End to end Digital enablement

[rareboy]

I recently note for a client and Ministry of Health for Ontario that COVID ended up being the thing that brought end-to end digital enablement in health care to reality.

This was something that the chattering management consulting classes have been bullshitting about for about a 5 or 6 years.

But in Ontario and other jurisdictions, this is what happened...

We could make appointments for testing on-line.

We could turn up and our records and data would be readily available at the testing site.

And within 24 to 48 hours, our test results would be sent by email.

We could make on-line appointments for vaccines.

And immediately, our record of vaccination would be available and printable.

All of this likely saved a number of visits or calls to the PCP office and actually empowered the consumer to get diagnostics and testing and treatment in the shortest time possible.

At the same time, the ability to have primary care and referral specialist appointments on-line in order to get the requisitions for lab and xray testing have also eliminated a lot of unnecessary and care delaying visits.

So if you are a believer in the idea that the word for crisis in Chinese is the same as opportunity...or that it is a truly ill wind that doesn't blow some good, I am now seeing where end to end digital enablement is starting to turn up in Cancer care, Nephrology (dialyisis), cardiology and even mental health care.

Have you experienced this shift yet? What have your experiences been like? Both positive and negative.

 

[Kahaih]

And, right in the midst of this, in just a few days, millions of cellphones will become unusable, obsolete junk.

~~

From what little I've seen of the on line health system, the med/pharm industry is no better than any other business when it comes to keeping websites updated and accurate. Nearly useless.

One of the local hospitals have Doctors on their registry who have been gone for years.

 

[ShadowCat]

well yippie yippie covid brought one "good thing"

 

[Latimer]

I am a member of the UCLA health system. Prior to Covid, I made appointments, exchanged emails with my primary care physician and viewed test results online. Nothing changed for me after Covid. Moreover, UCLA has multiple clinics near my house: three (including the one where my doctor practices) are a ten minute (drive and parking) away. The campus hospital is also ten minutes away, but the parking garage is daunting...

 

[Latimer]

Let me add that I flew to Nice via Munich a few months ago, and Lufthansa asked that I download my vaccination record on a site linked to theirs. It was a fucking nightmare, and my partner and I were never able to successfully navigate it. Fortunately, at the airport we presented our information at the check-in counter with no problem. Next week we are flying to Hawaii and have been asked to download our information on a State of Hawaii site. This was also a fucking nightmare. We believe that after a half an hour of following its labyrinthine paths we registered successfully but aren't entirely sure.

 

[fabulouslyghetto]

Sounds cool, we'll probably have it in America in 100 years or so.
Its nice to know somebody somewhere has a functional healthcare system. I'm this close to telling my family and friends lets all just pack up and move to Canada, flee America jnder the guise of darkness like a battered wife. Exactly like a battered wife.

I cant explain this, but in my mind Canda just SMELLS amazing.

 

[Latimer]

I wonder if you'll be required to establish residency in Québec. I recall hearing that there was a time (and perhaps still is) that immigrants were required to live in Québec in order to augment the French-speaking population.

 

[rareboy]

I wonder if you'll be required to establish residency in Québec. I recall hearing that there was a time (and perhaps still is) that immigrants were required to live in Québec in order to augment the French-speaking population.

Maybe in the 1970's?

 

[Latimer]

Sounds right. I heard about it from one of my architecture professors and mentors--American--who had previously worked in Moishe Safdie's office in Montréal. Safdie ultimately closed his office there--if I remember correctly--because the office was required to conduct business in French. Correct me if I'm wrong, but immigration to Canada is not a piece if cake: there's a point system based on education, language skills, age, work experience, and whether or not one has a job or the likelihood of obtaining one in a reasonable amount of time. The state is wary of older people who don't speak the languages, have little chance of gainful employment and whose medical care will end up being paid for by the Canadian taxpayer. This is not at all similar to the US, where one can be the monolingual 60 year old Vietnamese father of an American citizen and with no visible means of support, immigrate and in short order qualify for Medicaid and receive the exact same medical care that I receive through UCLA. The system will even find you a Vietnamese-fluent doctor or translator.

 

[Alistair]

I am a member of the UCLA health system. Prior to Covid, I made appointments, exchanged emails with my primary care physician and viewed test results online. Nothing changed for me after Covid. Moreover, UCLA has multiple clinics near my house: three (including the one where my doctor practices) are a ten minute (drive and parking) away. The campus hospital is also ten minutes away, but the parking garage is daunting...

Same here for the Cleveland Clinic. I’ve been doing it online for the past 10 years. I get test results as soon as they come in and comments from the doctor when he reads them. I get an email every time my chart is updated.

 

[Alistair]

The Google Voice thread reminded me that the Cleveland Clinic uses Google glasses that record doctor visits so that a tech can transcribe a visit, the doc can spend more time with the patient and less on paperwork. So I’m sure there’s a video record of the doctor grabbing my junk and sticking his finger up my ass somewhere.

 

[rareboy]

Same here for the Cleveland Clinic. I’ve been doing it online for the past 10 years. I get test results as soon as they come in and comments from the doctor when he reads them. I get an email every time my chart is updated.

Our local health centre was in the forefront of this, but it has been tougher to do a roll out on a province wide basis.

COVID was one of the events that showed how it could be designed and implemented.

In our region 14 hospitals are just now going onto a shared information platform that will link into other systems....but at the end of the day...it just takes so many years to roll this out and make the information sharing seamless because of the difference in info tech systems right through to lab equipment and diagnostic imaging tech that all have to be trained to talk to one another....in spite of so much proprietary tech. It is more of a challenge in rural networks than in Toronto, where the University Health Network is so vast and so big and integrated that they could get some of this done sooner....but not everything.

Even they are shifting more toward a more patient empowered and focused approach to bookings through to follow-up care.

 

[Alistair]

It was pretty easy here even in the rural areas. The Cleveland Clinic and University Hospital have taken over absolutely everything in the surrounding 5 counties around Cleveland.