Is the promise of e-Health being delivered? A top-notch faculty of experts and e-Health leaders will assess how far we have come and what is needed to meet the challenges ahead. Topics will include:

• Moving to a Provincial Health Record
• An International Perspective on E-Health Developments
• Capitalizing on E-Health to Achieve Wait Times Targets
• Change Management Strategies for E-Health Integration
• Effectively Operating in a Shared EMR Environment
• Evaluating Health Information Systems – What is the Current State of Knowledge?
• Meeting the E-Health Challenges of Primary and Chronic Care
• Electronic Information Systems, Infection Control and Outbreak Management
• Data Governance and Privacy Oversight
• Improving Clinical Practice Through Electronic Order Sets and Directives
• The Big BC Opt Out of E-Health: How and Why?
• An E-Health Check-up: How Well Are We Doing – What is the Prognosis for E-Health?

PROGRAM CO-CHAIRS

Tom Rosenal, MD, FRCPC
Founding Medical Director, Clinical Informatics
Calgary Health Region

Francis Lau PhD
Professor and CIHR/Infoway eHealth Chair
School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria

KEYNOTE ADDRESS

Health Technology and the North

The Hon. Glenn Hart
Minister of Health and Social Services
Government of the Yukon

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2009
Post conference in-depth workshops:

WORKSHOP A | PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION GOVERNANCE AND OVERSIGHT

WORKSHOP B | INFORMATION SHARING AGREEMENTS (ISA) IN HEALTHCARE

WORKSHOP C | EVALUATING PHYSICIAN OFFICE EMR SYSTEMS

GOLD SPONSOR

SILVER SPONSORS

MEDIA PARTNERS

MARKETING PARTNER

• From Healthcare Organizations:
  
• VP’s, Directors and Heads of:
  • Health/Patient Records
  • Information Systems
  • Quality and Risk Management
  • Support Services
  • Information Technology and Management Solutions
  • Program Design and Management
  • Technology Planning
  • Health Informatics
  • Information Policy
  • Information Analysis and Reporting
  • Diagnostic Services
  • Pharmacy
  • Administration
• Chief Privacy Officer, Chief Information Officer, CTO, Chief of Staff, Medical Directors, Chief of Nursing, In-house Counsel, Chief of Pharmacy Services, Chief Information Officer

• Senior Directors in charge of:
  • Decision Support; Quality Improvement
  • Health Care Strategies
  • Research
  • Legal and Regulatory Affairs
  • Professional and Government Affairs
  • Patient Relations
  • Corporate Communications
  • Education
  • Risk
  • Systems
• Physicians, Nurses, Allied Health Professionals
• 
  And Representatives from:
  
• Health Ministries and Departments, Regions/Regional Health Authorities
• Pharmaceutical Companies, Diagnostics and Laboratory Services
• Health Information and Data Providers
• Privacy Regulators and Commissioners
• Medical Researchers and Academics
• Associations and Medical Colleges
• Law Firms, Consulting Firms

Dear Colleague,

Change is inevitable; progress is optional. Information technology developments in healthcare, including electronic health and medical records, wireless and mobile devices and patient and provider portals have been delivering a revolution that promises improvements in access to care, quality, safety, health outcomes and healthcare integration. Information system tools are designed to deliver more accessible, timely and better organized clinical knowledge and link this to patient- and population-specific information to best support decisions about individuals, populations and organizations. The greater the degree of interconnectivity and interoperability of these information systems, the greater will be their value across diverse settings.

To become and remain effective, these information systems must be thoughtfully designed to address real needs, be highly responsive to informed user and patient input, balance workflow and local needs against process improvement and provide robust user support to enhance adoption. These information tools will also need to keep pace with changes in care and the broader understanding of health and illness and care delivery as seen in primary care reform, personalized medicine based on genetics and team-based care. Clinical leaders should define relevant goals to allow impact evaluation which can then lead to further improvements in the application of information technology.

