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Showing posts with label Information Systems. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Information Systems. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

COACH is recuiting health informatics student for MacKenzie Health Epic HIS



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: COACH supports Mackenzie Health with large-scale digital health/health informatics undergraduate and post-graduate students recruitment initiative

Toronto, ON - February 8, 2017 - Today COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association announced the roll-out of a major recruitment initiative with the goal of hiring more than 75 emerging professionals/ students/ HI graduates to fill full-time contract, co-op, and summer positions at Mackenzie Health, the regional health service provider for Ontario's Southwest York Region.

Mackenzie Health has embarked on a full implementation of the Epic hospital information system (HIS) as part of its drive to achieve Level 7 in the HIMSS EMRAM scale within three years. The hospital also has plans to open a second major site in 2020, and will become the first hospital in Canada to implement the full suite of Epic systems.

To facilitate adoption of the new HIS, the hospital will need 75 Super Users and 15 Credentialed Trainers to be drawn largely from COACH membership and academic contacts.

"We need to cast a wide net, and quickly," said Diane Salois-Swallow, chief information officer at Mackenzie Health. "The COACH membership community is simply the best place to find this many applicants with a basic understand of HIS implementation complexities."

75 Super Users/15 Credentialed Trainers
Super Users will provide direct end-user support and assistance during implementation training sessions. Customer service skills and knowledge of the new system will ensure hospital users are comfortable during the go-live process. The Super User position is a paid position, and is defined as a placement or summer term opportunity starting May 1, 2017 and ending August 21, 2017. For more information about the Super User role, visit http://bit.ly/2kF4AWK.

Credentialed Trainers will train end-users (using existing training materials) and provide go-live support. Credentialed Trainers will be required to commit to a longer term, from March 30, 2017 until August 21, 2017. This is a paid position. For more information about the Credentialed Trainer role, visit http://bit.ly/2kiRy00.

"We are happy to be supporting Mackenzie Health in this important initiative," said Mark Casselman, COACH CEO. "This benefits everyone. The hospital benefits by being able to tap into a group of engaged, motivated young digital health professionals, trained for Canadian HIS delivery. And our Academic and Student Members will have the opportunity to put their education to practical use in a major health service delivery transformation. COACH is growing, and this is the first in a wave of new partnerships that will connect, inspire, and educate the digital health professionals who are contributing to the future of healthcare in Canada."
Applicants who require training in HIS delivery best-practices will participate in a COACH education session. Funding partners interested in reaching and investing in the next generation of the Canadian digital health workforce are welcome to participate in this education initiative.

About COACH
COACH: Canada's Health Informatics Association has a history of fostering professionalism and refining the expertise of its 2,000+ member population, with an emphasis on continuing education and shared knowledge. COACH is Canada's largest digital health community, representing professionals working to advance healthcare delivery through information technology. As the voice of Health Informatics (HI) In Canada, COACH promotes the adoption, practice and professionalism of HI. HI is at the intersection of clinical practice, Information Management/Information Technology and healthcare management. Visit www.coachorg.com for more information.

CONTACT
Mark Casselman at 416.358.0567 or ceo@coachorg.com

Sunday, November 13, 2016

Musing on the Interaxon Muse Meditation Headband

"For this calibration, find a comfortable position and take a deep breath".

The computer brain interface world is getting interesting. The first time I heard about these types of MUSE brainwave sensing devices was an experiment where they trained people to move a cursor on a computer screen using their brain waves and a EEG headband. Maybe it was the MUSE - not sure. The next thing they did was have those same people change the colour of the floodlights on Niagara Falls and the CN Tower using their entrained brainwaves.

 I have seen more than several research projects now that have involved the Interaxon Muse headband - a device that self-directs users into a calm state of meditation by reading their brainwaves through an EEG headband and translating the data into a meditation tracking app. It may be just the start before EEG caps and gels and wire attachments are a thing of the past.

