Engage in digital health

In collaboration with the Doctors of BC Digital Health Strategy team, we provide regular opportunities for physicians and medical office assistants to share their clinical input and help inform digital health solutions and support programs.

Get involved

The Physician and MOA Health Technology Advisory Sessions are a series of online consultation sessions that provide compensation for physicians and medical office staff to provide feedback. The content of these sessions are focused on dialogue. We want to hear from a broad range of physicians and MOAs and ensure your unique perspectives are heard. You do not need a technology background to participate, just a willingness to share and provide input.

Check out a list of frequently asked questions about these sessions.

If you are interested in joining the mailing list and receiving invitations to upcoming sessions, email .

Upcoming sessions in 2024:

Past sessions in 2023/2024:

January 31, 2024: Enabling Province-Wide Sharing of Patient Summaries

Presenters:        

  • Naomi Monaster, Clinical Informatics Lead, Provincial Digital Health and Information Services, PHSA

  • Dr. Lisa Veres, Family Physician, Victoria

  • Dr. Laura Philips, Family Physician, Victoria

Facilitator:           

  • Kaitlyn Shaw, Program Manager, Health Technology Practice Supports, DTO 

Summary:  

The Patient Summary Project aims to support the creation of a point-in-time summary containing a standardized set of key clinical and contextual information about a patient’s health and treatment that can be digitally shared across systems. This is part of the government's broader physician-informed efforts to support system-wide interoperability of EMRs, clinical systems, and other digital health technologies (building a “connected health system”). 

During the session you will be able to:

  • Hear updates and ask questions about the provincial patient summary project

  • Have the opportunity to provide feedback on the proposed workflow and plan

  • Discuss current scope of problems for information sharing between providers

  • Explore the potential future opportunities for you to engage in the design and implementation of this work 

June 28, 2023: Provider Experience & Improving Access to Provincial Systems

Presenters: Carter Williamson, Senior Director, Identity and Access Management, MoH

Facilitator: Kaitlyn Shaw, Program Manager, Health Technology Practice Supports, DTO

Summary:
Your input will help guide the Ministry of Health’s work to reduce administrative burden and improve providers’ experience when connecting to provincial systems, including CareConnect and Pharmanet. This is part of broader provincial efforts to enable system-wide interoperability of EMRs, clinical systems, and other digital health technologies. 

You are invited to share input with the Ministry of Health/PHSA on connecting to provincial EHRs and systems, including CareConnect and Pharmanet. In this session we will collect feedback on how best to achieve:

  • Simple, secure identity management 
  • Simplified user sign-on 

  • Streamlined registration and enrolment

The session will be facilitated by physician clinical advisors who have been working closely over the past few months with the Ministry/PHSA to review and provide clinical feedback on how doctors connect to provincial systems. Regardless of your practice type, specialty, or geographic location, your point of view is valued and needed; you do not need a technology background to participate.

April 19, 2023: Patient Access to Clinical Documentation in Health Gateway

Presenters: Pam Smith, Executive Director, Digital Health Strategic Initiatives, Ministry of Health; Nino Samson, Health Gateway Product Owner, Ministry of Health; Lynda Veeneman, Change & Communications Specialist, Health Information Management at Providence Health Care; Dr. Kiley Cindrich, Internal Medicine, Royal Inland Hospital

Facilitator: Kaitlyn Shaw, Program Manager, Health Technology Practice Supports, Doctors Technology Office, Doctors of BC

Summary: Health Gateway is a provincial portal that gives patients access to a growing number of their health records. In March 2023, Health Gateway released a new feature to start enabling patient access to clinical documents. Family physicians and specialists in Vancouver Coastal, Providence and PHSA that use CST Cerner now have a choice to share information and clinical documents with patients – who in turn can bring these documents to any BC health care provider for further discussion. 

This change is part of the move to centralize patient access to clinical documents via the Health Gateway patient portal and has been informed by input from a physician clinical advisory group. Work is now underway to expand this feature provincially and we are seeking input from a diverse group of physicians to inform further development and deployment.

Agenda:

  • Your experiences to date sharing clinical documentation with patients; and,
  • The messaging and supports you feel are needed to enable successful expansion of the clinical documents feature in Health Gateway.

The Doctors Technology Office is an initiative of the Family Practice Services Committee (FPSC), a joint partnership of Doctors of BC and the Government of BC.