Advice and Tips from OntarioMD Peer Leaders
1:30 pm – 3:00 pm
At the end of the workshops, participants will recognize opportunities to optimize the use of their EMRs, including identifying better workflows, examining and reviewing toolbars, and learning how to benefit more from other EMR functionality, such as prescribing, billing, and integration with other digital health tools.
Please note if you are not admitted into a virtual workshop room when you click on the link, it is because that room is at capacity. Please visit another training room if that happens.
Available Workshop Streams
In alphabetical order by certified EMR vendor.
ABELMed EHR-EMR/PM
- Patient communication (email, Text, Calls, Letters)
- Referral Management
- Online appointment booking pre-visit checklist
- Identifying patients for clinic efficiency (Queries)
Presented by:
Tripho Bogias, OMD Clinic Manager Peer Leader
Tripho Bogias is the Business Manager for Grand River Sports Medicine Centre. GRSM is a multi-disciplinary sports medicine clinic with 3 locations Cambridge and Kitchener.
Tripho has an honours degree in business administration from Wilfrid Laurier University and has always been very involved in the local sports community.
Tripho was directly responsible for setting up the EMR and IT infrastructure at GRSM when they opened in 2002. In 2011, he led the EMR transition to ABELMed including configuration, training and implementation of systems. He is always looking for ways to improve office efficiencies using the EMR and other IT solutions.
Accuro EMR
- Tasks
- Customized Lab Panels
- Prescription favorites
- Preselected Custom Lab Requisitions
- Critical tests tracking
- Macros
- Alerts for Preventative Care Tracking
Presented by:
Dr. Harvey Blankenstein, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Harvey Blankenstein is a comprehensive care family physician practicing at the North York Family Health Team (NYFHT) in Toronto. He is an Assistant Professor at the University of Toronto’s Department of Family and Community Medicine and has been teaching medical learners/residents for over 25 years.
He is the former President of the Medical Staff Association at North York General Hospital (NYGH) as well as the former Undergraduate Director and past Quality Improvement Co-Lead in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, NYGH and NYFHT.
Dr. Blankenstein has been the Medical Consultant to the Primary Care Branch at the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and has been a committee member of the Primary and Community Care Committee at the OMA. He has been a member of the e-Health Council for the Central LHIN and a member of the Inquiries, Complaints, and Reports Committee at the CPSO.
Dr. Blankenstein has been a member of the Information Management/Information Technology Committee of the NYFHT that was instrumental in facilitating the transition and migration from one EMR to another. He is LEAN Six Sigma Green Belt certified and can help deploy the Six Sigma techniques to lead small-scale improvement projects.
- Identifying a patient cohort (i.e., Diabetics, COPD, eligible for prevention or screening) Queries, i4C Dashboard
- Alerts for patient management
- Tasks
Presented by:
Dr. Philip Vandewalle, OMD Physician Peer Leader
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. Philip Vandewalle is a family physician and is currently Chief of Medicine at Middlesex Hospital Alliance – Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital Site.
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.
- Tracking critical tests
- Use of Macros/Form to Letter
- Prescriptions to increase productivity and better efficiency for specialists.
Presented by:
Dr. Sean Pierre, OMD Specialist Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Pierre is a community urologist in Ottawa, Ontario. He earned his medical degree at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Ontario, and did his urology residency at Queen’s University. He then completed a two-year fellowship at Duke University in minimally invasive urologic surgery (endourology, laparoscopy and robotics).
Dr. Pierre has been involved in many regional and provincial initiatives focusing on using technology and information to make patient care more efficient and comprehensive. He is a consultant on the Ontario eConsult service, and helped develop the Ontario eReferral program and Access to Care Surgical Wait Time Dashboard program. He has been a member of the Physician Advisory Group on informatics at the Queensway Carleton Hospital, and served as the Deputy Chief of Staff at that site. He was awarded the Queensway Carleton Hospital Innovation Award in 2015, and has been a Service Champion at that site.
- Tasks
- Customized Lab Panels
- Prescription favorites
- Preselected Custom Lab Requisitions
- Critical tests tracking
- Macros
- Alerts for Preventative Care Tracking
Presented by:
Dr. Stephen McLaren, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Stephen McLaren is a family physician at Markham Health Team in Markham and has been using an EMR with lab and hospital report connectivity since 1999. His knowledge and expertise has benefitted many projects and committees implementing e-health solutions provincially and nationally.
During his group’s transition to a new EMR, he played a crucial role in data migration that resulted in fully searchable and usable data from Go-Live. Stephen has successfully developed and delivered many educational sessions and presentations on the use and optimization of an EMR and has provided coaching to new EMR users. His expertise includes preventive care, chronic disease management and health quality indicators reporting.
- How to make customized lab panel for effective lab reviews
- Tips and tricks with encounter documentation
Presented by:
Dr. Halperin
Dr. Halperin is an endocrinology specialist, a full-time staff physician and an Assistant Professor at the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, where she teaches residents and medical students about quality and innovation. Dr. Halperin strives to improve the coordination of care for high users of the health care system and continues to work on improving the care of young women with diabetes prior to, during, and after pregnancy.
