpatients be able to access via the portal?

Wieringa: Patients can currently access in-formation about dispensed drugs, and thepersonal health record will soon have over50 different lab test results available toearly enrollment users. It’s also importantto point out the huge potential for the per-sonal health record to be used as a wellnesstool where users will be able to track theirweight, BMI (body mass index), bloodpressure, diabetes, etc. When it’s fullylaunched, it will be optimized for mobileand will have the capability to sync withother well-known fitness devices.

Another feature of the personal healthrecord is that it’s linked to myhealth.al-berta.ca, which launched in 2008 and is atrusted source of health information forAlbertans. So in future, let’s say you receivea lab test result you’re concerned about,right away you can find helpful informa-tion about it on myhealth.alberta.ca.

CHT: How will people actually start ac-cessing their records?

Wieringa: They will first login to the my-health.alberta.ca website and apply for anID, which will send them to Service Al-berta to get their virtual digital identity.For that, they’ll need either a driver’s li-cence or an Alberta identity card. Oncethey have confirmed who they are, theywill be sent a PIN number through themail, just like the banks do. The PIN willbe used to activate the ID and gain accessto their personal health record.

We’re really excited about that, becauseonce we can get people to that stage, thenthe sky is the limit for what else we mightdo for them. We can start to think aboutoffering a full range of what we call digitalhealth services.

CHT: You’ve described yourself as an “AirForce brat” who moved often. So even asa child, you’ve experienced healthcare injurisdictions outside of Alberta. No doubtas an adult administrator now you’velooked across the country and beyond tosee what can be learned from otherhealthcare systems.

Wieringa: Yes, certainly in Alberta we arealways looking for innovations and bestpractices that we can implement in ourprovince, and I definitely think jurisdic-

tions in Canada are learning from eachother. Formally, Canada Health Infowaybrings the country’s healthcare CIOs to-gether at least three times a year. And we’reall quite transparent and open about shar-ing our best practices and lessons learned.

I see a number of interesting thingshappening across Canada. For example,Nova Scotia is doing some really impres-sive things with its Health Connect system.Saskatchewan also has something similargoing with its CHIP or Citizen’s Health In-formation Program.

In the United States, Kaiser Permanentehas done a marvelous job of digitizinghealth services. They do it with high satis-

faction from providers, as well as from pa-tients. What really stands out is that theyare able to leverage their digitized servicesto improve patient care, to identify wheregaps in care exist or where they canstreamline or introduce other services. Atthe clinical level, it helps to curb problemssuch as overtreatment if you know exactlyhow many lab tests a patient has alreadyhad before ordering more tests. So there’s afinancial benefit too.

CHT: Which brings us all the way back toAlberta. And I am wondering before wefinish if, with a series of quick questionsand short answers, you might give us asnapshot of how you see the state of elec-tronic healthcare in your province?

Wieringa: Sure. Let’s go for it!

CHT: Great. So what do you see as the e-health priorities in Alberta?

Wieringa: Our e-health priorities are thesame as other priorities in the health sys-tem, and that is to provide the best possiblehealthcare for Albertans. That means pro-viding the right services, in the right places,at the right times, with the right healthproviders and the right information.

CHT: How much does Alberta spend on e-health IT?

Wieringa: In our most recent budget, wehave an operational expenditure of $594million and a capital expenditure of$22.3 million. Of that $400 million hasbeen allocated over the next four years tobuild a province-wide clinical informa-tion system.

CHT: In terms of other IT systems relatedto healthcare, what have you hooked up ornot hooked up yet?

Wieringa: Our goal is to build an inte-grated system – and that remains a workin progress. Alberta Netcare is theprovince’s electronic health care recordsystem where patient-centred records arestored and referenced by physicians. Net-care today connects with physician officesand pharmacies throughout the province,and we’re in the process of expanding thesystem to connect with chiropractors,dentists, and optometrists. The long-termvision is to continue to expand Netcare tobridge all parts of our healthcare system –and provide that information to Albertansthrough a user-friendly personal healthrecord.

CHT: Finally, then, is there something you’dlike to add that we haven’t touched on?

Wieringa: I’d like to say that e-health is re-ally the foundation for a new and trans-formed healthcare system – one that con-nects people, care providers and health in-formation in ways that were never possiblebefore. The ultimate aim is to empowerpatients as full partners with their care-providers in managing their health. This isan incredible opportunity to transformhealthcare, and it’s within reach with thetools we’re building.

Kim Wieringa, ADM , notes that Alberta is expanding Netcare to include dentists, optometrists and others.

Alberta expands the scope of its Netcare EHR, and increases access

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The personal health record willsoon have over 50 different labtest results available to earlyenrollment users.

”I love treating my patients, but not the paperwork.“

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BY JERRY ZEIDENBERG

TORONTO – Acumyn, a spin-offcompany from Toronto’s Univer-sity Health Network, has pro-duced software that dramatically

reduces the time that hospitals spend onquality assurance of their linear accelera-tors and CT scanners.

Both types of equipment emit ionizingradiation and require quarterly, weekly oreven daily checks to ensure that they workproperly and meet various regulatory andsafety requirements. It’s a time-intensivetask that has traditionally required the ex-pertise of highly paid physicists.

Acumyn, however, has produced soft-ware that automates the various steps re-quired for quality assurance, making itpossible for technologists to perform thechecks and calibrations, instead of medicalphysicists.

“A physicist’s time is not best-used do-ing these tests,” said Ferhan Bulca, PhD,who is CEO of Acumyn. “It’s better spentlooking at results, and determining whento replace parts. You don’t want to do re-placements after the machine goes down,”he added, explaining that such a situationwould lead to longer down times and waitsfor patients.

There are about 80 different tests thatmust be conducted on radiotherapy ma-chines, and about 40 for CT scanners.

Some tests are currently conducted usingpaper-based check-lists; which are filedand archived, making reporting and analy-sis difficult to conduct.

Some types of test are computerized,but various pieces of equipment are usedand the results are often collated on paper.

Acumyn’s AQUA software has consoli-dated all of the various tests, enablingtechnologists to run the software andquickly check and make the necessary ad-justments. The software displays results ona dashboard for easy viewing.

Moreover, with all of the results consol-idated in one database, reporting in mucheasier than using mixed paper and com-puterized systems.

Most impressive, perhaps, is the reduc-tion in time needed for staff to conducttesting.

“We’ve demonstrated our software inradiology departments,” said Bulca. “Whatnormally takes 60 minutes can now bedone in 60 seconds.”

He said that onlookers have been im-pressed at the speed of the system and thechange it means for radiation oncologyand radiology departments.

“The product can pay for itself in threeto six months,” said Bulca. And it meansthat medical physicists can be doinghigher-value work, instead of spendinghours on tedious equipment tests.

That’s not to downplay the importance

of quality assurance of linear acceleratorsand CT scanners, however. Bulca empha-sizes that if they are incorrectly calibratedor if a malfunction goes undetected, thesedevices can have serious side effects oreven kill patients – which is disastrous.

Incidents of serious burns and deathshave occurred at facilities in the UnitedStates, for example. Not only did the eventsharm patients and the reputations of thehospitals, but the subsequent lawsuits wereexpensive to settle. In 2011, New YorkTimes published a series of articles to raiseawareness on the importance of quality as-surance for linear accelerators.

Hospitals must also ensure their CTequipment is tested daily to meet certainaccreditation requirements if they intendto participate in certain types of clinicaltrials, which is another incentive for per-forming the checks.

“Many hospitals don’t know how tomeet these requirements,” said Bulca.Many feel they can’t afford the services ofmedical physicists and, therefore, do notpursue accreditation, which would elevatetheir reputation and generate new revenueopportunities.

He noted that with Acumyn’s AQUA(for linear accelerators) and AQUA Radi-ology (for CT scanners), technologists cannow perform quality assurance tests withless effort. Moreover, the software is easy toinstall and use. “It can be implemented intwo days,” said Bulca.

Acumyn’s software has been used to test

linear accelerators at the UHN’s PrincessMargaret Cancer Centre since 2012. Thecompany has installed about 20 systems tosites worldwide, including Canada, theUnited States, the United Kingdom, theNetherlands, France and Australia.

AQUA Radiology software is now beingrolled out to all five UHN sites for testingCT scanners under Acumyn’s early-adopter program. Rush University MedicalCenter, in Chicago, is also participating inthe early-adopter program for AQUA Ra-diology. Acumyn plans to start commer-cially marketing in North America in 2018.

Other types of equipment require peri-odic testing and calibration, such as MRIand ultrasound. Acumyn is working onsoftware solutions for these devices, too.

AQUA software is the brainchild of Dr.David Jaffray, a medical physicist at UHNwho is now Executive VP, Technology andInnovation, along with Daniel Letourneau,UHN’s Associate Head of Physics. Dr.Bulca, a serial entrepreneur and an instruc-tor of entrepreneurship at the nearby Uni-versity of Toronto, joined Dr. Jaffray and Dr.Letourneau as a co-founder to commercial-ize the software and lead the business.

The company also employs a team ofdevelopers and business managers.

Referring to Dr. Jaffray and Dr. Le-tourneau, Bulca said, “They realized therewas a problem, and they devised a solu-tion for it. It was first used internally, atthe UHN, but it has great potential for allhospitals.”

Acumyn dramatically reduces the time spent on quality assurance

Ferhan Bulca, Daniel Letourneau and David Jaffray are leading the rollout of Acumyn’s new technology.

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well as gain a better understanding of allthe things we could do with this type ofdata,” said Dr. Grantcharov.

By bringing in researchers with differ-ent backgrounds, the ways in which Dr.Grantcharov’s team will be able to im-prove surgical safety will expand beyondthe procedure and the actions of the sur-gical team.

“Take OR design as an example. Ourteam doesn’t have that knowledge orbackground, so we can’t offer any insight

into how design could make surgerysafer,” he said.

“When we have researchers come inwith an expertise in design, they are ableto see the data we’ve collected in a wholenew light.”

Dr. Grantcharov said he hoped that bytaking full advantage of the data from theblack box, he and his team would find newways to improve surgical safety.

“As long as there are humans, there willbe mistakes. But by learning from these mis-takes, and studying how we can do better, wewill continue to make surgery safer.”

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‘Black box’ founders use AI, collaboration

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This year HealthAchieve will be in the South Building of the Metro Toronto Convention Centre over two days, November 6 and 7.

