Wanted: innovative ideas to improve healthcare quality and the patient experience

The Canadian Partnership Against Cancer is pleased to join other national health organizations in supporting Canada Health Infoway’s ImagineNation Outcomes Challenge.

The recently announced Outcomes Challenge will accelerate the use of innovative solutions with the potential to improve healthcare quality and the patient experience in four key areas:

1. e-scheduling
2. patient access to health information
3. medication reconciliation
4. and clinical synoptic reporting.

Synoptic reporting uses a standardized “checklist” approach to capture information about surgery at the point of care, and is the focus of two major Partnership initiatives – one in pathology and the adoption of standardized checklists and the other in surgical reporting for which the Partnership is implementing a pilot project in collaboration with clinicians across the country.

“Our experience with synoptic reporting demonstrates improved efficiency and completeness in reporting on cancer surgery and pathology reporting, positive experiences by clinicians, and the potential for data comparison across jurisdictions,” said Lee Fairclough, Vice-President, Knowledge Management at the Canadian Partnership Against Cancer.

“Infoway’s Outcomes Challenge will further accelerate the uptake of this type of innovation across the country and benefit patients – through safer surgical care, more complete pathology reporting and more effective treatment, as well as improving the patient experience through e-scheduling and access to health information.”

With up to $1 million in awards, Infoway is challenging teams across Canada to increase the use of solutions in the four key areas in their practice or organizations.

The initial round of challenges is taking place from September 2011 to March 2013, with early registrants eligible for Early Adopter Awards.  Participants who demonstrate the first working solutions in each focus area, as well as those whose solutions are used the most during the challenge, are eligible to receive cash awards and other benefits to recognize their innovation and leadership, as well as to help them to share their experiences with others across the country.

The outcomes challenges also aim to establish a community of innovators that Infoway and its partners will support through information sessions, education, networking opportunities and other means. The goal is to help challenge participants develop robust, replicable solutions.