Dr. Halperin obtained her medical degree from the University of Western Ontario and completed her internal medicine and endocrinology training from the University of Toronto. In addition to her medical education, Dr. Halperin has also obtained her MSc. in Quality Improvement and Patient Safety at the University of Toronto.
Dr. Halperin was the Clinical Lead of the EMR implementation at her Endocrine Division, where under her continued leadership, the EMR of two additional divisions were implemented as well. Through her close collaboration with EMR vendors, a ‘form-to-letter’ for diabetes management was developed, where captured elements generate reports on various diabetes quality indicators.
CHR
Best Practices for visit efficiency, including:
- Encounter documentation
- Lab management
- Prescription favorites
- Preselected Custom Lab Requisitions
- Alert & Reminders
Presented by:
Dr. Kevin Brophy, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Kevin Brophy is a community family doctor who co-owns and manages a family practice clinic in Ottawa where he is part of a Family Health Group caring for over 1000 patients in his practice. He also teaches at the University of Ottawa and does presentations about billing and practice management with the OMA. Kevin is always looking to find new ways to make technology work for him so he can have more time to play outdoors and be with his family.
Indivica
Best Practices for visit efficiency, including:
- Tracking Critical tests
- Use of Templates/eForms/Preselected Lab Requisitions
- Prescription favorites
- Prescriptions to increase productivity and better efficiency for specialists
Presented by:
Dr. Manisha Mulgund, OMD Specialist Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Manisha Mulgund is a graduate of the McMaster University Rheumatology program. She works as a community rheumatologist in Hamilton, Ontario, and also as an acute care hospitalist at Trillium Health Partners Mississauga.
She has used EMR’s including Accuro from which she moved over to the Indivicare platform. She has experience in EMR migration. She has been the EMR peer leader (for OSCAR users) and is also part of the informatics committee in the Ontario Rheumatology Association. She believes in patient-centric health care and has developed a free digital app “Arthritis + patient”, for patients with inflammatory arthritis to educate and self-manage their condition. She advocates for timely access to health care and firmly believes digital health tools will help accomplish this.
OSCAR McMaster – Professional Edition (OSCAR Pro)
- Preventions
- Use of tickler as reminder
- Disease Registry (Benefits and Favorites)
- Flowsheets and their modifications
- Auto populating notes from measurement
- Preselected custom lab requisitions
- Prescription best practices & favorites
Presented by:
Dr. Anil Maheshwari, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Anil Maheshwari is a family physician with over 20 years of experience in both the US and Canadian health care systems. He is Board Certified in Family Medicine as well as Obesity Medicine and is Associate Clinical Professor (Adjunct) at McMaster University. He practices at the Grandview Medical Centre Family Health Team in Cambridge, Ontario and at Cleveland Clinic Canada in Toronto.
He has experience with several electronic medical records, patient portals and video visit platforms. Dr. Maheshwari has presented about the use of patient portals in Family Medicine and about the use of eConsults to obtain rapid consultations. In his role as an OntarioMD Peer Leader, Dr. Maheshwari helps physicians who use OSCAR.
- Identifying a patient cohort (i.e., Diabetics, COPD, eligible for prevention or screening) Report by Templates
- Ontario Prevention Report
- Demographic report Tool
- Tickler for Recalls
- Preventions section
Presented by:
Dr. Braedon Hendy, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Braedon Hendy is a practicing family physician in the region surrounding Windsor, Ontario. He completed his Bachelor’s and Master of Science at Western University, focusing on novel methods to help lower the financial burden of treatments for various diseases. As a family medicine graduate of the Windsor-based residency program, Dr. Hendy continues to work within the community as an emergency room physician and hospitalist.
He is currently the Primary Care Lead for the Erie St. Clair Regional Cancer Program and is the Vice President of Professional Staff at Erie Shores Health Care.
As an OntarioMD Peer Leader, Dr. Hendy is passionate about improving technology and assisting practitioners with their practice. Since 2001, he has served in the Canadian Armed Forces and is currently a Medical Officer.
- Tracking critical tests
- Use of templates /eForms/Preselected Lab Requisitions
- Prescriptions to increase productivity and better efficiency for specialists.
Presented by:
Dr. Maheswaran Srivamadevan, OMD Specialist, Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Maheswaran (Mahesan) Srivamadevan is a community cardiologist with a practice based out of Richmond Hill, Ontario. He received his medical degree, internal medicine & cardiology residency from Queen’s University. He is the director of the Oak Ridges Heart Clinic and also co-director of Bradford Cardiac & Diagnostics Centre.
Over the last two decades, he has had experience working in both his office and hospital setting. With experience in networking and programming applications for the EMR, Dr. Srivamadevan has aided physician practices in optimizing workflow efficiencies by customizing their EMR to their specific needs.