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BY DR . SUNNY MALHOTRA

In July 2016, Cloud DX was disqualified fromthe Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE when theymissed a deadline for human testing. Health-care Canada delayed human testing certifica-tion, leading to a disadvantageous positionfor Cloud DX compared to the American

teams. Nevertheless, in April 2017, Team Cloud DXtook home the first ever and newly created XPRIZEBold Epic Innovator Award and US$100,000, in afabulous comeback story.

Here’s our experience, which illustrates the upsand downs of entrepreneurship:

Starting in 2012, there were over 300 teams fromaround the world that applied to be in the Qual-comm Tricorder XPRIZE. By August 2014, the com-petition was whittled down to 10 finalist teams, in-cluding Team Cloud DX from Kitchener, Ontario.Throughout 2015, teams dropped out, teams mergedand by the summer of 2016, there were only 6 final-ists left, including Cloud DX, which made it throughto the delivery of finished Tricorder prototypes forhuman testing by the XPRIZE judges, in July 2016.

And…that’s where their XPRIZE journey seemedto come to an end. Due primarily to lengthy delays inreceiving approval to test on humans, and despiteheroic efforts on the part of the team, Cloud DX wasunable to complete the required internal testing intime and were therefore disqualified from the QTXPprize money round.

Later in that year, three more teams were excludedfrom the consumer testing phase – leaving only two

remaining finalists to vie for a potential $9 millionprize purse.

Then, an amazing reversal occurred. Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE recognized that

missing a deadline might be a disqualification for theprize purse, but genuinely revolutionary technology

still deserved to be recognized with an award, so theycreated a new XPRIZE category that will applyto all future XPRIZEs – precisely for teamslike Cloud DX that complete an XPRIZE“in spirit”, by taking a true innovationmoonshot and having a huge impact out-side of the realm of the competition.

They call this new prize the Bold EpicInnovator Award. The criteria to win it are

strict: the winner’s Tricorder still had to meet all theminimum requirements for winning the main prizes,as verified by clinical testers at the University of Cal-ifornia San Diego; the applicants had to submit avideo and one-page pitch explaining why they de-served to be the Bold Epic Innovator; and the judgesalso asked for testimonials from key medical opinionleaders with some knowledge of the team’s work.

Out of the four semi-finalists, all of whom appliedfor the new award, and all of whom submitted fullyfunctioning Tricorders, Cloud DX was chosen as thefirst-ever XPRIZE Bold Epic Innovator and receiveda beautiful XPRIZE trophy plus the obligatory “bigfoam cheque” for US$100,000.

Cloud DX earned this new honor because theydesigned every part of their Tricorder from

scratch; they included Nobel-prize-winningtechnology developed in partnership withStanford University that detects micro-scopic disease particles using magneticnanotechnology; and their Tricorder passedall the required testing, even if it missed thedeadline in 2016.

The lesson that Cloud DX brings to the worldof technology startups is: NEVER. GIVE. UP.

If you do extraordinary work, then the re-wards will find their way to you. Cloud

DX and XPRIZE will now work to-gether, with an additional $5.4

million in grants and otherfunding, to commercializethe Tricorder for release in2018 or 2019. Stay tuned!

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Canada’s Cloud DX combines brains and tenacity to win $100,000 XPRIZE.

A lesson for healthcare entrepreneurs: when you’ve got a great solution, don’t quit

Dr. Sunny Malhotra is a US trained cardiologistworking at AdvantageCare Physicians. He is anentrepreneur and health technologyinvestor. He is the winner of Bestin Healthcare - Notable YoungProfessional 2014 and thenational Governor General’sCaring Canadian Award 2015.Twitter: @drsunnymalhotra

Cloud DX won the XPrize Bold EpicInnovator Award because it designedevery part of its Tricorder from scratch,and passed all of the tests.

Carnac the Magnificent tackles B.C.’s IHealth problems

R E B O O T I N G e H E A L T H

BY DOMINIC COVVEY

An eHealth system has beenimplemented in Nanaimothat worked well elsewhere,

but has caused quite a kerfuffle onVancouver Island. Help is needed –luckily, the great seer, soothsayer,and sage, Carnac the Magnificent ishere!

Multiple reports, in both the localand national press, indicate that anumber of physicians have evengone so far as to refuse to use thesystem (sound familiar?) The targetof their frustration is called theIHealth system from Cerner. Onchecking, friends indicate that thissystem has been successful in otherjurisdictions. So what the heck ishappening here?

Well, there are those wise oneswho will remark that it’s in BritishColumbia, the home of everythingweird – why expect anything differ-ent? Others will point out the defi-ciencies in this and every other

eHealth system and see that ascausal. Still others will rant aboutphysicians and attribute the entireproblem to them.

I resisted the temptation to lookinto this matter in greater depth. Ieven spoke with someone who waswilling to be interviewed about theproblems. However, I thought thatmy channeling of a famous seerwould be far more productive andallow me to avoid actual work andreal conflict! That seer is Carnac theMagnificent.

Some of you may have watchedJohnny Carson from time to time.And some of those might be willingto admit it. Periodically Johnnybrought Carnac to life.

Usually, Ed McMahon assistedCarnac. Ed would tell Carnac that heheld envelopes that were hermeti-cally sealed and kept secure. No oneknew the content of the envelopes.

However, Carnac could use hismystical powers to tell us their con-tents by asking a question for which

the contents would be an answer.Carnac then provided the question,after which he opened the envelopeand revealed the answer ... usuallycausing great laughter and miserablegroans.

The Carnac skits were some thefunniest onTV. If you’dlike a goodlaugh, go toYouTube:www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFQFf_Vb0Hw.Today, thechanneledCarnac willconsider the

facts of the Nanaimo situation to bethe contents of the envelope. Basedon Carnac’s incredible powers, wewill divine a set of questions that areanswered by the contents. Unfortu-nately, though, the answers may notbe funny!

The questions Carnac foreseesare:

Firstly, was everyone properlyengaged and motivated during theacquisition, development and im-plementation of the system? Weknow from bitter experience, aswell as from theory, that the mostfundamental and crucial eHealthintervention is the investment ofadequate time and energy in solic-iting and maintaining participa-tion. This means forming groupsof users, and educating, communi-cating and listening to them. When done well, the results areamazing. However, adequate par-ticipation is often not achieved.Was it achieved here?

Next, was the culture and tenor ofdifferent groups assessed and recog-nized? It’s clear from both researchand practice that what works in oneplace with one group doesn’t alwayswork in all places with all groups.Often a good slogan is: if you’ve seen

Dominic Covvey

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V I E W P O I N T

BY LYDIA LEE

The digital revolution promisesunparalleled access to data,stronger insights and deeper hu-man connections – and in many

ways it has delivered. The challenge formost industries, however, has been keep-ing up with the speed of innovation andthe expectations it has created. Healthcareis no exception.

Certainly, there are advantages to a digi-tal-health mindset. Yet to understand thebenefits, we must first understand the chal-lenges today’s healthcare professionals face.

Information overload: Staying currentwith best practices and medical innovationscan be like surfing an information tsunami.It feels like every 15 minutes there is a newpaper, clinical trial, or wonder drug thatmust be absorbed and internalized – and it’senough to overwhelm even the most stu-dious healthcare professional. There’s a rea-

son the Institute ofMedicine has nowcoined the industry a“learning health sys-tem”; and while toolssuch as Pubmed andGoogle can help man-age the flow of infor-mation, most of usare scrambling tokeep up with newdevelopments andthe constantly evolv-

ing standards of care.Higher expectations: In the age of

Uber, Airbnb, and Amazon, consumers ex-pect service on their terms. This also ap-plies to patients, who are accustomed to24/7, virtual, self-serve options from theirbanks and insurance companies, and arenow looking to their healthcare providersto deliver the same. More and more,they’re wondering why they can’t Skypetheir doctor, use smartphone apps to man-age their care, or choose virtual alterna-tives to sitting in a waiting room.

In short, incorporating social mediatools into healthcare communication is agiven with Millennials. Patients are awarethat alternative service models exist, andthese expectations are pressuring health-care facilities to catch up.

One size doesn’t fit all: Automationmay work for industries where a standard-ized approach makes sense, but in thehealthcare environment, no two patientsare ever alike. So while a modern clinicalinformation system can help standardizevarious hospital functions, human judg-ment and other complexities at play makeit hard to implement “one-size-fits-all”systems. Beyond enterprise systems,healthcare organizations are also grapplingwith how best to accommodate new appsthat provide solutions to specific nicheneeds for patients as well as staff.

Change is hard: Implementation costsand common project management pitfallsaside, it can be difficult to integrate newhealth technologies into complex and ever-changing healthcare environments. Evenwhen the architecture is right, project spon-sors still often underestimate the amount ofchange people need to go through to incor-porate new technologies into a redesigned

workflow. Technology is supposed to enablechange, not the other way around.

Old versus new: Compounding imple-mentation for most healthcare organiza-tions is the challenge of dealing with “legacydebt”, which is the need to update and/or re-place older systems in order to make way for

more modern technologies. For example,legacy debt can take the form of old clientservers and in-house data centres when abetter alternative may be moving to thecloud. Addressing conversion can be a costlyand time-consuming proposition whichmust be carefully accounted for in any digi-

tal transformation. However, these majorwork efforts often get short shrift in ITtransformation budgets, which is like build-ing a new house on a weak foundation.

Islands of data: Often related to legacydebt is the problem of data silos. It occurs

Digital healthcare presents opportunities – don’t forget the challenges

Lydia Lee

© 2017 Cerner Corporation

Visit cerner.ca

No nurse ever said, “I wish I spent more time in front of the computer.”

While technology, data and devices are important because they help nurses do their jobs effectively, it’s more important that nurses engage with patients.

At Cerner, we spend our time developing solutions so that clinicians can spend less time using them, not more. We build our solutions to work the way nurses work – because we listen when they tell us what they need.

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V I E W P O I N T

BY SONIA PAGLIAROLI

AND LAURIE A . GEHRT

Nurses represent the highestpercentage of human re-source professionals deliver-ing healthcare. Moreover,their role in the health sys-

tem is crucial – they are the professionalsmost often at the point-of-care, directly in-teracting with patients. So, as we rapidlytransform care to integrate evidence basedcare and technology, or implement patient-centered care initiatives, we must ensurethat the environment for nurses to deliverhigh-quality care is not compromised.