The McMaster university library recently started loaning out this device so instead of buying one (about $400) I have borrowed one for a week. Mind you, I have 35 years of meditation experience in a variety of schools and techniques and am not expecting a device like this to teach me anything. But after taking an 8 week online mindfulness course - just videos and online instructions - I believe that meditation can be taught through technology.

After downloading the app and fumbling around trying to fit it on my head - should have looked at the visuals in the instructions -  I learned how to sync my brainwaves using the app on the ipad. I tried a 3 minute meditation in the living room while the TV was on, a laptop was playing a video in the background and I was talking to my wife who was doing her yoga exercises. My brainwaves during those 3 minutes were in the noisy/active category. I had scored no calm points and I heard zero "birds". Hearing birds means that your brainwaves are staying in a calm meditative space. Seeing a graph of my brainwaves is actually very interesting but scoring points for meditating well and being asked if I want to share that on Facebook or Twitter is another thing. Tempting though to show all my friends on social media what a noisy mess my brainwaves are - No!

I was sort of impressed with the app interface and the instructions by the MUSE meditation guide. The next time I tried it I sat in my meditation room on my meditation cushion and zabuton. I extended the time to 7 minutes. I chose the default beach imagery with the sound of lapping waves and wind. If you hear the wind, it is actually the sound of your own brainwaves making noise. You are not watching your breath. I sat in the half lotus posture with my hands in my lap, a classic meditation posture I have practiced for years. The resulting graph of my brainwaves after 7 minutes indicated that I had no active or noisy points - 98% calm state of mind and about 100 birds. I could actually hear the birds in the background if I turned up the volume.  Here is a picture of my stats. In my last 20 minute sessions the batteries in the MUSE drained and I had to resume twice so the stats are all thrown off.

It is getting interesting but I spent the rest of the day thinking that I have been under surveillance with my brainwaves subjected to mechanical replication and analysis. This experience was not at all a natural process, in spite of the kind and soft voice of the human guide behind the algorithms on the app. My gurus had years and years of training and practice in meditation before they were allowed to teach.  I didn't let that get to me because I am fascinated with the technology.

The next sitting session I tried 20 minutes - about the amount of my usual meditation time these days. The result was 100% in the calm space, over 200 birds, and no "recoveries" or straying outside the calm zone with distracted thought or lapse of attention to mindfulness of breathing. And that was just a "normal" session for me.

I am really impressed with this device but I am sure that I don't need it having learned the art and science of meditation the traditional way - sitting at the feet of the masters, going on retreats, and practicing daily. My real question and concern is how will this device work with digital natives and those new to meditation?

We live in a world of secular ethics and this device does not come attached to any religious ideology. We all know by now that a mindfulness of breathing practice cuts across the sectarian world. Creating calm brain waves just requires the right guidance and intervention. Is total reliance on the MUSE soulless and alienating?  Not necessarily, though I would probably recommend an online mindfulness of meditation course called Palouse Mindfulness rather than the MUSE for a true beginner - especially ones who are remote from teachers and centres and can't afford the cost. One of the practices in one of the major schools of Tibetan Buddhism is Lam Rim. Lam Rim literally means "gradual path". The gradual path to meditative calm is the best way.


Here is one tip from my Zen teacher on meditation that will help anyone understand the nature of mind and meditation. Sitting across from me at a table the teacher gave me a piece of paper and a pencil. He asked me to draw a small line to count each time I had a thought. It became obvious to me that the page would quickly fill up with counts of scattered thoughts. After sitting in meditation practice, the number of counts becomes noticeably fewer. Where did all those thoughts go? It is just a state of being.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Models for Information System Success for eHealth?

I am doing some research on electronic systems used by Research Ethics Boards in Canada. One of the models we are using to determine if systems are liked by ethics boards and their respective research communities is the DeLone and McLean model. This model has been used a lot in information systems success studies and there is a lot of literature on it.

