TORONTO, ON--(Marketwired - January 27, 2016) - OntarioMD is pleased to announce the launch of its clinical Peer Leader Program to continue to offer this service to Ontario physician practices that are looking to adopt or transition to an OntarioMD-certified EMR as well as those looking to enhance the use of their certified EMR. The program is complimentary and is funded as part of Canada Health Infoway's ("Infoway") Clinician Engagement Strategy: Clinical Peer Leader program and partially funded by OntarioMD.
Infoway provides funding to provinces and territories to establish peer-to-peer networks under the national Clinician Peer Network program to respond to local clinician needs. In Ontario, the program is known as the Peer Leader Program, and is managed and partially funded by OntarioMD, a subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA).
The current OntarioMD Peer Leader Program follows the previous, highly successful program, also funded by Infoway, which was available to Ontario clinicians between July 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014. During this period, approximately 8,000 Ontario clinicians benefited from the program to advance their EMR use, an important part of OntarioMD's mandate from the province that aligns with the provincial ehealth strategy.
Each peer-to-peer network is aligned to Infoway's national program objective to sustain and accelerate clinical engagement with a focus on supporting one or more specific initiatives. Ontario's Peer Leader Program is a network of physicians, nurses and clinic managers, 61 in total, across the province who are expert users of OntarioMD-certified EMRs and support OntarioMD's objective to help physician practices realize more clinical value from their EMRs.
OntarioMD Peer Leaders understand the needs and challenges faced by busy community practices. They can assist practices to develop plans that will lead to tangible practice enhancements. Peer Leaders have several years of EMR experience that practices can leverage to advance the quality of patient data in their EMRs to deliver better care and increase practice efficiency. Peer Leaders work closely with OntarioMD's Practice Advisors who support physician practices to connect with provincial health information systems such as the Ontario Laboratories Information System and Hospital Report Manager (HRM).
"The OntarioMD Physician Peer Leader I worked with gave me good advice around workflow, billing and tracking. She also invited me and my staff to her office to see her workflow and her staff members gave us further advice," said Dr. Richard Chen, a family physician who has benefited from the program.
"Being an OntarioMD Peer Leader has been a very rewarding experience. I have seen my colleagues advance their EMR skills towards comprehensive care in one visit and use their EMR for best practice and population-based medicine. The OntarioMD Peer Leader Program is the cornerstone to enhance the overall patient's care experience and health care delivery in Ontario," observed Dr. Therese Hodgson, a family physician who was a Physician Peer Leader in the previous program and has signed on to mentor her colleagues under the current OntarioMD Peer Leader Program as well.
"EMRs have been implemented by the majority of Ontario's community-based family physicians and an increasing number of community specialists. Physicians and clinic staff would now like more practical advice from their colleagues who use the same EMR," stated Sarah Hutchison, Chief Executive Officer, OntarioMD. "Peer Leaders are an important component of OntarioMD's mission to help clinicians advance EMR use to enhance patient care and address the needs of the practice."
To find out more about the Peer Leader Program and how it can accelerate the success of your community practice by getting more value from your certified EMR, please contact OntarioMD at peer.leader.program@ontariomd.com or connect with the Peer Leader Program on Twitter at #OMDPeerLeads. Past participation in an OntarioMD program is not required.
About OntarioMD
OntarioMD is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA). It manages programs and services that connect EMRs to more patient data collected outside primary care settings. It receives funding from the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care to support Ontario's physicians to implement an EMR and to optimize EMR use.
The views expressed in this publication are the views of OntarioMD and do not necessarily reflect those of the Province.
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Contact Information:
For more information:
Kathy Tudor
Director, Communications & Marketing
OntarioMD
416-623-1248 x5460
katherine.tudor@ontariomd.com
www.ontariomd.ca