Last month Cerner participated in theNational Nursing Data Standards Sympo-sium in Toronto, Ontario which gatherednurse leaders from across Canada to discussthe importance of nursing data standards tosupport the measure of nurse sensitive out-come as well as interoperability of dataacross care venues. There was no doubtamong nursing leaders that there was aneed to define a national standard, howeverthere was a significant tentativeness in thecrowd requiring further understanding ofjust what a national standard means. Sub-sequent discourse illuminated a real con-cern that if not implemented correctly, thisnew national standard could increase theburden on nursing workload which in turnwould impact their ability to deliver highquality care. There have been many re-gional and provincial initiatives that haveendeavored to measure quality through

standard data collection to compare out-come metrics, however the data requiredhas been layer on top of existing clinicaldocumentation rather than integrated cre-ating a burden on healthcare organizationsthat translates to nursing having to shoul-der the lion’s share of the data gathering.

Our neighbours south of the border arefacing similar challenges, however with theAmerican Recovery and Reinvestment Actof 2009 which introduced incentives toimplement electronic health records(EHRs), so they are feeling the weight ofdata collection more rapidly. Canada is ina position to learn from these challengesand implement EHRs more effectively.

A working group from the NursingKnowledge Big Data Conference at theUniversity of Minnesota has made signifi-cant strides in identifying recommenda-tions for optimization of EHRs to supporteffective nursing documentation and clin-ical support. Some of the key recommen-dations from the working group include;

• Documentation is fast, simple and min-imized redundancy,

• EHR supports patient and family cen-tred needs and wishes which drive plansof care,

• A vendor neutral source of clinical bestpractices, standardized assessments andclinical decision support rules,

• Interprofessional clinical engagement onsystem design, build and outcome measures,

• Data is standardized and interoperable,• Biomedical devices are integrated to

avoid transcription,

• Well-designed display of real time clini-cal information that integrates with clini-cal workflow,

• Tools to support nurse leader decisions,such as dashboards that measure programoutcomes.

As many Canadian organizations areembarking on the implementation of ad-vance EHRs these recommendations canserve as guiding principles in system de-sign. As a vendor, these recommendationscan help to ensure success as they supportstandardization, best practice and clinician

engagement. To be successful however,these recommendations need to beadopted and supported by both client andvendor in partnership. The work beingdone in Canada to define the nationalstandard of using c-HOBIC and LOINC asdata standards will support interoperabil-ity using common terms across the contin-uum. A key difference in the approachtaken in Canada is related to our culturewhich is more aligned to collaboration to-

wards common goals rather than man-dates. The driving factor to adoption re-quires the engagement of cliniciansthrough education on best practices andclinical value. Cerner’s implementationmethodology has improved to include theidentification of measureable clinical valueoutcomes early in the project to ensuretechnology enabled patient care outcomesare achieved.

In addition to the nursing outcomesdata standards, nurse executives require anursing management minimum data set(NMMDS) to provide an accurate de-scription of the nursing process usedwhen providing nursing care. The NM-MDS covers data elements in three differ-ent categories of the environment, thenursing care resource utilized, and finan-cial resources focusing on the nursing de-livery unit/service/center of excellencelevel across these settings.

While there will still likely be learningsin the implementation of these standardsin Canada, there is no doubt that we havea clear vision to support a successful im-plementation and more importantly theability to measure patient outcomes.

Cerner is excited to be a partner withour clients to design solutions that are effi-cient and effective being cognizant of thepotential of unintended consequences.

Sonia Pagliaroli, RN, MSc, CPHIMS-CA, isChief Nursing Officer, Cerner Canada. Lau-rie A. Gehrt, MBA, RN-BC, FACHE, is VicePresident, Program Executive, Orcah.

Canadian nurse leaders discuss the importance of data standards

Sonia Pagliaroli Laurie A. Gehrt

when specific data is housed and con-trolled within specific departments, andthe capability to share and analyze thatdata between departments, or across theenterprise is limited. As a result, organi-zations lose the ability to use that data tosee the full picture. This situation leadsto suboptimal care delivery and patientsafety risks when clinicians do not haveaccess to complete information.

Cyber security: In an industry rife withprivate and sensitive information, it’s nowonder that the threat of cyber-crimekeeps healthcare IT professionals (andtheir CEOs) up at night. Personal healthinformation is now more valuable on theblack market than financial data becauseit’s a bridge to multiple forms of identitytheft. Evolving one’s strategies to keep upwith the bad guys means implementingnew layers of security, training staff on cy-ber protection, and keeping a constant eyeon online trends. It’s not cheap, but in to-day’s world, it’s table stakes.

Turning challenges into opportuni-ties: Daunting as it may seem, imple-menting new clinical systems and tech-nologies are moving to the top of thetransformation agenda for most health-care organizations. After all, a transpar-ent healthcare system depends on thefree flow of accurate, actionable data,

and health IT professionals need to findbetter, faster ways to make that possible.

Digital transformation in healthcarerequires intestinal fortitude, to be sure,but the benefits of adopting a digitalhealth approach are worth the frustra-tion and investment when done right.

Drawing inspiration: The likes of Uberand Airbnb may be changing consumerexpectations, but they’re also givinghealthcare leaders ideas to improve pa-tient care. Already, the industry is dis-cussing how Uber’s approach to schedul-ing rides can be applied to patient porter-ing in hospitals, how online retail appscan inform the development of new pa-tient apps, and how the “big data” capabil-ities of systems like Facebook and Twittercan change the way hospitals track andunderstand their patients. These insightsfrom other industries are already startingto make a critical difference in moderniz-ing the patient experience, and organiza-tions need to consider how, not if, theywant to get into the digital game.

Turning change into engagement: Bigchange initiatives, such as implementingenterprise clinical systems, do not comealong very often. They require a wholeset of necessary program management,governance, and technical controls toensure that the organization achieves itsintended objectives. That is tough workbut can be done with the right set of

eyes at key points in times throughoutthe planning and implementation. Oneof the most important opportunities,though, is the chance to use these initia-tives to engage and excite the people inthe organization to drive the transfor-mation. A key question for programsponsors is whether they have full sup-port from the entire senior leadershipteam, not just IT, to take advantage ofthis rare opportunity.

Predictive modelling: Healthcare or-ganizations are rich with data, yet are of-ten lacking in the means to collect and

analyze that data effectively. With morerobust data and analytics systems, hospi-tals can use the information they alreadyhave to modify a patient’s treatment andpredict that patient’s outcomes after-ward. Already, data from lab results andvital signs are being used in some hospi-tals to predict an ICU patient’s risk ofbecoming septic, while comparing datasets from a group of similar patients canbe used to predict recovery rates andpreferred treatment methods. This is

also a critical space for government or-ganizations to facilitate richer planningand policy advances to optimize sustain-ability of the healthcare system.

Machine learning/Artificial intelli-gence (AI): We already know that ma-chine learning technology can rival ahuman’s ability to diagnose patients. Ina March 2017 study at The Universityof Texas, for example, a machine-learn-ing approach (Support Vector MachineLearning) was used to classify individu-als with major depressive disorder withnearly 75 percent accuracy. Elsewhere,machine learning techniques have alsobeen honed to predict, detect, andmanage heart failure with equallypromising results.

Yet rather than regard these stories asthe end of certain careers, we shouldview this as an opportunity to leveragemachine learning and AI to fill vital re-source gaps while freeing up healthcareprofessionals to spend more time withpatients. This also opens up entirely newpossibilities to rethink the education andtraining for the next generation of healthprofessionals. To do so would providenew opportunities to address globalhealth human resource shortages, virtualcare across boundaries and access to care.

New ways and competencies: Ad-vanced forms of information technology

Developments like Uber andAirbnb are giving healthcareleaders new ideas aboutimproving care delivery.

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Healthcare technologies pose great challenges, along with solutions

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V I E W P O I N T

BY ANNE-MARIE PIZZITELLI

The medical device industry isabout to experience one of itsmost significant upheavals indecades. At the forefront is a new

quality management system (QMS) auditthat allows third party certification to berecognized by multiple regulatory bodies.

In recent months it has been widelypublicized, but that does not mean allmanufacturers have taken into considera-tion the effects of, what some call, an in-dustrial tsunami heading their way.

Manufacturers of medical devices arecurrently required to be audited for qualitymanagement systems in each country theysell their device. That ensures all local stan-dards and regulations are being met; foreach country there is a separate audit andcertification. As a result, the business disrup-

tion time can be con-siderable for export-ing manufacturers.So, after years of talk-ing about finding amore streamlinedapproach we are nowheading towards theMedical Device Sin-gle Audit Program(MDSAP), the firstmajor step towardsuniversal certifica-

tion by third parties. While this should makelife easier for many manufacturers, thelonger companies wait to adopt the programthe greater the risk of being left behind.

MDSAP began life in 2011 at the Inter-national Medical Device Regulatory Forum(IMDRF). It included eight regulatorybodies and a number of interested parties,including the World Health Organization.

As the discussions developed, five of thecountries (Australia, Brazil, Canada, Japanand the United States) emerged as being atthe forefront of wanting to develop andoversee a single audit program. This wouldmake it possible for any certification com-pany, called an Auditing Organization(AO), to carry out a single audit thatwould be recognized in all five countries.

The five regulatory bodies are:• Therapeutics Goods Administration

(Australia) • Agência Nacional de Vigilância

Sanitária (Brazil)• Health Canada• Ministry of Health, Labour

and Welfare and the Japanese Pharmaceuticals and Medical Devices Agency

• U.S. Food and Drug AdministrationThe QMS requirements will vary for the

type of device being produced, but theuniversal nature of the process that can bedone in just one country should make itmore efficient. MDSAP does include soft-ware, but the auditing requirements maybe different, depending if the software isembedded or stand-alone.

In theory, this should make for a quicker,easier and more transparent process. Butwhile all five countries are backing MDSAP,not all are treating it the same way.

Leading the charge is Health Canada. Ithas announced that MDSAP will be theonly recognized certification starting Jan-

uary 2019. That means any companymanufacturing or exporting medical de-vices to Canada will need to replace theCanadian Medical Devices ConformityAssessment System (CMDCAS) with MD-SAP to demonstrate quality managementsystem compliance.

For home-based manufacturers andthose exporting to this country, the transi-tion clock is ticking. Those who fail to takeaction soon, risk being stuck in a bottle-neck that it expected to develop at the startof 2018. Auditing Organizations fear with afinite number of auditors trained to carry

out MDSAP certification, some companieswill not meet the deadline imposed by theFederal Government. Health Canada hasmade it clear the transition period is fixedand there will be no extensions.

For some Canadian companies that

Anne-Marie Pizzitelli

It’s the way we put it together that sets us apart!

