2018-01-21

Epic Announces Option for Small Practices and Facilities

First described at the 2017 Epic User Group meeting attended by some of our physician leads, Epic has formally announced 'Sonnet', a stripped down variant of its digital health record software optimized for small hospitals, clinics and physician practices. It's workflows are streamlined and standardized, coupled with a quick-install methodology and ready-to-use designs.

In is uncertain how long before this kind of offering might become available in Canada. Sonnet could bring affordable options to smaller practices wanting to connect with fully integrated clinical information systems.


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2018-01-19

Epicare 2017 Software now in-Province for further Development

​We are thrilled to learn that all 6 non-production Epic 2017 environments are now installed and functioning in Alberta in support of Connect Care! This is a key milestone, timed exactly right (and on time), as we prepare clinicians and support staff for intense direction-setting and design activities over the next months.
The foundation build will be upgraded to Epic's 2018 software in March. This will be the environment that most trainees, designers, deveopers and testers work with. Important clinical repository interfacing can now proceed with key databases and codesets up and running.
Connect care has the first elements of its technology foundation!
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2018-01-18

South Zone ACMIO Appointed

Connect Care physician leadership recruitment continues to yield great results! This week, we are delighted to welcome Dr. Aaron Low as Associate Chief Medical Information Officer for the Alberta Health Services (AHS) South Zone. Aaron has practiced General Internal Medicine in Lethbridge for the past 7 years, and has served as Clinical Department Head, Internal Medicine South Zone (West) for the past 4 years. Aaron completed both his BSc and MD at the University of Alberta, and his Internal Medicine residency at the University of Manitoba (2010). He will complete an executive education program on "The Innovative Health Care Leader" at Stanford University this Spring. Passionate about inquiry, analytics and reporting, Aaron sees in Connect Care a huge opportunity for clinical improvement. He plays squash and soccer, and loves recreational activities with his wife and children (3 boys and 3 girls).
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2018-01-17

Connect Care Physician Information Resources

As Connect Care ramps up and speeds up, communications increase exponentially. It can be difficult for stakeholders to track what affects them the most. The AHS CMIO will continue to advocate for clinician interests and will work with physician and other practitioner groups to customize and optimize communication strategies.
For now, general Connect Care information is readily available via an open public website (see links). Focused project information is available to Connect Care participants via an internal AHS website and comprehensive Connect Care activity supports are managed via an internal SharePoint site (see links).

Physician users of Connect Care services can also access a Connect Care Physician Handbook. This handbook provides guides and tips, largely prepared by clinicians for clinicians. The Handbook is intended as a form of peer-to-peer mentoring and support. It can be accessed directly with its web link or as part of the Clinical Improvement Collaboratory.
If you believe you should be able to access one of these sites, but are unable to do so, please contact cmio@ahs.ca.
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2018-01-16

US Regulatory Agency Rules on Use of Clinical Text Messaging

​The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in the United States may have brought some clarity to whether text messaging can be used to communicate clinical information supporting health care. CMS has confirmed that in order to be compliant with conditions for reimbursement coverage, providers must use messaging systems that are secure, encrypted and maintained for privacy and confidentiality protections. Messaging integral to a Clinical Information System would comply. Separate non-integrated systems must meet discrete security standards. This reinforces our commitment to enable unified and integrated secure clinical messaging as an integral part of the Connect Care ecosystem.
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2018-01-15

New Connect Care Physician Design Lead

​Dr. Alan Sobey joins Connect Care as its new Physician Design Lead. Dr. Sobey brings over 20 years of experience to the role, highly regarded as a surgeon and intensivist. He received his MD from the University of Alberta and will soon complete his Masters of Science in Health Information Science at the University of Victoria. In addition to his Design Lead role, Dr. Sobey will continue contributions as a Clinical Knowledge Lead, and remains clinically grounded in the Department of Critical Care at the University of Alberta. Dr. Sobey is the proud father of three and grandfather of two. He loves to cook, read, cycle and swim and has started to play the guitar (no tours in the offing!).
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2018-01-12

