Digital Health Week: November 18-24, 2024
November 18, 2024
Digital Health Week is an annual celebration of digital health. Digital health systems need to interact with each other across all care settings so that Canadians’ health information moves with them through the system.
A person’s care journey may include visits with a family doctor and specialists, trips to the hospital for emergencies, x-rays and other tests, and more. If everyone on a person’s care team has access to their complete health-care history, delays and duplications can be avoided, resulting in high-quality and timely health care and better health for people.
In our region, the Digital Support Structure of our Frontenac, Lennox & Addington Ontario Health Team (FLA OHT) is working hard to help build a modernized health-care system that is connected, equitable, and accessible.
- Connected - information flows seamlessly between different platforms and devices. This “interoperability” means that different parts of the health system can speak the same language with each other.
- Equitable - health care is available to everyone in a way that strives to meet their needs, their cultural and linguistic preferences, and eliminates barriers to care.
- Accessible - offering easy access to the care, services and support we need, when, where and how we need it.
Digital health tools and projects are being implemented across the region. The FLA OHT Digital Support Structure is working with partners among primary care teams, hospitals, community members and provincial digital health teams on a number of digital health advancements. Here are some examples:
- Online Appointment Booking – to allow people to book their visits more easily and free up time for administrative support.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) Scribes – to improve people’s interactions with their providers by using the tool to take notes and make summaries.
- eConsults - to facilitate efficient consultations between primary care providers and specialists using a secure platform, to help reduce wait times.
- One Patient-One Record – a health record system for safe and efficient access to people’s information across health-care sectors with privacy and cybersecurity measures.
- Patient Portal – development and spread of portals will allow people to access their own records and related health and wellness resources in a timely, secure manner.
VISIT the Digital Support Structure webpage to listen to our Digital Support Structure leaders about this progress in a video and learn more.
Infographics by Canada Health Infoway - an independent, not-for-profit organization funded by the federal government that works with work with governments, health care organizations, clinicians and patients to make health care more digital. Learn more.