Enterprise Imaging

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The Medical Device Single Audit Program is going to make a big difference

Additional listings can be found on our web site, at www.canhealth.com

Annual directory of leading healthcareinformation-technology suppliers

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3M Health Information SystemsPO Box 5757London ON N6A 4T1T: 1-800-265-1840 x3851 F: 1-888-452-8053Contact: Scott Davis - Business ManagerWeb: 3m.com3M Health Information Systems offer Ad-vanced Coding Solutions for hospitals fac-ing challenges of productivity, data qualityand reduced funding. We have launchedCanadian solutions for Computer-AssistedCoding, and Clinical Documentation Im-provement. We also offer analytic solutionsfor Providers and Governments facing thechallenge of turning Big Data into action-able information.

Acumyn Inc. 101 College Street, Suite 150Toronto ON M5G 1L7T: 416-971-6996E-mail: info@acumyn.comContact: Ferhan BulcaWeb: Acumyn.comAcumyn develops and sells AQUA™, a soft-ware platform to schedule, perform andmanage device quality assurance in a cen-tralized database for hospitals with radiol-ogy or radiotherapy departments. By bring-ing automation and standardization intohospital-wide device quality assurance,AQUAT™ improves efficiency, and providespeace of mind in regulatory and accredita-tion compliance.

Agfa HealthCare Inc.2-5975 Falbourne StreetMississauga ON L5R 3V8 T: 1-877-753-2432E-mail: sales.ca@agfa.comContact: Jacky PoleselloWeb: www.agfahealthcare.comAgfa HealthCare, present in one hospitalout of two, is a leading provider of eHealth& Digital Imaging solutions. Care organiza-tions in over 100 countries rely on AgfaHealthCare to optimize their efficiency andimprove patient care.

Akira Medical252 Adelaide Street EToronto ON M5A 1N1T: 647-519-3878 F: 1-855-242-1733E-mail: support@akira.mdContact: Ryan McGuireWeb: https://akira.mdAkira is a mobile app that gives you on-de-mand access to board-certified Canadiandoctors and nurse practitioners by securetext and video. No appointments necessary.Skip the waiting room. Prescriptions, labtests, Specialist referrals, sick notes, familyplans, Specialist video consults.

AlayaCare 330 Bay Street Toronto ON M5H 2S8 T: 855-858-5214E-mail: sales@alayacare.com Contact: Brady Murphy Web: www.alayacare.com AlayaCare is a provider of revolutionary

cloud-based home care software. With anend-to-end solution spanning clinical doc-umentation, back office functionality,client and family portals, remote patientmonitoring, and mobile care worker func-tionality, we offer a platform for agenciesto propel towards innovation and homecare of the future.

Allscripts13888 Wireless Way, Suite 110Richmond BC V6V 0A3T: 604-273-4900E-mail: john.lee-bartlett@allscripts.comContact: John Lee-BartlettWeb: www.ca.allscripts.com Allscripts is a global leader in healthcaretechnology that connects communities forsmarter care. Built on an open platform, itsEHR, financial management, populationhealth and precision medicine solutionsdrive innovation in workflows, care deliveryand patient behavior.

AMD Global Telemedicine 321 Billerica RoadChelmsford MA 01432 USAT: 978-937-9021 F: 978-937-5249 E-mail: kdostie@amdtelemedicine.com Contact: Keri DostieWeb: www.amdtelemedicine.com AMD Global Telemedicine is the pioneerof Telemedicine Encounter ManagementSolutions that enable healthcare providersto connect clinical patients with remotespecialists. As telemedicine is evolving intomainstream care, AMD provides our cus-tomers with telemedicine solutions thatintegrate seamlessly into their existing in-frastructures so they can deliver patient-focused care. Products include telemedi-cine software, mobile carts/cases, andmedical devices.

Amico Accessories Inc.122 East Beaver Creek Road Richmond Hill ON L4B 1G6T: 905-763-7778 F: 905-764-0862E-mail: info@amico.comWeb: http://www.amico.com/products/equipment-mounting-solutions Amico is an innovator in the medical indus-try, creating a line of Healthcare IT Mount-ing Solutions that suit the needs of health-

care providers. Amico is the only mountingsolutions provider that can offer the peaceof mind that comes with knowing the prod-uct you receive meets the highest standards.

Bialogics AnalyticsL109-645 Fort StreetVictoria BC V8W 1G2T: 416-580-2659E-mail: info@bialogics.comContact: Jeff VachonWeb: www.bialogics.com Bialogics is a Canadian company specializ-ing in Enterprise Imaging, Analytics andBusiness Intelligence for operational, per-formance and clinical workflow analysis.Bialogics provides easy to use intuitive in-terfaces and dashboards for intelligent in-formation and decision making. Our in-dustry unique systems are vendor agnosticand simple to implement with no expensiveor complex interphases to capture accuratedata from IS/PACS/ADT/EHR and otherCIS systems.

BlackBerry 2200 University Avenue E Waterloo ON N2K 0A7T: 416-846-4959 E-mail: skakaria@blackberry.com Contact: Shyam Kakaria Web: www.blackberry.com/healthcare Any device, secure digital use cases acrossthe continuum of care. Including: Endpointmanagement; secure messaging, voice andvideo chat; Critical/mass notifications; se-

cure information exchange; 2 factorauthentication; Single sign-on.

Canadian Pharmacists Association1785 Alta Vista Drive Ottawa ON K1G 3Y6T: 613-523-7877 F: 613-523-0445E-mail: mgaudette@pharmacists.caContact: Michel Gaudette Web: www.pharmacists.caRxTx is Canada’s authoritative source forprescribing and managing drug therapy atthe point of care providing health careprofessionals with online, mobile and inte-grated access to evidence-based, reliableCanadian drug and therapeutic information.

Canon Canada Inc.8000 Mississauga RoadBrampton ON L6Y 5Z7T: 905-863-8000 F: 905-863-8006 E-mail: medical_systems@canada.canon.comWeb: www.canon.ca/medicalCanon Canada’s Medical Systems Divisionoffers diagnostic products for hospitals, clin-ics, optometry, ophthalmology and veterinar-ian practices across the country. The widerange of digital imaging products includesgeneral digital radiography systems, wirelessDR panels, portable X-ray systems, retrofitsto existing analog and CR equipment, as wellas ophthalmic retinal imaging cameras.

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Carestream Health Canada Company8800 Dufferin Street, Suite 201Vaughan ON L4K 0C5T: 1-866-792-5011 F: 416-665-5595E-mail: info-canada@carestream.com Contact: Paul CroneWeb: www.carestream.comFrom community hospitals to large academicproviders, we offer flexible imaging and IT solu-tions that can be tailored to your facility’s needsand budget. Accelerate and evolve your digital tran-sition with advanced RIS/PACS, clinical data archiv-ing, wireless DR solutions and more - all designedto improve workflow, staff productivity and thequality of patient care, while reducing your costs.

CellTrak Technologies 260 Holiday Inn Drive, Suite 32 Cambridge ON N3C 4E8T: 888-624-0014E-mail: sales@celltrak.com Contact: Fraser Edward Web: www.celltrak.com CellTrak’s Software-as-a-Service solution facili-tates care delivery and real-time field force man-agement; automates data collection; and providesinformation for business and care optimization. Itincludes mobile apps for all types of caregivers,portals for efficient, coordinated care delivery; in-terfaces to EHRs and back office systems; and ser-vices to support adoption and optimization.

Cerner Canada ULCMarkham Executive Office 3601 Highway 7 E, Suite 400Markham ON L3R 0M3T: 1-905-943-4940 F: 1-905-943-4940E-mail: dina.ibrahim@cerner.comContact: Dina IbrahimWeb: www.cerner.caCerner’s health information technologies connectpeople, information and systems at more than25,000 facilities worldwide. Recognized for inno-vation, Cerner solutions assist clinicians in makingcare decisions and enable organizations to managethe health of populations. Cerner’s mission is tocontribute to the systemic improvement of healthcare delivery and health of communities.

Change Healthcare Imaging Solutions (Formally McKesson Technology Solutions)10711 Cambie RoadRichmond BC V6X 3K9T: 604-279-5422E-mail: iwsmarketingcom@mckesson.comWeb: www.mckesson.com/radiologyRadiology – a workflow-efficient reading environ-ment for radiologists. Cardiology - a single data-base providing the care team with access to thecomplete cardiovascular EMR and a suite of flexi-ble, vendor-agnostic solutions that help orches-trate the care team across the enterprise.

Christie InnoMed516 Rue DufourSaint-Eustache QC J7R 5B2T: 1-800-361-8750 F: 450-472-0413E-mail: marketing@christieinnomed.comWeb: www.christieinnomed.comEstablished in 1954, Christie InnoMed develops,distributes, integrates and supports innovativemedical imaging and health information manage-ment solutions improving Canadian healthcareperformance. Christie InnoMed is a leading med-ical imaging distributor with over 200 dedicatedspecialists servicing over 1,000 hospitals and clin-ics with their 8 offices throughout Canada. We arefocused on bringing innovative technologies toCanadian healthcare institutions in the areas ofmedical imaging, medical informatics and health-care IT solutions.

CognisantMD3335 Yonge Street, Suite 304Toronto ON M4N 2M1T: 888-864-8655 E-mail: info@cognisantmd.comContact: Victoria BadgleyWeb: www.cognisantmd.comCognisantMD is a leading provider of EMR-inte-grated patient engagement solutions on theOcean Platform. This cloud-based platform al-lows patients and clinicians to securely sharehealth information for clinical use, administra-

tion, and research. From waiting room tablets to

secure messages and referrals, Ocean connects pa-

tients, primary care and specialists to deliver bet-

ter patient care.

Concertia Technologies Inc.

1871 Hollis Street, Suite 202

Halifax NS B3J 0C3

T: 902-491-4496 F: 902-425-9708

E-mail: ross.macdougall@concertia.com

Contact: Paul McDonaldWeb: www.concertia.com

Concertia Technologies Inc. delivers smarter

process solutions utilizing rules based process or-

chestration technologies. Concertia specializes in

solutions utilizing Business Process Management

(BPM) and Business Rules Management Systems

(BRMS) using standards based XML messaging

formats including HL7, CDISC, ACORD, and

other industry standard formats.

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Crescendo Systems Corporation1600 MontgolfierLaval QC H7T 0A2T: 1-800-724-2930 E-mail: info@crescendo.comContact: Philippe ThibaultWeb: www.crescendo.comCrescendo Systems Corporation is a leading de-veloper of Clinical Documentation, Digital Dicta-tion, Voice Processing, Transcription and Work-flow Management systems for the medical, legal,law enforcement and insurance sectors.