North Zone Associate CMIO

We are thrilled to have Dr. Hendric van der Watt join Connect Care as Associate Chief Medical Information Officer for the Alberta Health Services (AHS) North Zone. Hendrik brings over 10 years of clinical innovation experience to the CMIO portfolio, and is highly regarded for his collaborative approach to rural healthcare transformation and change management. Recently recognized with the Alberta College of Family Physicians Recognition of Excellence award, Dr. van der Watt works as a family physician out of the Bonnyville Health Centre where he is also a clinical lecturer with the University of Alberta department of family medicine. Hendrik received his MBChB from the University of Pretoria, Foundation Course of Occupational Medicine from the University of Alberta, Certificate of Internal Medicine from the University of Edinburgh and will complete an MBA at the University of Alberta in 2019 focusing on health information management for clinical improvement. An avid golfer and mountain quadder, he enjoys the Alberta’s outdoors with his wife and two daughters.
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2018-01-11

Alberta Clinical Trials Registry Online

Alberta’s universities, working with Alberta Health Services and the Northern Alberta Clinical Trials and Research Centre, now support an online database of clinical trials registered or active in Alberta. “Be The Cure” intends value for patients seeking information about possible new treatments, and for researchers planning new studies or recruiting for ongoing studies. Follow the link for more information. The link has also been added to the Clinical Improvement Collaboratory (clinicalimprovement.ca).​
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2018-01-10

Connect Care Physician Contributions

For Connect Care (CC) to support clinical improvement, it is vitally important that busy clinicians meaningfully integrate new informational supports into their workflows. This integration happens best when clinicians are organized, empowered and held accountable; these characteristics are all contingent on engagement and participation.

While formal roles strengthen CC’s clinical stewardship, larger numbers of engaged and organized physicians are needed to empower user groups, to provide quality assurance, to generate clinical innovation, to support clinical research, and to provide health education. These physicians empower all who help Albertans get value from the use of a Clinical Information System. Such “embedded” CC advocates make diverse contributions not defined by agreements between the physician and AHS.

While informal physician contributions are essential to CC success, they are also determinants of physician success. By participating in CC efforts, physicians can gain skills and access tools for innovation, teaching, quality improvement, research and professional development. The CMIO office is committed to helping clinicians realize benefits, track contributions, and achieve personal measures of success.​
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2018-01-09

Clinical Improvement Career Pathway

The AHS CMIO is committed to supporting career development for physicians who aspire to recognition as clinician innovators. All physician contributions to Connect Care can qualify for promotion evaluation. Indeed, the associated work can be organized as part of a coherent program to assess impact and report productivity.

The AHS “Clinical Improvement Career Pathway” describes how clinician innovator advancement can meet the requirements of alternate reimbursement plans, the Alberta Academic Medicine Health Services Program, and University evaluation and promotion policies. Aids include contribution reports that align with the science of clinical improvement.​
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2018-01-08

Connect Care Physician Leadership Roles

Strong physician leadership is required to promote care transformation with implementation of an AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS). Physicians will be relied on heavily throughout the various phases of the Connect Care initiative for their knowledge, experience, and ability to mobilize their peers to action.

Physicians are needed for CC success. CC can also be a boon to physician success. The initiative offers once-in-a-career opportunities to develop leadership skills as part of a hugely impactful province-wide effort. Leaders join a superlative team, acquire new knowledge and skills, gain access to powerful clinical improvement capabilities, and can positively influence how clinical practice progresses in Alberta. A number of CC physician roles are available for interested and capable applicants. Follow the links for more information.
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2018-01-05

Clinical Improvement Projects – Funding Opportunity

​Alberta Health Services Medical Affairs and Quality Healthcare Improvement (QHI) are pleased to announce the Office of the Chief Medical Officer (CMO) is providing $225,000 Quality Innovation (QI) funding to support Quality Improvement projects for the 2018/19 fiscal year. Clinical informatics innovations for clinical improvement could be a good fit!  Follow the links for submission information by the March 2, 2018 deadline.
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2018-01-04

Connect Care - Giving Direction

For clinical improvement to follow Connect Care (CC) implementation, it is vitally important that physicians integrate new informational tools into daily workflows in a meaningful way. For this to happen, they must also be directly involved in decisions about how the CC Clinical Information System (CIS) is designed and configured. A system adapted to Alberta’s front-line opportunities and constraints has the best chance of success.

