QHR Product Ideas

I believe this already exists in Ontario. Having an electronic consult feature built-in within Accuro or Medeo will make our practices more efficient. It will make us less reliant on faxes. The ability to send the referral and receive the consult back directly through the EMR solution will be a great time saver as opposed to paper or fax communication. This should work with the Telus EMR solution as we only have 2 choices in Nova Scotia.

Being able to send an electronic consult has more advantages than a simple fax. There is the possibility of populating key portions of the relevant patient history such as the list of current medications and relevant past medical history. This is not only efficient but could be life saving in cases of allergies as some patients can be poor historians.

As a plastic surgeon I deal with multiple skin cancers. Having the ability to attach a high resolution color clinical image of the lesion can be tremendously useful. It will make triaging more efficient and accurate. It also has the potential of alleviating a lot of anxiety and preventing unnecessary consultations. Currently the easiest ways to send a clinical image such as by regular email do not meet the provincial privacy requirements. Having the ability to send the pictures through the EMR solution will protect the patient's privacy and decrease our liability.

Short of a full e-consult feature having the ability to send provider to provide secure email within Accuro will be a useful first step. Medeo only allows for provider to patient contact. It is also limited to the individual provider as the rest of the clinic staff do not have access to that email chain.

This will eliminate redundant referrals, misplaced faxes and misdirected paper mail. Being able to integrate electronic consult will show the true power of an EMR solution.

I will be willing to participate in a pilot study of this feature in Nova Scotia