What there is not a lot of (to my knowledge), is how the model can be applied to eHealth applications. A little bit of searching on the internet and I discovered it has been used by the eHealth people at the University of Victoria in British Columbia, and I think it is very interesting what they have done. Roughly expressed by them is a Benefits Evaluation model. The team at UVic has applied this to evaluating Canada Health Infoway projects, called the Infoway BE Framework. Coincidentally I recently read a CBC article that Infoway had saved a billionaire dollars by implementing Electronic Medical Record systems for physicians in Canada. After reading some of the comments by the public on the CBC website for this story, I reminded again of the old adage that the Return on Investment in healthcare is improve in quality of life.









 

E-health records saved medical system $1.3B in 6 years

Use of electronic records more than doubled from 2006-2012, from 23% to 56%

Posted: Apr 22, 2013 11:04 AM ET

Last Updated: Apr 22, 2013 4:22 PM ET

Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq (right), seen with Richard Alvarez, CEO of Canada Health Infoway in 2009, announced $500 million in funding four years ago to improve the implementation of electronic medical record systems, but the funding was held back for a year until the government received more information about how it would be spent. Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq (right), seen with Richard Alvarez, CEO of Canada Health Infoway in 2009, announced $500 million in funding four years ago to improve the implementation of electronic medical record systems, but the funding was held back for a year until the government received more information about how it would be spent. (Handout/Health Canada/Canadian Press)


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A study done for Canada Health Infoway, the federally funded organization set up to monitor and improve the use of information technology across Canada's health care system, has found that increased use of electronic medical health records has saved $1.3 billion over the last six years.
The study by PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) examined the switch to electronic medical records (EMR) by family doctors from across Canada between 2006 and 2012 and found:
  • $800 million in administrative efficiencies (less time by staff pulling and filing charts or processing finding lab test results, less time by doctors reading and maintaining paper files).
  • $584 million in health system benefits (reduced duplicate diagnostic testing, reduced adverse drug events).
  • Improved chronic disease management and illness prevention (higher mammogram screening rates, higher pneumonia and flu vaccination rates).
  • Improved communication amongst care providers and with patients (less time spent repeating patient histories among care providers, electronic alerts prompting follow-up care for things like medication recalls.)
The study's methodology included a review of current research, national survey and cost data and interviews.
"In some cases, it's the sum of a lot of little things, " said Jennifer Zelmer, senior vice-president with Canada Health Infoway.
"When you're using electronic medical records, staff in a medical practice tend to spend less time … pulling charts, and they're able to use that time for clinical services," she added. "
And when you add that up those kinds of efficiencies, both in terms of chart pulls and in terms of tracking down test results, actually the value of that is quite significant."
The study's findings don't surprise Stephen McLaren, a family physician in Markham, Ontario. He says many patients already understand the efficiency of an electronic record, especially if their paper record or test results were ever misplaced.
"Their visit with their provider is a very inefficient, unproductive visit and very often means you have to come back," Dr. McLaren said.
McLaren says there's also better treatment of chronic illness because electronic medical records allow a doctor to easily spot trends in a patient's tests, over time.
"In the paper world, you have to flip through pages and pages and pages, hoping to catch onto a trend if there was one there to see."

Use of electronic records still growing

Despite the growing use of electronic medical records, only 56 per cent of patients have one. McLaren says their use continues to grow, as more and more patients ask for them.
Meanwhile, he says the next big step in this area is to link up health care institutions — hospitals, labs, nursing homes, and doctors offices — so that a patient's information can be shared more easily, while still protecting the privacy of the data.
In a press release, Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq encouraged provinces, territories and other stakeholders to keep working to increase the adoption of electronic medical records and other e-health technologies "so that Canadians can benefit from a better integrated health care delivery system," added Minister Aglukkaq.
"We expect significant additional gains as adoption grows, use matures, and connections to other care settings expand," said Richard Alvarez, Canada Health Infoway's president and CEO, in the same release.
Canada Health Infoway had set a target for half of Canadians to have electronic health records by the end of 2010. The federal government delayed $500 million in funding for the agency by one year, seeking more information about how the contribution would be spent.
A 2009 report from the federal auditor general found contracting and reporting problems in early efforts to move more Canadian health records online.