A key first opportunity for input comes during “Direction-Setting” sessions scheduled for early 2018. These tap into clinician perspectives to guide basic choices about how common workflows will be supported by Connect Care. Physicians participating in Direction-Setting will:
  • review groundwork information about common workflows and practices;
  • guide translation of optimized processes into Connect Care workflows;
  • ensure that proposed workflows align with AHS goals and policies.
We need your help! Please check out the FAQ link: 
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2018-01-03

Connect Care Orientation Training for Physicians

​Connect Care (CC) overview training introduces physicians to the CC initiative, how it relates to the AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS), and an overview of the supporting Epic Systems software. The 2-day in-person experience provides an excellent foundation for understanding CIS capabilities, emphasizing how these can be used to improve healthcare outcomes. The course highlights how Epic’s most recent software integrates different applications and roles seamlessly across the continuum of care. Learnings serve as a foundation for physician participation in CC design, adoption, validation, testing, training and implementation activities. The orientation is also a prerequisite for proceeding to more advanced courses, including Physician Builder training. Common user experiences are demonstrated and explored through simulated clinical workflows. Sessions are hands-on and informal, giving lots of opportunity for questions and discussion. Two offerings are available soon: January 16/17 and 18/19 2018 in Edmonton.
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2018-01-02

Recognizing AHS Secure Emails

The AHS Connect Care initiative will support unified clinical communications, all securely integrated with the legal record of care. Until Connect Care is deployed, Alberta Health services (AHS) provides health care providers with the opportunity to transmit clinical information via secure email, including encrypted email to external addresses. This is enbled with an add-on to AHS Microsoft Exchange email services. Clinicians receiving encrypted emails sent to non-AHS email addresses may not recognize the source or type of communication; and might rightly suspect a phishing or hacking attempt. Emails from an AHS address that contain “You have received an email message secured by Private Post” in the body, and bear an “Encrypted_Message.htm” attachment, are okay to open and review.​
Clinical Secure Messaging:
stq.ahs-cis.ca/?=12153
AHS Secure Email Guide:handbook.ahs-cis.ca/?=12164
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2018-01-01

AHS Medical Informatics Leads – Opportunity

AHS is seeking applications to fill Medical Informatics Lead (MIL) positions for a number of clinical areas in all AHS zones. A MIL is a well-established physician who advocates for AHS strategic information management initiatives, anticipates impacts on stakeholders, identifies issues, and helps to resolve problems.

Strong clinical leadership is required to promote care transformation with Clinical Information Systems. Indeed, physicians are relied on through all phases of the Connect Care journey; for their knowledge, experience, and ability to mobilize their peers to action. The MIL bridges clinical, professional and technical considerations during CIS implementations. MILs are recruited from clinical areas (sections, programs or departments) and are accountable to the relevant Associate CMIO and clinical area director within an AHS zone. Leadership capacity is more important than technical competence, as medical informatics leads work with key influencers in their clinical communities to promote workflow adaptation to the CIS and CIS adaptation to front-line clinical realities. These positions are supported for 0.2-0.4 FTE and available for immediate placement.

Check out the links for more information and application particulars.
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2017-10-16

What do Clinicians want from Connect Care?

The Alberta Health Services (AHS) Connect Care initiative aspires to improved health outcomes through use of a one-person-one-record-one-system support for clinical improvement. For improvement to follow implementation, it is vitally important that pCIS users integrate new informational supports into daily workflows in a meaningful way. And that requires meaningful engagement.
Engagement is facilitated when stakeholders understand the purpose of Connect Care, what it means for patients, what benefits users can expect, and how AHS can collaborate with users to promote benefits and avoid harms. The mission, values, goals and core principles of the initiative must make sense, be easily understand, and be compelling.
Users must also be highly motivated. They must be able to see, in a very practical way, how Connect Care will help them to do their work. These are matters of detail, often intimate, and inseparable from the messiness of frontline practice.
So, what do clinicians want from Connect Care? We have summarized impressions gained from interviews, meetings and focus. Follow the link to learn how users prioritize matters of convenience, connection, adaptation, integration and agency.
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2017-10-15

AHS CIS Physician Design Leads – Opportunity

AHS is seeking applications to fill a Physician Design (PD) Lead position serving the Connect Care initiative and its AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS). The PD is a critically important, influential, role that will significantly impact CIS design and implementation.

