eHealth Centre of Excellence Deploys Robotic Process Automation to Alleviate Administrative Burden in Primary Care

KITCHENER, ON, March 26, 2024 /CNW/ - Primary care physicians today face an increasingly daunting challenge: the weight of administrative tasks consuming their time and energy. A 2023 survey conducted by the Ontario College of Family Physicians (OCFP) found that family doctors are spending up to 19 hours a week on administrative work, and an alarming 65 percent of them have reported that they are preparing to reduce their hours or leave primary care altogether as a result. The OCFP estimates that 4 million Ontarians could be without a family doctor by 2026, putting a barrier between patients and timely access to care.

The eHealth Centre of Excellence has drawn inspiration from the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) report, which found that Canadian doctors spend 18.5 million hours each year on unnecessary paperwork. Following other industry practices, they are using robotic process automation (RPA) to streamline processes and in 2020, established eCE Automates, a division focused on creating an innovative suite of bots for primary care; these bots serve as virtual assistants for family doctors and nurse practitioners, seamlessly integrating with their electronic medical records (EMRs) and rapidly executing repetitive-based tasks with precision and speed.

"Administrative work has become a significant obstacle in delivering quality patient care," remarks Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia, Chief Executive Officer at eHealth Centre of Excellence. "As a practicing family doctor myself, I understand firsthand the pain points in current clinical workflows. Our mission is to streamline these workflows, allowing clinicians to reclaim valuable time back to focus on patient care interactions and their own wellbeing."

In addition to taking on some of the mundane manual tasks clinicians were previously expected to complete, bots can also standardize the data in clinical information systems and create complex patient algorithms, enabling care teams to quickly and efficiently identify patients from their rosters who might benefit from a preventative care intervention – helping patients avoid the emergency department.

The latest innovation from eCE Automates, Poppy, went live in 2023. First launching in the East Toronto Health Partners Ontario Health Team region, Poppy is a bot designed to support clinics with population health management, specifically related to cancer screenings. Using intelligent automation and advanced algorithms, Poppy identifies patients from the clinician's EMR who may be due or overdue for cancer screenings and stratifies them into priority groups based on factors such as postal code or social determinants of health. Poppy can then automate follow-up actions such as appointment scheduling and requisition completion. This process removes the onus from family doctors and their teams to spend their time on this laborious administrative work while still ensuring patients are receiving proactive care.

Poppy has now reached out to over 13.5K patients in East Toronto to book cancer screenings, and early findings have shown an increase in screening rates since the bot was deployed. Furthermore, clinician feedback indicates that minimal time commitment was involved to employ Poppy, and a notable reduction in administrative workload was perceived. Poppy is now expanding to other regions in Ontario.

"Developing the Poppy Bot tool with the eHealth Centre for Excellence was an exciting endeavour," says Dr. Karen Chu, Family Physician and Medical Director of the Bridgepoint Family Health Team in the East Toronto Family Practice Network. "By automating the reach out to those with email, our team can now focus our efforts on reaching out to people that may need more help navigating our healthcare system; this will help ensure all communities and populations across our OHT have access to preventive care."

"The success of Poppy reaffirms our commitment to using technology to enable a more efficient, effective and equitable healthcare system," adds Dr. Alarakhia. "As we continue to refine and expand our automated solutions, we will continue to work with clinicians to identify which tasks in their everyday workflows should be prioritized. We must meet this crisis in primary care with tangible, sustainable solutions that really address the needs of clinicians right away."

To learn more about eCE Automates, visit: www.ehealthce.ca

About the eHealth Centre of Excellence:

The eHealth Centre of Excellence is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to leveraging digital health solutions to support clinicians and enhance healthcare delivery and outcomes. Through innovative initiatives like eCE Automates, they strive to alleviate administrative burden, streamline workflows, and prioritize patient care in primary care and integrated care settings.

SOURCE CFFM CI - The eHealth Centre of Excellence

Press Contact: Hannele Kivinen, Communications Lead, eHealth Centre of Excellence, [email protected], [phone]