This 9th edition of Insight Information’s E-Health conference will focus squarely on the latest developments around the use and application of e-health systems to drive improvements in healthcare quality and the implementation of a more efficient approach to care delivery. This is especially so in the context of health system renewal efforts such as those recently implemented in Alberta. Among the important topics being explored are:

• Providing better information for patient driven care
• Quality/process improvement using IT systems
• E-Health and the sustainability of healthcare services
• Alberta’s Health Information Act and Bill 52 amendments
• Data migration between EMR systems

Is the promise of e-health being delivered? What are the key lessons being learned in the many current socio-technical healthcare information enterprises? A top-notch faculty of experts will assess how far we have come and what is needed to meet the challenges ahead as e-health hits the next crossroad. We hope to see you there.

Tom Rosenal, MD, FRCPC
Medical Staff (Honourary)
Alberta Health Services, Calgary Zone
Associate Professor Emeritus, Department of Critical Care Medicine
University of Calgary
Founding Medical Director, Clinical Informatics
Calgary Health Region

Francis Lau PhD
Professor and CIHR/Infoway eHealth Chair
School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria

MONDAY | OCTOBER 26, 2009

8:15 | 9:00

Registration and Continental Breakfast

9:00 | 9:05

Welcoming Remarks from Insight Information

9:05 | 9:25

Co-Chairs’ Opening Remarks

Tom Rosenal, MD, FRCPC
Medical Staff (Honourary)
Alberta Health Services, Calgary Zone
Associate Professor Emeritus, Department of Critical Care Medicine
University of Calgary
Founding Medical Director, Clinical Informatics
Calgary Health Region

Francis Lau PhD
Professor and CIHR/Infoway eHealth Chair
School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria

9:25 | 10:00

Health Technology and the North

The Hon. Glenn Hart
Minister of Health and Social Services
Government of the Yukon

10:00 | 10:45

An International Perspective on E-Health Developments

Myrna Francis
Vice President, Global Healthcare Sector
CGI

10:45 | 11:00

Networking Coffee Break

11:00 | 11:45

The Road Ahead: Capitalizing on E-Health to Achieve Wait Times Targets

Chris Smith 
Chief, Information Technology and Project Director
Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute

The Bone and Joint Health Institute is working hard to meet Alberta Health Services’ goal of improved access to care, using best practices, streamlining processes, and making better use of available resources. The efficiencies offered by electronic health records and other electronic health information systems (EHIS) will contribute significantly to achieving these goals. Among the key issues to be canvassed in this report are:

• E-health and surgery wait times targets
• How EHIS may best be utilized in this area of care delivery
• Data flow pathways and the benefits of going digital
• Challenges encountered to date
• What lies ahead and next steps

11:45 | 12:30

Moving to a Provincial Health Record – Progress and Roadblocks

Bill Trafford
Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer
Alberta Health Services

• Implementation models: connect the dots or superstructure?
• What are the milestones on the road to the PHR?
• Key steps to date
• Major roadblocks ahead
• How should we tackle them?

12:30 | 1:45

Networking Luncheon and Luncheon Keynote Address: It’s All About You

Larry Spagnolo
President
TELUS Sourcing Solutions Inc.

Sponsored by

1:45 | 2:30

E-Health Integration Strategies – Case Studies

Albert Kennedy
Team Lead, Implementation Services
Physician Office Systems Program (POSP) (Alberta)

Dr. Steven M. Edworthy, MD, FRCPC
Rheumatologist
Associate Professor, Department of Medicine and Community Health
University of Calgary

• Integration models and processes – the big picture
• Key processes required to secure successful integration
• Change management strategies
• Effectively operating in a shared EMR environment
• Integration along the continuum of care – ensuring access to the right person at the right time
• Data stewardship, oversight and information sharing in an integrated system
• Implementation to date and next steps

2:30 | 3:00

Evaluating Health Information Systems – What is the Current State of Knowledge?