CIS design, build, implementation, operation and optimization will require province-wide organizational transformation.  While an enduring CIS will be designed and configured with a provincial lens, conditions for successful adoption have to be optimized at a local level. It is very important that physician perspectives help guide efforts.

The PD Lead is a medical leadership position within AHS with responsibility and accountability for clinical leadership, care transformation, and implementation strategy. These positions will be 0.5-0.6 FTE, within the AHS ML2 contractor band (compensation negotiable), reporting to the AHS CMIO while working closely with zone associate CMIOs.

The PD Lead will be a well-established physician who can advocate effectively for strategic information management initiatives, anticipate impacts on stakeholders, identify issues, and help resolve problems.

Check out the link for more information and application particulars.

Position description: ahs-cmio.ca/designlead
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2017-10-05

Connect Care Technology Partner Confirmed

Alberta Health Services and Epic Systems Corporation have finalized and signed a contract engaging Epic as the technology partner for AHS’s Connect Care initiative. Effective the beginning of October, 2017, this clears the final hurdle to embarking on a transformative journey that will integrate health information systems across all AHS lines of service and the continuum of care.
Work begins in earnest to align AHS preparations with Epic’s approach for bringing large complex projects like Connect Care to successful implementation.

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2017-10-03

Meeting Less, Doing More

Among many preparations for the formal kick-off to Alberta Health Services’ (AHS) Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS) has been establishing effective governance and oversight. New committees are struck, terms of reference are approved, meetings are scheduled and day timers filled. The need to rationalize old and new structures is the subject an upcoming governance workshop that will try to resolve issues of overlap and accountability.
Emergence of a systematic approach to formal governance matters to Connect Care stakeholders. We also need, and are working on, an approach to informal channels of influence, oversight and accountability; including User Group coordination and collaboration.
Is this our opportunity for a re-think? A recent Guardian editorial (see link) summarizes evidence that typical organizational meetings accomplish little, kill productivity and are even a health hazard. We can’t escape meetings, but maybe we can moderate their quantity and maximize their quality.
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2017-08-28

Harmonizing Clinical Documentation

Clinical documentation is about how we build health records. It is also a requirement of all who serve patients. Whether in electronic or written format, proper documentation is mandated by professional, regulatory, legal, accreditation and Alberta Health Services (AHS) expectations. More importantly, it enables inter-professional communication, care coordination, service continuity and outcome monitoring. 
The Clinical Knowledge & Content Management (CKCM) team coordinates program-specific multi-disciplinary clinical documentation working groups. Work is underway to promote best practices, build consensus about documentation norms, expose clinically essential documentation elements, and reduce unhelpful program-to-program variation.
Bringing consistency and efficiency to clinical documentation can reduce health practitioners’ total information burden, streamline complex medical records, speed recovery of clinically important data, and focus caregivers on the communication needs of patients and families. Follow the links to learn more about harmonizing clinical documentation in AHS and how you can get involved.

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2017-07-25

AHS CIS Information Sharing Approach

​Information sharing is about how health data is collected, accessed, used, disclosed, and exchanged. Connect Care, as a continuum-of-care one-patient-one-record-one-system initiative, will challenge traditional ways of thinking about information sharing. To the extent that Clinical Information Systems (CIS) integrate across domains with different legislation (e.g. Health Information Act, Hospitals Act, Health Professions Act), regulations (e.g. CPSA charting standards) and policies (e.g., medical staff bylaws), a new and integrative approach to information sharing needs to work for all stakeholders in all settings. As clinicians move from independent to shared digital records, this touches the core of health care professionalism.
Diverse stakeholders have worked to develop a new "Information Sharing Approach" applicable to all AHS CISs, all participating health care providers and all settings. Shared rights, responsibilities and accountabilities are endorsed and embraced to build trust and protect the privacy, confidentiality, security and integrity of health information in all AHS CISs.
Learn more about the approach from the links provided and please provide feedback. The goal is to firm-up new arrangements in fourth quarter 2017.
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2017-07-24

What’s in a name? – Clinical Decision Support

​As design and build of the AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS) starts, we are reminded that we are NOT building a digital health record. Rather, we are growing a system that supports coordinated care, best practice and clinical improvement. The magic sauce… helping users made good decisions.

