Since the onset of COVID-19, a worldwide race for enabling digital first health solutions has forever changed how care is delivered. In Canada, virtualization of healthcare is expected to transform how $264 billion in healthcare expenditure is spent each year.
In Canada, therefore, recent healthcare policies have pivoted towards making e-health practice a part of accountability agreements and focusing on a ‘digital first’ philosophy across payment and delivery systems. While this is the first logical step for overhauling the publicly funded healthcare system, issues such as remuneration structures, training and practice supports for physicians and staff, and the development of criteria for evaluating virtual care tools and platforms need to be sorted before digital transformation can truly effect any incremental change.
A great case study within Canada for enabling virtual care is the ambitious plan for the province of Ontario. Ontario is expected to implement health teams which will expand access for patients to virtual care and to their health information. The adoption for these health teams includes aggressive targets to provide digital access to health information for 10-15% of year 1 patients. In that regard The Ontario Premier’s Council on Improving Healthcare and Ending Hallway Medicine has recommended increasing the availability and use of virtual care options through legislation/policy and incentives.
Some challenges, however, need to be addressed to initiate the widespread uptake of virtual care services in Canada. The three main barriers are as follows:
- Lack of interoperability between and among patients, physicians, and health facilities.
- Licensure restrictions on the provision of care across provincial/territorial boundaries
- Governance of compensation mechanisms with respect to insured services within provincial/ territorial boundaries and portability of coverage across provincial/territorial boundaries
Lack of Interoperability restricts patient information across several systems and thus makes collecting, analyzing, and processing patient data a cumbersome task thereby increasing patient care wait times.
With Corolar ConnectedCare App (C3A) and Microsoft Teams, we are able to completely protect patient data and messages between healthcare professionals through Microsoft Azure. We also offer consulting and advisory services on information security specific to the health industry through our subsidiary brand, iSecurity.
Get in touch with us to find out how Dapasoft can improve the way you share patient information online.
