TORONTO, June 6, 2017 OntarioMD is delighted to announce that Chief Medical Information Officer Dr. Darren Larsen is the 2017 winner of the Canadian Health Informatics Award (CHIA) for his achievements in the category of Clinician Leadership.

Two of OntarioMD’s provincial primary care digital health initiatives, the Health Report Manager (HRM) and the Provincial eConsult Initiative, were also recipients of 2017 CHIAs for Project Implementation Team of the Year and Innovation and Care Delivery respectively. The awards were presented by COACH, Canada’s Health Informatics Association, and ITAC Health, during the e-Health 2017 Conference in Toronto on June 5.

The CHIA awards pay tribute to people, projects and organizations across Canada that have demonstrated excellence, leadership and innovation in health informatics. In 2015, OntarioMD won its first CHIA for Innovation in the Adoption of Health Informatics for Health Report Manager (HRM), the provincial solution that sends patient reports from hospital and specialty clinics to physician electronic medical records (EMRs).

Dr. Darren Larsen’s clinical and health informatics colleagues have recognized him as a champion for advancing the adoption and benefits of electronic medical records (EMRs) in Ontario and for his work with COACH to advance certified EMRs nationally. Darren has served as a role model, champion and leader in encouraging the design, implementation and use of EMRs to improve knowledge-based practice for community-based family physicians and specialists and to promote the role of quality improvement as a partnership between clinicians and the broader health care community.  

“OntarioMD is very proud of Darren’s contributions to improving technology for community-based physicians at the practice and system level,” said Dr. Greg Athaide, Chair of the OntarioMD Board, “his passion and dedication are reflected in OntarioMD’s EMR Maturity Model and Progress Assessment, supporting the EMR Practice Enhancement Program. Through these innovative tools, he has enabled physicians to optimize their EMR use and achieve their personal EMR goals for improving patient care.”

OntarioMD’s HRM was awarded the CHIA for Project Implementation Team of the Year for the impressive progress to expand HRM in south west Ontario with its partners, the connecting South West Ontario Program, eHealth Ontario and technology partner Orion Health. Together, the partners connected all hospitals in the region to HRM and supported approximately 2,000 clinicians to connect to HRM and provide them with change management support quickly and efficiently.

The Provincial eConsult Initiative’s integration of the Ontario Telemedicine Network’s (OTN) eConsult service with the certified EMRs of physicians and nurse practitioners was deserving of the CHIA for Innovation and Care Delivery for its ability to adapt to clinician workflow and thereby promote greater use of the service. The EMR integration with eConsult is a strategic partnership between OntarioMD, OTN, eHealth Ontario, QHR Technologies Inc., OSCAR EMR and Kai Innovations.

“OntarioMD’s HRM and Provincial eConsult programs are providing a tangible benefit to patients by enabling the timely exchange of health information and providing increasing clinical value to health care providers, and overall, to advancing digital health in Ontario”, stated Sarah Hutchison, CEO, OntarioMD, “I would like to thank OntarioMD staff, our technology partners, and the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care for their support for these important digital health initiatives that enhance patient-centered care and advance the province’s Patients First Strategy”. 

This article originally appeared on the OntarioMD website.