Francis Lau PhD
Professor and CIHR/Infoway eHealth Chair
School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria

• What to measure
• When to measure
• How to measure
• Applying the results

3:00 | 3:15

Networking Refreshment Break
Sponsored by IBM

3:15 | 4:15

Meeting the E-Health Challenges of Primary and Chronic Care

Jonathan P. Rossall Q.C.
Legal Counsel, Alberta Medical Association
McLennan Ross LLP

Dr. Norman Yee
Family Physician
IT Lead for the Calgary Foothills Primary Care Network

• Physician engagement
• Multiple systems and platforms
• Connectivity and info sharing
• Patient and provider portals
• Data migration between EMR systems
• EMR data archiving
• Legal and privacy considerations
• Cross border information transfers
• Data stewardship and accountability

4:15 | 5:00

EHR Deployment: Making It All Happen

Gail Almond
Strategy Consultant
IBM Canada

Implementation and adoption of Electronic Health Record solutions is top of mind in all jurisdictions in Canada. These solutions serve large and diverse groups of clinicians and have a fundamental impact on how clinicians access information about their patients. Supporting clinicians in the transition to take advantage of these solutions is essential to realizing value. IBM has worked extensively with Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba to define deployment strategies and support implementation of the Electronic Health Record. This session will provide insight into the approach and critical success factors realized by the EHR Deployment Teams.

5:00

Conference Adjourns for the Day

5:00 | 6:00

Reception Sponsored by

TUESDAY | OCTOBER 27, 2009

8:00 | 8:55

Continental Breakfast and Keynote Address:
Creating a Culture of Privacy

Mike Gurski
Director, Privacy Centre of Excellence
Bell Canada

• Creating a culture of privacy through policies and procedures
• Integrating technology and the proper tools to audit privacy practices and breeches in-house
• Case study – Ontario Paediatric Hospitals examples and lessons learned

Sponsored by

8:55 | 9:00

Co-Chairs’ Opening Remarks

9:00 | 9:45

Prescribing Decision Aids to Each Patient

Donald W. Kemper, MPH
Chairman and CEO, Healthwise
Founding Chair, The Center for Information Therapy (IxCenter.org)

Patient decision aids (PtDAs) are Web-based, interactive tools that help a person make a better decision with his or her physician. Canada, through the work of Annette O’Connor and others at the University of Ottawa, leads the world in PtDA research and has helped to establish the International Patient Decision Aids Standards (IPDAS) to assure their quality.

Prescribing decision aids and other interactive consumer tools can unlock the consumer’s potential and resolve many of the cost, quality and workforce problems our health systems are facing today. They will help to implement three simple rules:

• The Self-Care Rule: Help people do as much for themselves as they can
• The Guidelines Rule: Help people ask for the care they need – give them the guidelines
• The My Choice Rule: Help people say “no” to care that’s not right for them

Information therapy (Ix) is the prescription of the right information at the right time to help people implement these rules. With information prescriptions, patients are improving their health outcomes, lowering their healthcare costs and reducing their burden on workforce shortages. The Ix Revolution is coming through next-generation EMRs. Participants will learn what they can do to bring about the benefits of Ix sooner.

9:45 | 10:30

E-Health for Quality Improvement and Sustainability of Healthcare Services

Dr. Andrew Pattullo
Co-Medical Information Officer, Alberta Health Services
Medical Director, Clinical Informatics, Calgary

• How the use of clinical IT solutions leads to improved care
• Using IT to further the sustainability of health services
• Quality/process improvement using IT systems
  • Performance measurement
  • Improved decision-making
  • Clinician engagement
  • System content design and standardization

10:30 | 10:45

Networking Coffee Break

10:45 | 11:15

Electronic Information Systems, Infection Control and Outbreak Management

Belinda Boleantu
Vice President, Clinical Transformation Services
Alberta Health Services