DDC Dolphin Canada Inc.The Fulcrum, Vantage WayPoole DorsetBH12 4NU UKT: 604-512-8848 F: 44 1202 731555E-mail: canada@ddcdolphin.comContact: David HeelWeb: www.ddcdolphin.comSpecialists in soiled utility room design, equip-ment manufacture, installation and technical sup-port in hospitals and health care facilities. Withover 25 years of experience and an extensiverange of pulp macerators, washer disinfectors andsluice room furniture we can tailor solutions toindividual requirements.

DebMed42 Thompson Road WWaterford ON N0E 1Y0T: 1-888-DEB-SOAP F: 1-519-443-4642E-mail: tanya.vanmonsjou@debmed.comContact: Tanya van MonsjouWeb: www.debmed.comDebMed offers a comprehensive hand hygiene so-lution, including an electronic hand hygiene com-pliance system and a full line of skin care prod-ucts designed specifically for healthcare. TheDebMed Compliance System is clinically provento drive positive outcomes through real-time, ac-curate measurement.

EchoPixel, Inc.2490 Hospital Drive, Suite 310Mountain View CA 94040 USAT: 844-273-7766 F: 844-273-7766E-mail: sergio@echopixeltech.comContact: Sergio AguirreWeb: http://www.echopixeltech.com/True 3D, from EchoPixel, is an advanced medicalvisualization software solution. It offers physi-cians an unprecedented opportunity to view andinteract with patient tissues and organs in a truly3D form, as if they were real physical objects.EchoPixel renders patient-specific anatomy in anintuitive, interactive virtual reality format, leadingdirectly to increased clinical knowledge, faster op-erations, and better care.

Enovacom9160 Boul Leduc - Suite 410Brossard QC J4Y 0E3T: 450-618-1694 F: 450-618-1693E-mail: contact@enovacom.comContact: Christophe ThibaultWeb: www.enovacom.caEnovacom provides healthcare organizations andcare providers with interoperable data integrationand security solutions. Based on its strong exper-tise and understanding of the challenges and legalrequirements within healthcare, Enovacom solu-tions can help create integrated environments.ENOVACOM Integration Engine has been chosenin Quebec to be deployed for 8 million citizens.

Ergotron1181 Trapp RoadEagan MN 55121 USAT: 1-800-888-8458 F: 651-681-7600E-mail: teamcanada@ergotron.comContact: Andy KyriakosWeb: www.ergotron.comEnable your technology to meet the changingworkflow needs of your practitioners with Er-gotron’s industry-leading mounting solutions.Whether you need WOWs, Arm-based points, sit-

stand workstations or wall mounts, Ergotron of-fers best-in-class value-priced solutions to meetyour needs. Contact us about our demo seed pro-gram and we look forward to partnering with youto enable your technology and enable your HealthTeam Members.

Evident340 Wright Avenue, Unit 13Dartmouth NS B3B 0B3T: 1-877-418-2210 F: 1-855-646-6242Contact: Alan HaaksmaWeb: www.evidenthealth.caEvident recognizes the challenges hospitals face -the need for simplicity, cost containment, and de-livering a quality healthcare experience for pa-tients and physicians alike. Our integrated soft-ware solutions are backed by a proactive supportapproach making us the partner of choice forhundreds of healthcare organizations and thou-sands of practitioners.

Forcare2 Bloor Street WToronto ON M4W 3E2T: 1-855-692-1930 F: 1-855-692-1930E-mail: niles.geminiuc@forcare.comContact: Niles GeminiucWeb: www.forcare.comWe make complex data available and accessible.Tuned to the purpose they serve. So that health-care professionals can inform their patients ap-propriately. Without losing time, optimizing theuse of expensive medical equipment. And alwayswith respect for privacy and security. More com-fortable and more convenient to everyone. Bettercare, backed by Forcare.

FormFast13421 Manchester Road, Suite 208St. Louis MO 63131 USAT: 800-218-3512 F: 866-538-3329E-mail: pblanks@formfast.comWeb: www.formfast.comFormFast develops software that empowers hospi-tals by automating documents and workflow, cap-turing data and streamlining operations. This al-lows hospitals to concentrate on their core mis-sion - delivering quality care.

Fujitsu Canada, Inc.155 University Avenue, Suite 1600Toronto ON M5H 3B7T: 800-263-8716E-mail: soblin@ca.fujitsu.comWeb: www.fujitsu.caWith Fujitsu scanners as part of their EHR solu-tion, healthcare organizations can reap significantreturns in cost savings and efficiency improve-ment. Vital information that previously tookhours to retrieve can now be accessed within sec-onds, eliminating errors and improving patientcare. Fujitsu document scanners address needsfrom desktop and departmental installations toenterprise-wide production environments. TheFujitsu ScanSnap family readily converts paperdocuments to Adobe PDF files that are easily or-ganized, shared, and better protected.

GE Healthcare2300 Meadowvale BlvdMississauga ON L5N 5P9T: 905-858-5100E-mail: marketing.gehc@ge.comWeb: www.gehealthcare.caGE Healthcare provides transformational medicaltechnologies and services that are shaping a newage of patient care. Our broad expertise in med-ical imaging and information technologies, med-ical diagnostics, biopharmaceutical manufactur-ing technologies, performance improvement andperformance solutions services help our cus-tomers to deliver better care to more people atlower costs.

GOeVisit1080 Howe Street, Suite 801Vancouver BC V6Z 2T1T: 1-866-318-4748 F: 1-866-226-3553 E-mail: info@goevisit.comContact: Clay SwerdelianWeb: www.goevisit.comProviding virtual access to doctors for minor ill-nesses any time, anywhere. NO FEE to enroll &NO FEE to use.

HARRIS Healthcare1 Antares DriveOttawa ON K2E 8C4T: 800-393-0278 F: 855-872-7430Contact: Guy BujoldWeb: www.HarrisHealthcare.comHarris Healthcare© is a leading provider ofaward-winning healthcare software and servicesthat improve the safety, quality, and efficiency ofpatient care. Founded in 1993, Harris Healthcareprovides proven, flexible solutions that help makeour clients successful by streamlining processes,increasing productivity, and driving positive clini-cal outcomes. Behind Harris Healthcare’s prod-ucts and services is a staff of 475 professionalswho support clients at more than 1,200 health-care provider facilities across North America, Eu-rope and Saudi Arabia.

Hitachi Data Systems11 King Street WToronto ON M5H 1A1T: 613-282-1468 F: 613-282-1468E-mail: tyson.roffey@hds.comContact: Tyson RoffeyWeb: http://www.hitachi.ca/Proud of its industry pioneering spirit and expe-rience, Hitachi Systems contributes to a truly af-fluent society by developing and providing infor-mation technologies, products and services. Stay-ing close to our customers, we create new valuewith respect for humanity and its infinite poten-tial, leveraging detailed understanding of our cus-tomers to deliver satisfaction that exceeds expec-tations. We aim to be a global services companythat customers can rely on completely by combin-ing internationally competent people with state-of-the-art information technology to createunique services.

Iatric Systems, Inc.27 Great Pond DriveBoxford MA 01921 USAT: 978-805-4100E-mail: info@iatric.comWeb: www.iatric.comIatric Systems is a healthcare technology companythat has been dedicated to helping healthcare or-ganizations enhance their IT investments formore than 25 years. We do so with our diversehealthcare experience and proven capabilities inpatient privacy, analytics, EHR optimization, andinteroperability. For more information, contactinfo@iatric.com or www.iatric.com.

IBM Canada Ltd.3600 Steeles Avenue EMarkham ON L3R 9Z7T: 905-316-5000 F: 905-316-2535Contact: Nathalie Le Prohon, Vice President,Healthcare IndustryWeb: http://www.ibm.com/ca-en/IBM is the world’s largest professional servicesand information technology company. IBM deliv-ers solutions and services to all major industries,including healthcare. IBM understands thathealthcare is undergoing transformation, and thathealthcare organizations need to position them-selves to use information management and tech-nology solutions to enable this transformation,from a cultural, organizational, functional andprocess perspective.

iMD Health Global80 North Queen Street, Suite 301Toronto ON M8Z 2C9T: 647-776-2044 F: 647-931-5031E-mail: sarah.kroll@hotmail.comContact: Sarah KrollWeb: www.imdhealth.comiMD Health, a pre-eminent digital patient en-gagement platform within exam rooms acrossCanada helps key stakeholders navigate thehealthcare system, leveraging branded and un-branded resources to explain conditions, treat-ment options, assessments and patient programs.Able to email resources, education and collateralmaterials directly home to the patients. iMD pro-vides exciting opportunities for advertising, place-ment of key resources and driving traffic to otheronline resources.

Impetus Digital20 Bay Street, 11th FloorToronto ON M5J 2N8T: 416-992-8557 F: 647-288-1095E-mail: connect@impetusdigital.comContact: Natalie YeadonWeb: https://www.impetusdigital.com/We are the Online Customer Advisory Board ex-perts, offering the most comprehensive B2B On-line and Live Customer Advisory Board solutions.Impetus helps B2B companies looking to increasecustomer intimacy, engagement and retention bycreating a shared future direction with their cus-tomer executives and key opinion leaders.

Imprivata10 Maguire RoadLexington MA 02421 USAT: 781-674-2700 F: 781-674-2760Web: www.imprivata.comImprivata, the healthcare IT security company,provides healthcare organizations globally with asecurity and identity platform that delivers au-thentication management, fast access to patientinformation, secure communications, and posi-tive patient identification.

Influx Workflow Solutions325 Milner Avenue, Suite 410Toronto ON M1B 5N1T: 416-996-9373 F: 416-284-0141E-mail: rsharma@influxworkflow.comContact: Raj SharmaWeb: influxworkflow.comInflux provides Structured Reporting software in-tegrated with Cardiology PACS. We offer a paper-less workflow from clinical testing to distributingthe final report to physicians / Hospital Informa-tion Systems. Optimized clinical workflow resultsare immediate, such as: improved resource effi-ciencies, reporting quality and productivity lead-ing to improved patient care.

InfoClin4 Crescent Town Road, Unit 410Toronto ON M4C 5L3T: 647-405-9756E-mail: karim@infoclin.caContact: Karim KeshavjeeWeb: www.infoclin.caIT and Clinical Architecture for Research Studiesand large scale roll out of digital health innova-tions. EMR selection and implementation;mHealth App design and deployment; Clinicalforms design, development and deployment forchronic disease and other research studies.

