2018-05-29

Connect Care June 2018 Calendar

A summary of key Connect Care happenings in June 2018 has been posted to the Alberta Health Services internal Connect Care website, linked below.

With completion of Core Clinical System Design, Area Councils ramp up to begin the work of Specialty Clinical System Design. A first Adoption & Validation session will take place June 19-21 at the Calgary Telus Convention Centre, when Build Bucket 1 (ending June 15) configuration work will be reviewed. June is also when plans for the Connect Care data centre are finalized and an end-user device framework brings forth guides and plans for approval.

2018-05-28

Connect Care Overview Training - few Spots Remain

Overview training offers an overall introduction to the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS) and how it supports best possible practice. The one-day curriculum gives hands-on exposure to Epic systems, overall CIS architecture, and how documentation, order entry, communications and handoffs work. This training is invaluable for clinicians participating in Connect Care Area Councils, clinical system design, validation and adoption activities. Registration is required.

All Calgary sessions are fully booked (June 5, 6, 7). Some spots remain on each of the scheduled Edmonton sessions (May 29, 30, 31, June 1, 2018). A Byte has information about registration, sites and curricula:

2018-05-18

Latest Connect Care Newsletter Posted

The May 18, 2018, Connect Care Newsletter is available via the link below, covering the upcoming Adoption & Validation sessions, Patient Advisor Recruitment, and Information Technology Infrastructure developments.

2018-05-15

Connect Care for the Rest of Us

Complements to Dr. Wes Jackson who contributed a very thoughtful and informative article to the Alberta Medical Association Doctors' Digest.

While Alberta Health Services (AHS) strives to consolidate and integrate the many health information systems under its direct control (the AHS "legal record of care") in a single clinical information system (CIS), many care venues remain outside the reach of the Connect Care record of care. These may operate independent electronic medical records (EMRs).

As Dr. Jackson observes, deployment of an advanced, standards-based, CIS could simplify the work of providers seeking to understand their patients' AHS experience. Provider and patient portals are key.

In addition, a lot of important work prepares for helpful system-to-system and application-to-application connections between the Connect Care record and the other health information systems that will continue to be used in Alberta. Information about many of these initiatives can be found via informative links at the end of the article. A good read!

2018-05-10

Connect Care Design Management Principles

“Configuration,” “Customization” and “Personalization” relate to the manner, degree and frequency with which a clinical information system (CIS) is modified to address the business needs of specific users or user groups. Getting the right balance is key to user satisfaction; as well as build effort, update resilience and e-safety.

CIS design management is about how sustainable CIS configuration, acceptable specialty customization, and safe personalizations are achieved. A transparent approach to design management can also build confidence in how build resources are allocated.


    2018-05-08

    Alberta Referral Directory More Accessible

    The Alberta Referral Directory (ARD) is a secure, online listing that provides access to service and consultant demographics, referral guidelines and instructions about how to facilitate efficient and effective referrals, including referral forms. The ARD centralizes referral information for Alberta Health Services (AHS) consulting physicians and AHS scheduled ambulatory services.

    To date, ARD content has been viewable only to persons with a registered user name and password. Soon this logon barrier will be removed. ARD information will be openly available via the Internet, recognizing that the contained information is already in the public domain but fragmented and sometimes difficult to access. Full information access, with editing rights, still requires a valid userid and password.

    With ARD use expanding, all physicians are encouraged to update their referral information, or have responsible clinic staff take care of this for the clinic and all providers. AHS consulting clinicians can use the guide for help accessing the ARD and updating or correcting information found there.

    2018-05-07

    Connect Care Validation & Adoption

    Validation & Adoption is one of the major activities occurring during design of the Connect Care clinical information system (CIS). Other activities include Groundwork, Direction Setting and Clinical System Design. Where Groundwork helps the Epic team learn about Alberta Health Services (AHS), Direction Setting explores how AHS does its work, Clinical System Design builds the content that helps us work better and Validation & Adoption checks that the emerging CIS will work for AHS. The relationships between design and build activities are summarized in an online presentation: How the system is built.

    The purpose of Validation & Adoption is to review, validate and adopt how Direction Setting and other decisions are expressed in the emerging CIS. With the AHS foundation build of Epic Systems 2018 software up and running in Alberta, we can see how certified AHS staff are working with stakeholders to build to our need and purpose. Demonstrations more closely match what we will use, allowing us to see and imagine how Connect Care can be further configured to support our work.



    2018-05-04

    Connect Care Scope Management Principles

    A core Connect Care ambition is to consolidate diverse health information systems into a seamlessly integrated clinical information system (CIS) that de-fragments information, relationships and health care. Working the integration mandate forces challenges as continuity and best-of-breed trade-offs are negotiated.

    A transparent, principles-based, scope management approach can help. Scope management is about how we identify important CIS clinical, functional or safety gaps, prioritize gap-mitigation strategies and select systems that fill gaps while working with the CIS. The linked presentation gives an overview of current scope management principles and processes.

    2018-05-03

    World Password Day

    Happy (and anxious?) world password day!

    Identity theft has become common place, hurting individuals in profound ways. Health care organizations also suffer. Hacks analogous to identity theft hurt the organization and all dependent professionals, patients and populations.

    The most damaging attacks succeed because individuals are fooled into releasing credentials, or are lulled into using patterned credentials stolen outside the organization, then used within the organization. A curious coincidence... on World Password Day, Twitter announces that their password store may have been exposed. How many of us style our passwords for clinical apps like we do for our social apps?