Digitizing health information, and delivering it to clinical decision-makers, does not necessarily improve health care. Informed choice is facilitated when information about health is connected with information about how to improve health. Accordingly, "meaningful use" of the CIS is more likely when connections between observations and knowledge serve better processes, outcomes and satisfaction for patients, providers and policy-makers. This is what Clinical Decision Support (CDS) is about. 

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2017-07-23

Getting Ready - Current State Assessment

As part of our preparation for Connect Care, the AHS Provincial CIS team meets with clinical teams across the province to document what services AHS provides and how technology is used by healthcare providers in their daily work. Right now, AHS supports clinical care with over 1,300 different information systems. This fragments Albertans’ information, also making it harder for clinicians to provide comprehensive care.

Current state assessment teams have already engaged with many clinical teams to learn how the services we deliver interact with technology. Through this work we have already heard from over 800 clinical staff and physicians from across the province, across specialties and across diverse care settings.

We are moving through this process sequentially. As the current state assessments home in on critical clinical workflows, given the size and diverse needs of the organization, intersects with teams focus on smaller segments.  One of our early observations is that we deliver very similar services provincially, with largely the same high level processes. And there is widespread recognition of need for more consistency in how these services are supported with technology. This is great news as we move forward.

Follow the link to view an infographic that illustrates the current areas of work under Connect Care current assessment. We recognize that we have yet to touch all areas within AHS, but be assured that we are working our way through the organization and eventually will meet with representatives from all clinical areas impacted by Connect Care.

Through these initial meetings we have developed a high-level understanding and received good feedback about the process.  As we work with your teams to prepare for Connect Care, we will continue to enhance our understanding of how care is delivered, and where the CIS can have the most positive impacts.

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2017-07-17

Soft Security Tokens for AHS CIS & AH Netcare Remote Access

​Alberta Health Services (AHS) staff and affiliate clinicians may be authorized to access Clinical Information System (CIS), Netcare or other health information systems remotely from locations outside AHS network firewalls. This remote access requires two-factor authentication; such that the user 1) knows something (username and password) and has something (a Token or other securely recognized device).  Two-factor authentication reduces the risk of a security breach due to loss or theft of any one piece of information.

Some users requiring frequent or varied remote access find a physical security Token inconvenient; and unavailable when needed. These same users may have a smartphone always available and appreciate use of a "soft token" that works as an application. Replacing a "hard token" with "soft token" technology is fairly straightforward. Follow the link provided and work through the instructions starting on page 14.
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2017-07-14

No Secret Plan

​Connect Care is a significant investment in the future of healthcare in Alberta. This large-scale project will take time to put in place. As the Connect Care team continues to delve into preparations for this initiative, we are undertaking a thorough process to understand how all the pieces fit together.

You will start to see more communications as we work toward the design and build phase of the project. In the meantime, we will continue to collaborate and share our progress with you.

Please visit ahs.ca/connectcare or contact connectcare@ahs.ca with questions.
AHS_CIS_No-Secrets.png
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2017-07-12

Connect Care Technology Partner

​After almost a year of evaluation – and consultation involving hundreds of clinicians, staff and patients – Alberta Health Services (AHS) has announced that Epic is the chosen vendor responding to a Request for Proposal (RFP) to help build the AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS). The CIS provides the technology platform to enable Connect Care, an AHS-led initiative to transform healthcare delivery in the province. 

The RFP process was thorough and conducted with fastidious care. A first phase narrowed the field to 3 vendors felt most able to address the full range of AHS integration needs, with capacity to implement sustainably for an entire province. The second phase engaged hundreds more evaluators, site visits, reference reports and financial analyses to complement a deep dive examination of 24 functional domains and 4 areas. The results were consistent and clear, with strong agreement across domains, areas, regions, disciplines and experiences.