Information Builders (Canada) Inc.150 York Street, Suite 1000Toronto ON M5H 3S5T: 416-364-2760 F: 416-364-3549E-mail: Can_Marketing@ibi.comContact: Tara Myshrall M: 416-427-8898 email:Tara_myshrall@ibi.comWeb: www.informationbuilders.comInformation Builders helps healthcare organiza-tions deliver data-driven accountable care. Oursoftware solutions for business intelligence andanalytics, integration, and data integrity improvequality of care, increase patient satisfaction, andenable more cost-effective operations. Our dedi-cation to customer success is unmatched in theindustry. Visit informationbuilders.com and fol-low @infobldrs.

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InnoCare55 Frid Street, Unit 1Hamilton ON L8P 4M3T: 289-426-1893E-mail: africker@innocare.caContact: Alexandra FrickerWeb: www.innocare.caInnoCare delivers products and services to helpclinics reduce paperwork, focus on patient careand grow their business. InnoCare Software is acomprehensive clinic management program thatincludes: staff and patient scheduling, integratedbilling, charting (EMR), patient email marketing,online booking and reporting capabilities to helpclinic owners and managers keep on top of theirbusiness performance. InnoCare Connect is a livecall answer service. InnoCare Boost helps clinicsgrow their patient base.

Innovative Imaging Technologies1713 St-Patrick, Suite 101Montreal QC H3K 3G9T: 514-223-1717E-mail: sales@reacts.comWeb: www.reacts.comReacts (re’akts) - Digital collaboration platformenables dynamic interactions between healthcareprofessionals. Provides innovative tools for re-mote supervision and training; improves access,efficiency and satisfaction for all stakeholders in-cluding patients. Integrated ecosystem designed tomeet the highest security and performance stan-dards for the medical industry; deployed interna-tionally.

Intelerad Medical Systems895 de la Gauchetiere W, Suite 400Montreal QC H3B 4G1T: 905-639-9582 F: 514-931-4653E-mail: sales@intelerad.comContact: Rob ElichWeb: www.intelerad.comIntelerad is a leader in enterprise workflows, spe-cializing in diagnostic viewing, reporting, and col-laboration solutions for hospitals, imaging centersand reading groups. Renowned for their innova-tive features and functionality, Intelerad solutions,such as IntelePACS®, InteleViewer™ and In-teleOne® XE, increase productivity and stream-line workflow by overcoming technical barriers indistributed and complex environments.

Iron Mountain195 Summerlea RoadBrampton ON L6T 4P6T: 1-905-792-7099 F: 1-905-792-2617E-mail: go.ironmountain.com/datacafeContact: Andrew O’BrienWeb: www.ironmountain.comIron Mountain helps Healthcare customers man-age their information, ensuring compliance andmitigating risks of breach. Our services include:retention policy creation & policy management,information storage, intelligent scanning, elec-tronic content management, workflow automa-tion, data backup/recovery, secure shred and ITasset disposition. We protect what matters most -your information.

Javelin Technologies3457 Superior Court, Unit 1Oakville ON L6L 0C4T: 905-815-1906 x302 F: 905-815-1906E-mail: billy.vrbensky@javelin-tech.comContact: Billy VrbenskyWeb: http://www.javelin-tech.com/main/index.htmlA provider of technology solutions since 1997. Weare experts in 3D design and have helped thou-sands of companies with solutions for mechanicaland electrical design, and 3D printing. Large orsmall, we have the skills, experience, and servicesto propel your organization to new heights so youcan aim high.

Joule Inc.1031 Bank StreetOttawa ON K1S 3W7T: 613-899-1860E-mail: jouleinquiries@cma.caContact: Tamara MasonWeb: joule.cma.caAt Joule, we believe that physicians are in aunique position to drive meaningful change inhealthcare. As such, our energy is focused onstimulating physician-led innovation and remov-ing the barriers to scalability. Connect with Jouleand help build a community dedicated to im-proving patient outcomes.

Konica Minolta Healthcare Americas5875 Explorer DriveMississauga ON L4W 0E1T: 1-877-958-5627 F: 416-886-8419E-mail: joseph.wery@bt.konicaminolta.caContact: Joe WeryWeb: www.konicaminolta.com/medicalusa/Digital Radiography, Ultrasound and HealthcareIT solutions.

Kronos Canadian Systems, Inc.110 Matheson Blvd WMississauga ON L5R 4G7T: 905-366-1264 F: 905-568-8510E-mail: nicole.filiatrault@kronos.comContact: 1-800- 225-1561Web: www.kronos.caKronos is a leading provider of workforce man-agement and human capital management solu-tions. Hospitals across Canada use Kronos solu-tions to engage their employees, control labourcosts, increase productivity, and minimize com-pliance risk.

Lanier Healthcare Canada980 Adelaide Street S, Unit 36London ON N6E 1R3T: 519-649-4880 F: 519-649-4562E-mail: info@lhcc.caContact: jwise@lhcc.caWeb: lhcc.caLanier creates documentation for all HealthcareProfessionals for the quality of care that patientsneed and deserve. Join our successful hospitals to-day using speech recognition, transcription ser-vices, analytics and coding, at a reduced cost,without sacrificing quality. Please call or email usfor additional information on all our services.

Maple325 Front Street W, 4th FloorToronto ON M5V 2Y1T: 416-613-1270 F: 888-745-0435E-mail: hello@getmaple.caContact: roxana@getmaple.caWeb: www.getmaple.caMaple is a 24/7 telemedicine platform that allowsCanadian physicians to provide consultations toCanadian patients via a desktop or smartphoneapplication, using instant message, live audio orvideo chat. Our system includes comprehensivemedical record keeping, digital prescribing, andnote generation, as well as integration with pe-ripherals for home monitoring and examination.

MedChart503-460 Richmond Street WToronto ON M5V 1Y1T: 1-888-399-7789 F: 1-888-720-2212E-mail: contact@medchart.caContact: James BatemanWeb: www.medchart.caSimplify record management with MedChart, theonly system in Canada to fully automate the elec-tronic release of information to all your re-questors, including lawyers, insurers, circle of

care, and patients. Integrate MedChart with anyHIS, EHR, or EMR and improve health recordsmanagement.

MedCurrent Corporation1920 Yonge Street, Suite 300Toronto ON M4S 3E2T: 1-855-279-3380E-mail: info@medcurrent.comWeb: www.medcurrent.comClinical Decision Support (CDS) is an initiative toenhance the clinical decision-making process withon-demand real-time evidence-based guidance toimprove health and healthcare delivery. At Med-Current, we support our customers to improvequality of care and reduce costs through our inno-vative and scalable solution OrderWise™.

MedEKS Technologies Inc.4 Roundwood CourtToronto ON M1W 1Z2T: 416-492-4477 F: 416-492-5141E-mail: eric@medeks.caContact: Eric SparksWeb: www.medeks.caThe latest innovation from medEKS, PROMPTHealth Information management coding softwareserves as a valuable tool to help HIM profession-als improve coding data quality and processesthrough coding automation.

MediSolution5915 Airport Road, Suite 810Mississauga ON L4V 1T1T: 647-284-4190E-mail: sales@medisolution.comContact: Michael ConnWeb: www.medisolution.comFounded in 1974, MediSolution is a leading infor-mation technology company providing adminis-trative and clinical software solutions designed tohelp Canadian healthcare organizations increaseproductivity and improve patient care.

Medtronic Canada99 Herford StreetBrampton ON L6Y 0R3T: 905-460-3800 F: 905-826-6620E-mail: communications.canada@medtronic.comWeb: www.medtronic.caThrough innovation and collaboration,Medtronic helps to improve the lives and healthof millions of people each year. Learn more aboutour technology, services and solutions atMedtronic.ca.

Merge Healthcare, an IBM Company6303 Airport RoadToronto ON L4V 1R8 T: 905-364-8000 F: 262-367-0729E-mail: salesop1@us.ibm.comContact: Glenn GaleWeb: www.merge.comMerge Healthcare is a leading provider of innova-tive enterprise imaging, interoperability and clini-cal systems seeking to advance healthcare. Mergeis part of the IBM Watson Health Imaging busi-ness and its cognitive suite of solutions to en-hance and expand the capabilities of medicalimaging technology helping provide better pa-tient care.

MIWORX Inc.9 Waterwheel CrescentDundas ON L9H 7B6T: 289-260-0211 F: 268-260-0211E-mail: info@miworx.caContact: Brent LivingstonWeb: miworx.caMI-Req™ and MI-Req eReferral™ provide cus-tomizable solutions to fit your Diagnostic Imag-ing and other referral needs. Faxed paper refer-rals are transformed into electronic forms withprotocolling workflow – accessible anytime, any-where. MI-Req eReferral™ can remove faxed re-

quests completely or transition to eReferral whilestill accepting faxes - managing both in a singleworklist.

MModal Canada Co.7501 Keele Street, Suite 305Concord ON L4K 1Y2T: 905-695-7000 ext 5029 F: 905-695-7020E-mail: carey.silverstein@mmodal.comContact: Peter SorrentoWeb: www.mmodal.comOur cloud-based clinical documentation solu-tions connect workflows for efficient and accuratespeech recognition, medical transcription, CDI,and coding. We facilitate physician-patient rela-tionships by making it easy for doctors to capturethe patient story, and by delivering informationwhen it is needed most - at the point of care.

Momentum Healthware308-131 Provencher BlvdWinnipeg MB R2H 0G2T: 204-231-3836 F: 204-231-8238Contact: Chris OlsonWeb: www.momentumhealthware.comMomentum Healthware is a software and tech-nology company that serves the healthcare indus-try with EHR software, healthcare assessmentsoftware, and an advanced wireless nurse call sys-tem with real-time location tracking. We havesuccessfully deployed our solutions across Re-gional, Provincial, and National Health systems inCanada, USA, and New Zealand.

Mozzaz Corporation1-180 Columbia Street WWaterloo ON N2L 3L3T: 416-619-9231E-mail: info@mozzaz.comContact: sales@mozzaz.comWeb: www.mozzaz.comMozzaz is a digital health company deliveringperson-centered connected-care across the healthsystem. We specialize in bringing mobile healthtechnology to complex care programs and careteams such as disabilities, behavioural health, ag-ing services and chronic illness. Our goal is to en-hance a patient’s quality of life and deliver posi-tive outcomes through technology-enabled care.

