The Art of Managing Referrals: Addressing the Administrative Bottleneck

Anish Mody, MD

Dr. Anish Mody completed medical school at the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland and residency at the University of Saskatchewan in Family Medicine. He spent two years working in rural locums as well as serving as an assistant professor for the University of Saskatchewan. His primary focus was on teaching residents “transitioning to practice”. He moved to Ottawa, where he practices comprehensive family practice in a community setting. He is a lecturer with the University of Ottawa Department of Family Medicine. Dr. Mody serves as OMA District 8 delegate and the Vice President of the Ottawa Medical Society. His true passion is in practice management. Dr. Mody and his colleague start their own clinic, called Novel Health in 2021. He is part of OMA’s Practice Efficiency presentation development. He has given talks on practice efficiency and transitioning to practice. He uses Telus Practice Solution EMR with a focus on patient engagement and workflow efficiency. He is interested in collaborating on health technology and helping clinicians in need. 

Philip Vandewalle, MD

Dr. Philip Vandewalle is a family physician and is currently Chief of Medicine at Middlesex Hospital Alliance – Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital Site. Previously, he was the Head of Perinatal and Pediatrics at the same hospital. He has a comprehensive practice, working at one of the local long-term care homes (where he is Medical Director), in the ER, on the in-patient floors (where he is head of the hospitalist program), in the obstetrics department and in his family practice office. Dr. Vandewalle also teaches at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, Western University, where he is a full-time Assistant Professor. Since graduating more than 25 years ago, he has had a keen interest in EMRs. He and his group of fellow doctors were one of the first groups in the area to adopt an EMR in 1995. Dr. Vandewalle has been a Peer Leader for OntarioMD since its early days and he continues to have a strong interest in advancing the use of the EMRs. He is always ready to embrace the latest functionality in EMRs. He is keenly interested in using the EMR as a tool to improve patient outcomes. Dr. Vandewalle has been part of the Better Outcomes Registry & Network (BORN) initiative with his current EMR and sends data to the BORN Information System via his EMR. 

Afsoon Khazaee

Afsoon Khazaee graduated in medicine from Hamedan University of Medical Sciences and completed her Master’s Degree in eHealth from McMaster University. 

She has been working in the health industry for 20 years, Currently, she works at OntarioMD as Practice Enhancement Consultant supporting Ontario clinicians with practice efficiency and optimized EMR use, and use of digital tools for quality improvement and panel management