2020-03-17

New Supports for Virtual Meetings and Care

While Alberta Health Services is known for excellence in telehealth service, we face extraordinary challenges in the face of a COVID-19 pandemic:
  • Many physicians are self-isolated and seek the means to continue to participate in outpatient care.
  • Patient visits to outpatient facilities (and emergency rooms), risking COVID exposure of patients and providers, can be minimized if some needs can be addressed through telephone or video visits.
  • Unfortunately, the use of telehealth suites does not address social distancing needs.
The CMIO portfolio has worked with AHS Communications and Telehealth to test easy-to-use, healthcare appropriate, virtual meeting and patient care tools that can also be fully integrated with the Connect Care clinical information system.  Zoom has been selected and enterprise licensing arranged. 

Zoom will be made available for use by physicians who need to organize consultations, meetings with colleagues or direct interactions with patients. The necessary arrangements are being made, with plans for AHS Virtual Health Services to manage access for clinical purpose and CMIO/Medical Affairs to facilitate account provision for meetings. 

More information will be posted in the coming days. Anyone can set up a free personal account with Zoom.us, possibly allowing time to learn the technology before getting access to the enterprise license. 

Watch this blog for more information!