2018-09-29

Connect Care Resources for Clinicians

Physicians and other prescribers who want to learn about Connect Care, or follow developments, may find the following one-pager helpful. It lists web pages, handbooks, blogs and email contacts matched to different levels of interest and engagement. The resource list is recently updated.

2018-09-28

Second Provincial Physician Informatics Leads Workshop

A big thanks to the many physician leaders who gave so generously of their time and energy to participate in the second provincial Connect Care physician leads meeting (September 27) in Calgary. The half-day session focused on:

  • Connect Care Training - with review and input to physician training principles, curriculum planning, certification and participation plans.
  • Clinical System Design - with updates about immediate specialty customization priorities and strategies for speeding the work of Area Councils and Specialty Workgroups as they grapple with CSD work packages.
  • Orderset Design - with ratification of a strategy for leveraging knowledge leads, knowledge topic leads and clinical informatics leads to accelerate implementation of a modular approach to producing the many order sets that Connect Care will express at implementation.
  • Demonstration Support - with demonstration of processes and methods for accessing and mastering Connect Care online environments that can be used to support design and engagement activities.

A gathering of so many talented clinicians — all readied, committed and attached to Connect Care transformation — is a “tipping point” accomplishment. More important than any number of workflow, design or content decisions, is an organized clinician community that can continue to observe, learn and decide about clinical information system optimization well into the future. Our executive, design, informatics, builder and training physician leadership is established and ready. Networked provincially, this increasingly impactful community is a key to Connect Care success.

Many physician informatics leads helped prepare for, or even deliver, Connect Care Adoption & Validation 3 sessions. Participants remarked at the fundamental shift this represents… we can see ourselves in a system shaped to our purpose.

Physician leaders also continue tireless service to Connect Care committees, councils, specialty workgroups and projects. We are at provincial peak-effort right now and must somehow continue the clinical system design (CSD) sprint through the next 3 months. Getting solid foundational content will pay dividends for decades.

2018-09-27

A fitting close to Adoption & Validation

We thank all those contributing valuable time and energy to Connect Care’s third Adoption & Validation session in Calgary (September 25, 26, 27). This last province-wide gathering continued a series of truly incredible accomplishments! Thousands of participants sustained extraordinary productivity, guiding thousands of decisions through three direction-setting and three adoption & validation sessions.

Connect Care transformation is no longer aspirational; it is our every-day reality. Soon we begin testing a clinical information system fortified with provincially-ratified documentation, decision and inquiry supports… allowing us to express our best intentions as never before. The decisions we’ve made are far from trivial. Even those that seem small, such as patient demographic descriptors, are used for positive transformation.

Adoption & Validation 3 performed good work. It also cemented a remarkable Connect Care “positivism”. Although we were thrilled to see more AHS-led demonstrations, it was the hallway discussions that best reflected how far we’ve come. Conversation about Connect Care has moved from contemplation through acceptance to eager anticipation. Our peers are increasingly aware of coming challenges, but also increasingly motivated by the promise of post-implementation opportunity.

Between now and the end of the year, the race is on to complete essential Connect Care content design and build. We are succeeding already, with every hope for attainment of our best hopes.

2018-09-17

AHS Comes of Age

We've oft commented that Connect Care is both a formative and consolidating innovation for Alberta Health Services (AHS). The initiative is possible because the organization has matured as a values-driven healthcare organization. Moreover, the initiative enables continuing transformation as a learning healthcare organization.

A recent publication nicely tallies the many AHS developments that make Connect Care possible and use Connect Care to make the AHS vision possible:

2018-09-15

Alberta Health Information Act amendment - mandatory breach reporting

Amendments to Alberta's Health Information Act, in force as of the beginning of September 2018, include important new mandatory breach reporting requirements.

The changes are nicely summarized, highlighting implications for AHS's partners, in a University of Alberta synopsis linked below.

2018-09-10

Connect Care Provincial Physician Trainer Opportunity

Alberta Health Services (AHS) is seeking up to 17 Connect Care Provincial Physician Trainers. These clinicians become key members of the office of the Chief Medical Information Officer (CMIO), aiding in the development, support and delivery of a Clinical Information System (CIS) training program for physicians and advanced care providers. The Connect Care initiative will up-skill thousands of CIS users over 3 years of implementations throughout Alberta.  The immediate need is for physician-friendly curriculum development under a clinicians-training-clinicians model.

The Provincial Physician Trainer is an AHS medical leadership position that plans, guides and manages CIS training for all physician and advanced care users in multiple AHS zones, programs, facilities and workflows. In collaboration with the Connect Care learning team, Trainers work closely with Clinical and Operations leaders to define, plan, implement and evaluate curricula that suit different roles and learning styles; while promoting smooth change management and minimal service disruption.

There are multiple Provincial Physician Trainers, each focusing on one or more of the following areas:
  • Inpatient Admitting (including General Internal Medicine; Critical Care; Medicine Subspecialties; Hospitalists; Family Medicine)
  • Surgery (including General Surgery and Surgical subspecialties)
  • Rural Medicine
  • Ambulatory
  • Gastroenterology
  • Pathology
  • Anesthesia
  • Medical Learners
  • Pediatrics
  • Cardiology
  • Obstetrics and Gynaecology
  • Psychiatry
  • Emergency
  • Oncology
  • Radiology
  • Physician Support Roles (e.g. Physician Assistants)
The Provincial Physician Trainer will be an Alberta physician who advocates effectively for AHS strategic information management initiatives, anticipates impacts on stakeholders, identifies issues and helps resolve problems. Experience with adult learning methods is strongly desired.

Applications are welcomed immediately. The posting will renew until all trainers are appointed. To learn more, please visit:

2018-09-07

Connect Care September 7 Newsletter Posted

The September 7, 2018, Connect Care Newsletter is available via the link below; covering why we care about Connect Care (#1 Information Access), data conversion plans and assessing non-medical devices.

2018-09-01

Connect Care September 2018 Calendar

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

Preparation for the third and final adoption & validation session signifies Connect Care maturation with the majority of sessions presented by trained AHS staff. Many clinicians also perform demonstrations, highlighting that there is, indeed, an Alberta instance of the Epic software system and that it is taking shape guided by workflow decisions. Clinical System Design has adopted a new approach to streamlining the work of specialty content development. Training designers sift through available curriculum components, beginning the design of AHS learning pathways for clinical information system training.