NorthWest Telepharmacy Solutions77 Main StreetWinnipeg MB R3C 1A3T: 613-260-3474 F: 613-733-7117E-mail: info@northwesttelepharmacy.caContact: Sammu Dhaliwall - 613-482-7098Web: http://www.northwesttelepharmacy.ca/Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions (NTS) is dedi-cated to being the leading comprehensive phar-macy services provider to Canadians and health-care related institutions in under-served marketsand times, utilizing innovative technologies. Weservice hospitals, long-term care homes, primarycare clinics, Provincial telehealth solutions, anddirect patient care - around the clock, 24/7.

Novari Health Inc.1473 John Counter BlvdKingston ON K7M 8Z6T: 613-540-2203E-mail: jsinclair@novarihealth.comContact: John SinclairWeb: www.novarihealth.com*eVisit *eReferral * eConsult * eBooking * WaitTimes * Central Intake: The Novari web-basedeReferral solution can be configured to route anytype of referral for any type of healthcare service(diabetes, mental health, addictions, clinics, etc.).Referrals can be routed directly or managed viacentral intake. The same solution includes robusteConsult functionality allowing a GP to ask a spe-cialist a clinical question, possibly avoiding theexpense and inconvenience of a referral. The No-vari surgical solution helps surgeons, hospitalsand health authorities manage wait lists, ensuringthat patients receive their procedure in accor-dance with provincial wait time targets.

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Nuance Communications1500 University Street, Suite 935Montreal QC H3A 3S7T: 1-844-835-6211 F: 781-565-5001E-mail: http://www.nuance.com/about-us/engage-us.htmlWeb: www.nuance.comNuance solutions help health organizations excelin environments that increasingly must producemore with less leveraging solutions that improvethe usability and efficiency of the electronichealth record, radiology workflow and reportingand other healthcare information technology so-lutions. Real-time clinical guidance amplifies hu-man intelligence to help physicians more accu-rately capture the patient story from within theirnatural workflow.

OntarioMD150 Bloor Street W, Suite 900Toronto ON M5S 3C1T: 416-623-1248 F: 416-623-1249E-mail: info@ontariomd.comContact: Katherine TudorWeb: www.ontariomd.comOntarioMD supports Ontario physicians to real-ize increasing clinical value from their certifiedelectronic medical records (EMRs). It deliversaward-winning services such as Healthcare ReportManager (HRM), eNotifications, proof of con-cepts integrated with EMRs, trusted advice fromPeer Leaders and practice advisors that enablephysicians to deliver patient-centred care.

Orion Health120 Adelaide Street W, Suite 1010Toronto ON M5H 1T1T: 647-980-3617Web: www.orionhealth.comOrion Health is an award-winning populationhealth management and precise health companywith proven experience delivering digital healthsolutions for healthcare facilities, organizationsand regions. Our products provide a comprehen-sive view of patient information through Clinical& Patient Portals, eReferral solutions, and integra-tion tools delivered through our Rhapsody® Inte-gration Engine.

PatientKeeper, Inc.880 Winter Street, Suite 300Waltham MA 02451 USAT: 781-373-6100 F: 781-373-6120E-mail: sales@patientkeeper.comContact: Mike Staples,mstaples@patientkeeper.comWeb: www.patientkeeper.comPatientKeeper® enables physicians to easily accessand act on patient information in a single, intu-itive electronic environment – from PCs, laptops,smartphones and tablets – integrated with a hos-pital’s existing IT infrastructure. PatientKeeper’sinnovative software is used by more than 60,000physicians across North America and the UK.

Philips Canada281 Hillmount RoadMarkham ON L6C 2S3T: 905-201-4500Contact: eric.pothion@philips.comWeb: www.healthcare.philips.comPhilips Canada is a diversified health and well-be-ing company, focused on improving people’s livesthrough meaningful innovation in the areas ofHealthcare and Personal Health. Headquarteredin the Netherlands, the company is a leader incardiac care, acute care and home healthcare, aswell as mother and baby care, male shaving andgrooming, and oral healthcare.

PocketHealth6th Floor, 10 Dundas Street EToronto ON M5B 2G9T: 1-855-768-4455E-mail: inquiries@mypockethealth.comContact: Rishi NayyarWeb: www.mypockethealth.comPocketHealth is an integrated web platform thatallows diagnostic imaging centres to securelyshare records directly with patients and importprior imaging uploaded directly from patients’homes. PocketHealth removes CDs from tradi-tional workflows, empowers patients to engage intheir own care and unlocks a truly patient-centricapproach to record sharing.

Proximity Systems11301 Boudreaux RoadTomball TX 77375 USAT: 800-437-8111 F: 281-469-1231E-mail: sreinecke@proximitysystems.comContact: Steve ReineckeWeb: www.proximitysystems.comEnhancing Patient and Caregiver Experience.Proximity’s elegant wall mounted workstationsand cabinets are custom designed to create seam-less and personal interactions that will positivelyimpact the caregiver experience.

QoC Health602-436 Wellington Street WToronto ON M5V 1E3T: 647-725-9660 F: 647-725-9660 E-mail: solutions@qochealth.comWeb: https://qochealth.com/QoC Health helps health organizations take theirdigital health ideas to scale / commercializationwith our patient engagement technology plat-form. Capabilities of the platform include patientmonitoring, analytics, educational materials, se-cure communications, decision aids, planningtools and turnkey integration with existing med-ical records.

Real Time Medical7111 Syntex Drive, 3rd FloorMississauga ON L5N 8C3T: 1-866-765-5655 F: 1-866-765-5655Web: www.RealTimeMedical.comReal Time Medical develops vendor-neutral, con-text-aware workflow management software solu-tions to organize the reporting services in diag-nostic imaging organizations more efficiently andproductively, while improving the timeliness,quality and accuracy of service delivery to pa-tients. It also operates the only nationwide,round-the-clock radiology service in Canada, us-ing its own software.

SAS Institute Canada280 King Street EToronto ON M5A 1K7T: 1-800-727-0025E-mail: https://www.sas.com/en_us/contact/form/register.htmlWeb: www.sas.comHealthcare Analytics: Analytics and big data so-lutions for a higher standard of health care. SASis the leader in analytics. Through innovativeanalytics, business intelligence and data man-agement software and services, SAS helps cus-tomers at more than 83,000 sites make betterdecisions faster. Since 1976, SAS has been givingcustomers around the world THE POWER TO KNOW®.

Sectra2 Enterprise Drive, Suite 507Shelton CT 06484 USA (Toronto office openingAug. 2017)T: 203-925-0899 F: 203-925-0899E-mail: info.na@sectra.comContact: Kjetil NilsenWeb: www.sectra.comSectra is a leading, global provider of imagingIT solutions supporting healthcare institutionsin achieving patient-centric care. The Sectra En-terprise Image Management solution is com-prised of PACS for imaging intense departments(radiology, cardiology, pathology, and orthope-dics), VNA, and Cross Enterprise Workflow al-lowing sharing of images across the entire clini-cal pathway.

Sensory Technologies100 Collip CircleLondon ON N6G 4X8T: 519-663-2057E-mail: brandon.heggart@eshiftcare.comContact: Brandon HeggartWeb: www.eshiftcare.comSensory Technologies is a global provider and op-erator of Virtual Hospital Wards. With offices inCanada, USA, France, UK, and Belarus, SensoryTechnologies supports innovative and collabora-tive healthcare systems around the world.

Siemens Healthineers1577 North Service Road E, 2nd FloorOakville ON L6H 0H6T: 905-465-8000 F: 905-465-8162E-mail: customeradvocate.ca@siemens.comWeb: www.siemens.ca/healthineersSiemens Healthineers is one of Canada’s largestsuppliers to the healthcare industry and a trend-setter in medical imaging, lab diagnostics andmedical information technology. Siemens Health-ineers offers its customers products and solutionsfor the entire range of patient care from a singlesource – from prevention and early detection todiagnosis, to treatment and aftercare. By optimiz-ing clinical workflows for the most common dis-eases, Siemens also makes healthcare faster, betterand more cost-effective.

Sony115 Gordon Baker RoadToronto ON M2H 3R6T: 647-388-5625E-mail: cherie.gibson@sony.comWeb: www.sonybiz.ca Sony Medical Products.

Spok6850 Versar Center, Suite 420Springfield VA 22151 USAT: 1-800-611-8488 F: 1-952-230-5510E-mail: derek.kiecker@spok.comContact: Derek KieckerWeb: www.spok.comSpok is proud to be the global leader in health-care communications. We deliver clinical infor-mation to care teams when and where it mattersmost to improve patient outcomes. Top hospitalsrely on the Spok Care Connect® platform to en-hance workflows for clinicians, support adminis-trative compliance, and provide a better experi-ence for patients.

Strata HealthSuite 600, 933 17 Avenue SWCalgary AB T2T 5R6T: 1-866-556-5005 F: 1-403-265-0650E-mail: etienne.oconnor@stratahealth.comContact: Etienne O’ConnorWeb: stratahealth.comWith over 15 years of experience developing anddelivering custom software for health and socialservices, Strata Health is improving the patientexperience around the globe. Intelligent matchingand referral solutions help health care providersachieve greater operational efficiencies, increaseproductivity, and create more positive outcomesfor patients.

Talk 2 Me TechnologyBox 82089Waterdown ON L0R 2M0T: 866-554-8877 F: 866-554-8833E-mail: info@talk2me.comContact: Charles MarriottWeb: www.talk2me.comCanada’s leading providers of dictation andspeech recognition solutions. Philips, Nuance(Dragon), Olympus. Cloud, mobile and desktopsolutions. PC, MAC compatible Support Team in-cludes North America’s most experienced certi-fied instructors.

TELUS Health630, Rene-Levesque Boulevard WMontreal QC H3B 1S6T: 514-665-3050 F: 514 665-3049E-mail: telushealth@telus.comWeb: telushealth.comTELUS Health is a leader in telehomecare, elec-tronic medical and health records, consumerhealth, benefits management, and pharmacymanagement. TELUS Health solutions give healthauthorities, providers, physicians, patients, andconsumers the power to turn information intobetter health outcomes. For more info visittelushealth.com.

Terra Nova100 Elizabeth Avenue, Suite 122St. John’s NL A1B 1S1T: 888-600-4178 F: 888-600-7561E-mail: sales@terranovasolutions.comContact: Maria FrenchWeb: www.terranovatrans.comTerra Nova provides medical coding, transcrip-tion, speech recognition and editing. Our flexible,cost-effective, solutions are designed to meet theunique needs of our customers, whether partialor full-time help service is needed.