Epic started in 1979 and has grown to serve as the largest continuum-of-care digital health record provider for complex health care organizations like ours. Epic develops software to help people get well, stay well and prepare future generations to be healthier. 

Now that Epic has been selected as the preferred vendor, contract negotiations proceed while comparing an emerging understanding of our current state with a detailed assessment of what Epic has ready to go. The gap analysis will be informed by readiness assessments, strategic transformation analyses and listings of CIS capabilities prioritized for early attention. All this helps prepare for collaborative design and build, which begins fall 2017.

The Connect Care integration goal remains to migrate the majority of AHS clinical systems to the AHS Provincial CIS over the next 4-6 years. Existing systems will be kept functioning and current until ready for transition. Transitions will be guided cost-effectively, with support for AHS teams to safely prepare for changes.

Keep a close eye on the Connect Care web and SharePoint sites for the latest news.

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2017-07-11

Connect Care Information Gateways

Alberta Health Services has opened a new website that can help stakeholders learn about Connect Care, follow developments, ask questions and discover why Connect Care matters. There are views optimized for patients and families, and others focused on the information needs of health care professionals. An intranet (Insite) page is open to all of AHS. Connect and find out why you should Care!
An internal AHS site (SharePoint) is used by teams working on Connect Care. It offers a single point of contact for finding detailed information about progress, projects, resources and governance. Optimized to support a community of practice, there are discussion boards, blogs, team tools, calendars and progress dashboards. If you are not able to connect, and are an involved AHS staff member, please send a request to the connect care email intake.
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2017-07-06

“Connect Care” is our CIS Initiative

Connect Care encompasses all the work being done to transform the way we provide care at AHS, and empower change with information. The initiative attends to information gaps that can frustrate integration of health services across the continuum of care. Connect Care will enable use of the AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS) to support the work we do and enhance the quality of care we provide. 


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2017-07-05

CIS Physician Design Leads

We are thrilled to welcome four physician design leads as senior medical leaders who will help guide the design and development of the AHS Provincial Clinical Information System (CIS). Starting July 1, 2017, reporting to the CMIO, this group works in “triad” (clinical-operations-technology) relationships stewarding the CIS.
Echo Enns is a family physician and hospitalist who has served in diverse leadership positions including Physician Lead of both the Peter Lougheed and the Foothills Medical Center hospitalist programs (first of their kind in Canada), She has lead several QI projects, including medication reconciliation, optimization of discharge summaries, ward communications, and paging etiquette. Echo's deep understanding of front-line clinical work-flows will be invaluable to CIS design.
Vanessa McLean also brings a wealth of AHS leadership experience to the CIS initiative, from f​ront-line to administrative roles, including an impactful stint as South Zone Medical Director. Vanessa’s broad experience includes building collaborative relationships with varied stakeholders, troubleshooting and leading during critical incidents, participating in strategic planning, and working with teams to achieve operational objectives.
Stuart Rosser, currently in his third year as Site Chief for the Medicine Program at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Edmonton, knows well the administrative, logistical, and clinical requirements for delivering care to a broad range of patients. His leadership has emphasized physicians' personal accountability for the value they add to the healthcare system, emphasizing education, administration, and quality improvement. Has worked on zone CIS projects and provincial information stewardship initiatives, with a deep understanding of the work that will be required to align clinical, business, and IT requirements.
Chris White, previously a program leader for the Calgary Neuromuscular Program, is currently a Clinical Associate Professor in the Department of Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Calgary. He remains a busy clinician who deeply understands the reality of clinical settings and information intersects. In his previous role as South Health Campus Site Lead, Chris was instrumental in fostering collaborative partnerships between clinicians, administration and IT. This site achieved significant stakeholder alignment, key to a successful implementation of integrative clinical programs and teams. 
A fifth design lead position remains open, with recruitment underway. We are seeking a physician experienced with clinical support programs like diagnostic imaging, laboratories, microbiology or pathology.​
AHS CIS MD Roles: handbook.ahs-cis.ca/?=12381
Design Lead Posting: li.ahs-cmio.ca/designlead​
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