by medicaltechont | Jul 30, 2017 | Electronic Medical Records, emr, Medical Records, Ontario
Electronic patient records in doctors’ offices across the country are being used by brand name drug companies looking to muscle market share away from generic competitors, a Star investigation has found.
Concerned physicians say a clinical tool they use to write prescriptions and care for patients is being co-opted, and they fear health records are being tapped so drug companies can increase profits.
In the battle for pharmaceutical dominance, this new tactic, deployed in software used by doctors, has allowed brand-name companies to capitalize on the moment a prescription is written.
Here’s how it works:
The patient records are found in EMRs, or electronic medical record software, owned by Telus Health, a subsidiary of the telecom giant. The software is used by thousands of Canadian doctors to take notes during patient visits and to create a prescription to be filled by the patient’s pharmacy.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/07/29/doctors-use-this-software-during-patient-visits-now-big-pharma-is-tapping-it-to-sell-their-drugs.html
by medicaltechont | Jun 25, 2017 | Canada, Doctors, Education, Ontario
A record number of medical-school graduates this year missed out on residency programs, their final training stage, due to an “alarming trend” that puts at risk the hundreds of thousands of dollars provincial governments have invested in the next generation of Canadian doctors.
This spring, more than 2,700 medical students were accepted to residency programs that begin next month at university hospitals across the country.
But the program, an algorithm used to match applicant preferences to universities’ preferred candidates, has left 68 students without a residency assignment.
The problem highlights a gap between the numbers of spots in medical schools and the number of residency spots, which have been cut back in recent years due to tighter budgets, according to the Canadian Federation of Medical Students.
Read more at https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/06/17/no-easy-cure-for-left-out-medical-school-grads.html
by medicaltechont | May 6, 2017 | EHR, Electronic Medical Records, emr, Healthcare, Hospitals, Ontario
Three Ontario hospitals recently announced they are joining hands to share an implementation of Meditech’s latest electronic medical records system, called the Meditech Web EHR.
Markham Stouffville Hospital, in Markham, Ont., will host the system, and a single, shareable electronic health record will be created for patients at Markham Stouffville, Southlake Regional Health Centre, in Newmarket, Ont., and the Stevenson Memorial Hospital, in Alliston, Ont.
The new project is being called SHINE – short for Shared Health Information Network Exchange.
Read more at http://www.canhealth.com/blog/three-ontario-hospitals-announce-plans-to-share-patient-record-system/
by medicaltechont | Apr 8, 2017 | Healthcare, Legal, Ontario, Technology
The Ontario Court of Appeal has upheld a 24-month damage award to a long-service nurse in a doctor’s office who believed that she had been fired during a hostile meeting with her employer.
The doctor for whom she worked wanted her to look into electronic medical records (EMR). She was overwhelmed with a heavy workload and did not get to it. The doctor angrily confronted her in a meeting, at which the doctor’s wife was also present. The court found that the doctor, in his anger, said, “Go! Get out! I am so sick of coming into this office every day and looking at your ugly face.” He also pointed at her, shouted at her, accused her of being resistant to change, and used profanity during that meeting. The employee, distraught, left the meeting and never returned to work. The employer treated her as having quit. The employee sued for wrongful dismissal.
Read more at http://www.occupationalhealthandsafetylaw.com/your-ugly-face-employers-condescending-aggressive-hostile-and-profane-behaviour-in-one-meeting-resulted-in-constructive-dismissal-nurse-awarded-24-months-in-damages
by medicaltechont | Feb 5, 2017 | Ontario, Technology
In what’s believed to be a world first, Canadian doctors say they were able to save a young mother’s life with a radical procedure — they removed her lungs.
Melissa Benoit, who was born with cystic fibrosis and had developed a rampaging lung infection that had spread throughout her body, was hours away from death last April when doctors at Toronto General Hospital were given the go-ahead by her family to take the unprecedented step.
Read more at http://globalnews.ca/news/3204018/doctors-save-ontario-womans-life-by-removing-her-lungs/
by medicaltechont | Dec 31, 2016 | Doctors, e-Health, Electronic Medical Records, Ontario, Technology
“For example, wouldn’t it make sense that anytime a patient has lab tests completed anywhere in the province that the results of these tests would be immediately sent to the records in each of their doctors’ offices?”
Minister Eric Hoskins’ Bill 41 continues to be confounding for many physicians, but possibly the most consistent question I am hearing is: Why do we need another layer of bureaucracy? How will sub-LHINs improve the system? One very intriguing twitter answer that I received suggested that this extra bureaucratic layer will serve as “administrative infrastructure” for primary care. That is something worth considering since I agree that Family Doctors need much more support than they are currently receiving.
Before I move directly into the discussion, I want to stress that I am not including those primary care providers who are not physicians in this consideration. The reason is that I want to focus on the infrastructure resources needed to deliver primary care and the Nurse Practitioner- led clinics are tremendously well-resourced, with all expenses already covered by the government, a luxury that physicians cannot access to the same degree which is the point here.
Read more at https://drgailbeck.com/2016/10/28/bill-41-infrastructure-investment/