• How electronic information systems (EIS) support infection control
• Managing the infectious public health emergency using EIS
• Developing projects to support outbreak investigation
• Vaccination tracking
• Lessons learned from the H1N1 (human swine flu) scare
• Next steps

11:15 | 12:30

Data Governance and Privacy Oversight – Reports and Panel Discussion

LeRoy Brower
Director
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Alberta

Gary Dickson Q.C.
Information and Privacy Commissioner (Saskatchewan)

John Swiniarski
Assistant Registrar
College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta

• Governance models and goals – clarity, security, accountability
• Stewardship challenges and best practices
• Locus of responsibility in cross border and cross jurisdictional transfers
• Patient control, confidence and access
• Privacy developments of note
• Alberta’s Health Information Act and Bill 52 amendments

12:30 | 1:45

Networking Luncheon

1:45 | 2:30

E-Health and Decision Support – Improving Clinical Practice Through Electronic Order Sets and Directives

Dr. Chris O’Connor, MD, FRCP
Open Source Order Sets
Critical Care Physician and Director, Medical Informatics
Trillium Health Centre (Ontario)

• How order sets are used to dramatically improve quality and clinical work flow
• The challenges of developing and using order sets
• How does Canada compare with other jurisdictions in use of these electronic tools?
• Collaboration and order set use and development

2:30 | 2:45

Networking Refreshment Break

2:45 | 3:15

The Big BC Opt Out of E-Health: How and Why?

Micheal Vonn
Policy Director
BC Civil Liberties Association

The 2009 Rowntree Trust (UK) report noted that there is a developing consensus among medical practitioners that for safety, privacy and system engineering reasons, we need to go back from the shared-record model to the traditional model of provider-specific records plus a messaging framework that will enable data to be passed from one provider to another when it is appropriate.

In other words, the system needs to be an architecture in which data is pushed from one health care provider to another. Not pulled from every health care provider into a massive, inherently insecure, centralized repository. We are not building the right model of patient information sharing. And patients need to get educated about whatever limited means might currently exist to help them protect their information and to have a say in the so-far absent public debate on this subject. BC’s Big Opt Out is a citizen education campaign for:

• The right of every British Columbian to determine for themselves whether or not to participate in e-Health by giving or withholding informed consent
• The right of every British Columbian who decides to consent to participate in e-Health to determine the degree of participation – also known as the ability to effectively lock-down or mask certain information
• The implementation of a substantial and widespread information campaign to inform all British Columbians about e-Health, their rights and how to exercise them

3:15 | 4:30

Closing Round Table: An E-Health Check-up – How Well Are We Doing – What is the Prognosis for E-Health?

Moderator: Jim Saunders
Health Care Management and Consulting
J.L. Saunders & Associates Inc.

Dr. Kelly Ernst, PhD
Senior Program Director
Sheldon Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership

Dr. Andrew Pattullo
Co-Medical Information Officer, Alberta Health Services
Medical Director, Clinical Informatics, Calgary

• Value proposition and assessment
• Safety and quality of care
• Efficiency and outcomes improvements
• Access and wait times
• Decision support and knowledge utilization
• Patient safety and error reduction
• Security and oversight
• Electronic records and privacy implications
• Cost effectiveness and ROI

4:30

POST-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS | Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Choose one of the morning WORKSHOPS A or C

WORKSHOP A | 9:00 A.M. to NOON

PERSONAL HEALTH INFORMATION GOVERNANCE AND OVERSIGHT
– ESSENTIAL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES

Wendy Robillard
Senior Manager, Information Policy and Compliance
Alberta Health and Wellness

Recent amendments to Alberta’s Health Information Act (HIA) have aimed the spotlight once again on the need to have effective governance and oversight structures in place for the appropriate management and administration of personal health information in the custody and control of healthcare providers. Failure to do so can expose the custodian to numerous legal and regulatory risks. In the context of electronic health records and information systems this need becomes even more pressing given the ease of access and information sharing.