Third Octet Inc.2-6175 Highway 7Vaughan ON L4H 0P6T: 647-728-0610E-mail: ccronin@thirdoctet.comContact: Norrie DavidsonWeb: thirdoctet.comThird Octet Inc., founded in 2007, collaborativelydelivers technology solutions that integrate andoptimize clients’ processes and technology for un-complicated, cost-effective, digital transforma-tion. We design and implement technology solu-tions as a means to anywhere access for Work LifeBalance improving engagement, productivity andprofit for our clients.

Toshiba Canada Medical Systems Limited75 Tiverton CourtMarkham ON L3R 4M8T: 905-470-3500 F: 905-470-3489E-mail: ToshibaMedical@toshiba.caWeb: www.toshiba-medical.caToshiba Medical offers a full range of diagnosticmedical imaging solutions including CT, X-Ray,Ultrasound and MR, across the globe. As of De-cember 2016, Toshiba Medical became a memberof the Canon Group. Headquartered in Markham,Ontario, our Canadian team has a strong presencein more than 25 cities across the country.

Tripp Lite1111 W. 35th StreetChicago IL 60609 USAT: 905-233-8441 F: 1-773.869.1329E-mail: canada@tripplite.comContact: Christy ProsapioWeb: www.tripplite.comComplete Solutions for Healthcare FacilitiesTripp Lite offers more than 3,500 products that

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only sell in this country, the introductionof MDSAP will be more expensive but Ot-tawa argues the upside for most manufac-turers will be considerable.

While Canada is the only one to abolishits previous certification process, the otherfour jurisdictions say MDSAP will be recog-nized in lieu of their own market inspec-tions. For those hoping to export to Brazil,for example, this would allow a manufac-turer to skip an existing two-year waiting list.

On a related note, manufacturers are inthe transition phase of ISO 13485 – the in-ternationally-accepted model for demon-strating adherence to laws and regulationsof the medical device industry.

This transition period ends March2019. The new version, is the first revisionin more than 10 years and puts a greateremphasis on risk management and risk-based decision making. As well, it offersbetter controls over suppliers and verifica-tion processes for connected devices.

And if that was not enough, the Euro-pean Union has now approved a replace-ment for the Medical Device Regulation –it is called the Medical Device Directive.

When it comes to MDSAP, there has beena jaundiced view in some quarters. Execu-tives initially saw this as another harmoniza-tion project that would be shelved by the bu-reaucrats once the pilot had been com-pleted. We now know that is not the case andAuditing Organizations fear the demand foraudits will outstrip supply if there is a madscramble at the end of next year.

Given all this upheaval, some manufac-turers may be reluctant to make a decision

until they can fully understand the newcertification and regulation landscape.That is why it is important to have key per-sonnel involved in proactively seeking so-lutions. For some it may be nothing morethan changing certification cycles. Butevery business leader must ask: what needsto be done now to minimize the disrup-tion to my business?

Anne-Marie Pizzitelli is Senior Manager,Communications, with BSI Group Canada.For more information, see: https://www.bsi-group.com/en-CA/. BSI Group Canada pro-vides a full suite of services, including training,assessment and certification. As a globalleader in helping organizations improve, ourclients range from high profile brands to small,local companies in 172 countries worldwide.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17

Be aware of MDSAP, it is going to make a big difference

one, you’ve seen one! There are differ-ences that must be assessed and ad-dressed. Was what worked in one loca-tion simply transported to another loca-tion? Was what worked for one groupsimply applied to another group? Weknow this doesn’t work, but this seemsto be a habitual mistake.

Were there Usability Assessments ofthe system in different people’s hands?Today it is both possible and affordableto test out systems with specific groupsof people and to determine their per-ceived ‘friendliness’. However, if Usabil-ity Assessment is done at all, it is oftenin some central location with some se-lected individuals. What about all theothers? What about all the differencesamong people and their perceptions ofboth the nature of their practice and therelevance and capabilities of systems? Itisn’t good enough just to do an in-lab,once-over Usability Assessment.

Perhaps the next question would be:Who created each component of thesystem content? This includes lists ofmedications, investigations, diagnoses,devices, or whatever else must be donein terms of content customization. Oneissue in Nanaimo is that physiciansclaim that using the system can increase

the likelihood of mis-prescribing. We doknow that long pulldown lists allow asimple slip of the wrist to result in erro-neous selection. Did physicians partici-pate in the creation of the lists? Areshortcuts available for busy people?Were the lists well-organized? The movefrom writing down one or a few med-ications to selecting one or a few fromnearly infinitely long lists is a big one.

Carnac is amazingly brilliant, and hascome up with lots of other questions.We simple people have little time to ab-

sorb the details of all of these. However,consider these:

• To what extent was the user interfacecustomizable to different users’ needs?

• What was the overall change processto help transport people from theirwell-practiced way of doing things tothe new approaches demanded by thesystem?

• To what extent were eventual usersgiven a chance to express issues and con-cerns and were these listened to?

• Did the users feel, after all the initialinterventions, that the system was being

imposed on them? If so, was this percep-tion corrected?

Carnac still does not know the an-swers in the envelope. Carnac believes,however, that he has come up withmany questions that the contents willanswer. In fact, these questions will beanswered by the contents of the manyother envelopes associated with eHealthImplementations – and tell us where wego wrong.

It’s up to you at this point. If you areinvolved in this project, please let usknow what actually happened – thefacts, Mam, just the facts. If you are notinvolved, please inquire and try to findout what happened.

We need to do this so we determineyet again why things go wrong. We needto discover what it is about this instru-ment we call eHealth that often hurts,sometimes doing actual harm, ratherthan offering cures.

The suggestion is that we all learnenough and then take an oath – like theHippocratic oath – that includes the state-ment “to do no harm”, rather than thehypocritic oath where we promise to dowonders while ignoring what we know.

Dominic Covvey is President, NationalInstitute of Health Informatics, and anAdjunct Professor at the University of Wa-terloo. He can be reached at:dcovvey@uwaterloo.ca

Dominic CovveyCONTINUED FROM PAGE 14

It isn’t good enough to do anin-lab, once-over usabilityassessment. Regionaldifferences must be noted.

power, protect, secure, manage and connect med-ical and non-medical equipment in hospitals,clinics and other healthcare facilities. Solutionscategories include network-grade UPS systems,server racks, PDUs, KVMs, cooling to cables forevery application in the healthcare environment.

True North Consulting & Associates Inc.27-2199 Burnhamthorpe Road WMississauga ON L5L 5M7T: 1-905-271-4060E-mail: Info@truenorthconsult.comContact: Tomhough@truenorthconsult.comWeb: www.truenorthconsult.comIT & Communications for all things DiagnosticImaging. MRI Applications, Operational Reviews,Strategic and Operational Planning, the finestBusiness Analytics specifically for DiagnosticImaging at pennies per case.

Truven Health AnalyticsT: 1-855-878-8361E-mail: info@truvenhealth.comWeb: http://truvenhealth.comTruven Health Analytics has been a leader formore than 40 years in delivering unbiased infor-mation, analytic tools, benchmarks, services, andrelated expertise to the healthcare industry. Wecollaborate with customers to uncover and realizeopportunities for improving quality, efficiency,and outcomes. Truven Health Analytics® is nowpart of the IBM Watson HealthTM business.

US & Canada Nanosonics, Inc.11793 Technology LaneFishers IN 46038 USAT: 1-844-876-7466E-mail: info@trophon.comContact: Dominic CassiviWeb: www.trophon.com/caNanosonics is a global innovator in infection pre-vention. Its unique, automated trophon® highlevel disinfection device is paving the way aroundthe world in setting a new standard of care in ul-trasound probe disinfection practices. trophon ef-fectively addresses a range of issues associatedwith traditional methods and offers a break-through solution across three core areas: Safety,Versatility, and Simplicity. Nanosonics is head-quartered in Sydney, Australia with a highly expe-rienced team of professionals dedicated to provid-ing the best in infection prevention technology.

VMware Canada3401 Hillview AvenuePalo Alto CA 94304 USAT: 1-877-486-9273Contact: 1-877-486-9273Web: www.vmware.caVMware enables healthcare organizations tomodernize and protect the critical IT infrastruc-ture that is at the heart of patient care, while mo-bilizing providers with always on access to patientinformation from the right device for the righttask at the right time.

Wellsoft Corporation27 Worlds Fair DriveSomerset NJ 08873 USAT: 800-597-9909 F: 1-732-507-7199E-mail: wellsoft@wellsoft.comContact: Jack SpenceWeb: www.wellsoft.comWellsoft Emergency Department InformationSystem - ranked #1 by KLAS - provides informa-tion management for Emergency Departmentswith patient tracking, clinical documentation,CPOE and much more. Wellsoft meets national,provincial & regional requirements for CEDIS;CTAS criteria and supports Canada’s Wait TimeReduction Initiatives and the use of Health Infor-mation Cards.

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will require today’s healthcare organiza-tions to learn new skills and competencies.Clinicians are beginning to grasp how theavailability of information can personalizecare to improve patient outcomes. Organi-zations are learning how to work togetherin shared service models to leverageeconomies of scale that the cloud can pro-vide. Meanwhile, health IT professionalsneed to apply new ways of working to re-spond more quickly to demands for thetechnologies that can advance healthcare.However, can Canada’s healthcare organi-zations learn, evolve and change fastenough to reap the rewards of digital thatsociety expects from us?

The Road Ahead: Though Canada hashad its share of healthcare IT challenges,we should still be proud of our advance-ments. Our country is a leader in health-care innovations, and in KPMG’s 2017Through the Looking Glass: A practicalpath to improving healthcare throughtransparency, it scored 79% when it came

to the communication of timely, relevanthealthcare data between stakeholders.That said, it also scored 50% when itcame to assessing patient’s access to per-sonal health data and the policies and leg-islation in place to protect privacy. Thereis clearly still more to learn and morework to do.

We can learn from our shortcomingsand leapfrog where we have stumbled. Weshould recognize the need to free datafrom existing silos, complement it withsmarter technology design, and reap newinsights that allow healthcare professionalsto understand their patients on a deeperlevel. We also need to think beyond caresystems and turn our attention to digitalenablers of care prevention and social ser-vices that impact health and wellness.

Ultimately, digital health isn’t just aboutmaking upgrades and replacing old equip-ment. It’s about totally re-imagining healthand healthcare in a digital world.

Lydia Lee is a Partner and National DigitalHealth Leader, with KPMG in Canada.

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 16

New app encourages patient engagement

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