This workshop will provide a detailed analysis of what steps should be taken in establishing such oversight frameworks and the key issues that need to be considered and addressed in doing so within the electronic health record. Among the topics covered will be:

• Designing an electronic data stewardship framework: key considerations
• Information sharing guidelines and controls
• Locus of accountability, oversight and responsibility
• Incorporating existing policies and procedures
• Legal requirements distinguished from ethical guidelines
• Where to go for help
• Collection, use, disclosure
• Security
• Jurisdiction and geography
• Players and lines of accountability
• Suppliers and vendors

Join this session for in-depth and practical analysis of these issues and take advantage of the opportunity to ask your individual questions while dialoguing with peers facing similar challenges who will also be sharing their approaches.

WORKSHOP C | 9:00 A.M. to NOON

EVALUATING PHYSICIAN OFFICE EMR SYSTEMS
– KEY CONSIDERATIONS

Francis Lau PhD
Professor and CIHR/Infoway eHealth Chair
School of Health Information Science, University of Victoria

James K. Lai MD, CCFP, FCFP
Clinical Associate Professor
Department of Family Practice, University of British Columbia

With the recent federal/jurisdictional investments in physician office electronic medical record (EMR) systems, there is an urgent need to learn how physicians can use EMR systems to improve their work practice, patient care and overall satisfaction.

This workshop will provide an overview of the current evidence on physician office EMR systems, some credible yet pragmatic EMR evaluation approaches, and key issues to be considered when planning/conducting/appraising EMR evaluation studies within the Canadian healthcare contexts. The topics covered will include:

• Current state of knowledge in the adoption, use and impacts of physician office EMR systems
• Conceptual models used to make sense of EMR adoption and use, such as the 5-stage EMR adoption model from HIMSS-Analytics®
• Usability studies for critiquing EMR system requirements and features
• Workflow analysis for describing physician office practice routines, such as patient referral and prescribing medications
• Impact evaluation on care quality, practitioner productivity and patient access, including indicators related to patient safety and practice comparison
• Primary health care indicators from the Canadian Institute for Health Information for national comparison

Through this workshop you will learn the latest evidence available on EMR systems and pragmatic evaluation approaches to demonstrating their value and effects. The workshop will be interactive in nature, providing ample opportunities for you to engage in active discussions and share ideas/issues with others on this important topic.

12:00 | 1:00 LIGHT LUNCH WILL BE SERVED FOR DELEGATES ATTENDING BOTH WORKSHOPS

WORKSHOP B | 1:00 P.M. to 4:00 P.M.

INFORMATION SHARING AGREEMENTS (ISA) IN HEALTHCARE – FROM THE ESSENTIALS TO THE FINER POINTS

Jonathan P. Rossall Q.C.
Legal Counsel, Alberta Medical Association
McLennan Ross LLP

The countless legal pitfalls that can potentially rear their heads in the context of the sharing of Personal Health Information (PHI) make it imperative that ISAs be strategically and carefully drafted to minimize these risks and ensure that effective legal processes and controls are in place.

Gain valuable knowledge in this area and benefit from expert advice on the key considerations. Examine in detail some of the practical challenges and how to get around them. Among the issues to be discussed in depth are:

• The core provisions – drafting choices and tips
• Establishing the chain of control and accountability
• Meeting privacy standards and laws
• Special case scenarios and considerations:
  • cross border transfers of PHI: legal and practical considerations
• Relevant case law and implications for drafting of contracts
• Sample clauses and analysis

You will receive sample agreements and specially developed materials that will be of value long after the workshop has concluded.

Register 3 delegates for the main conference at regular price at the same time and you’re entitled to register a fourth person from your organization at no charge. For other group discounts, please call 1-888-777-1707. All discounts must be redeemed when booking, discounts will not be valid or applied after this time.