He has much experience with OSCAR and is passionate about helping others get the best out of their EMR. He has designed, programmed, and implemented applications to bridge to and from data transfer between cardiac diagnostic technologies and the EMR. He has also programmed customized patient letter generators, medical algorithms/calculators and decision support applications that integrate evidence-based medicine into the EMR.
PS Suite EMR (Telus Health Solutions Inc.)
- Reminders & Toolbars
- Flowsheets & its customization
- Prescription favorites
- Preselected Custom Lab Requisitions
- Critical tests tracking
- Stamps
Presented by:
Dr. Kevin Samson, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Samson is a family physician. He is also an Electrical Engineer specializing in computer programming and biomedical engineering and has been actively involved in the development and application of digital health solutions throughout his career. In this regard, he has had active roles with a number of provincial and national organizations including AFHTO, Diabetes Action Canada, the eHealth Centre of Excellence, Ontario Health, the Centre for Effective Practice, and Healthcare Excellence Canada.
He is the Chair of the OntarioMD TELUS Practice Solutions Community of Practice and the Digital Health Lead for the Guelph Wellington OHT.
Dr. Samson received the 2019 inaugural Canada Health Informatics Clinical Innovator award which recognizes a clinical innovator who has shown outstanding leadership in Canada in advancing the use of Digital Health or Virtual Health in clinical practice resulting in improved provider and patient experiences and outcomes.
- Tracking critical tests
- Use of templates /stamps/forms
- Prescriptions to increase productivity and better efficiency for specialists.
Presented by:
Dr. Laila Bishara, OMD Specialist Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Laila Bishara is an OMD Physician Peer Leader. She did endocrine and internal medicine training at the University of Toronto. She is a staff endocrinologist at Markham Stoufville Hospital and a physician lead in the division of endocrinology at MSH. She is also the medical director of diabetes education at MSH.
- Identifying a patient cohort (i.e. Diabetics, COPD, eligible for prevention or screening) Searches, Reminder Reports, Preventive Care Summary Report, i4C Dashboard
- Reminders & Toolbars
Presented by:
Dr. Loredana Di Santo
Dr. Loredana Di Santo received her medical degree from Western University in 2003. She earned Certification in Family Medicine in 2005 and was awarded Fellowship in the College of Family Physicians of Canada (CFPC) in 2016.
She is currently the Medical Director at Gates of Maple Family Practice in Vaughan and is the acting Deputy Chief of Family Practice at Mackenzie Health. A strong advocate for comprehensive, evidence-based family medicine, Dr. Di Santo enjoys teaching medical students and residents, as well as authoring modules for the Problem-Based Small Group Learning Program.
Since 2010, she has been a member of the CFPC Committee on Examination in Family Medicine. As an early adopter of EMRs, Dr. Di Santo has supported numerous physicians in establishing their family practices and in adopting and utilizing EMRs. As a member of the Health Records Committee at Mackenzie Health, and now as an OntarioMD Peer Leader, she continues to participate in projects geared towards improving the quality of patient care.
- Identifying a patient cohort (i.e. Diabetics, COPD, eligible for prevention or screening) Searches, Reminder Reports, Preventive Care Summary Report, i4C Dashboard
- Reminders
Presented by:
Dr. Marie Claude Gagnon, OMD, Physician Peer Leader
I completed my medical school and family medicine residency at Université de Montréal. After graduating in 2005, I moved to Ottawa and initially worked as a locum for a few years and then started a family medicine practice in an FHG.
Ten years ago, I became a co-owner of a family medicine clinic and transitioned to the FHO model. I did hospital work with inpatients for many years at the Montfort Hospital and was involved with teaching medical students and family medicine residents for fourteen years. More recently, I have been involved with the OMA and the Ottawa OHT.
- Reminders & toolbars
- Flowsheets & its customization
- Prescription favorites
- Preselected custom lab Requisitions
- Critical tests tracking
- Stamps
Presented by:
Dr. Noah Crampton, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Noah Crampton is a family physician at Toronto Western Family Health Team in Toronto. After graduating, he pursued a career as a clinician-researcher because he knew that digital technologies would likely transform his career as an early-stage clinician.
Today, he is working diligently to advance the field of EMRs as an effective method of improving quality of care across populations. Specifically, he is a lecturer at the University of Toronto with expertise in the EMR aggregator database UTOPIAN and is the co-chair of the digital health planning table for the Mid-West Ontario Health Team.
- Reminders & toolbars
- Prescription favourites
- Preselected custom lab requisitions
- Critical tests tracking
- Stamps
Presented by:
Dr. Neil Rittenhouse, OMD Physician Peer Leader
Dr. Rittenhouse is a family physician with the Maitland Valley FHT/FHO. He also works in the emergency department and intrapartum obstetrics at Alexandra Marine & General Hospital, ER at Stratford General Hospital, and has served as Medical Director for the Healthy Hearts Cardiac Rehabilitation program. He is an Adjunct Faculty at Western and regularly teaches medical students and residents. Prior to medicine he trained as an engineer and continually strives to optimize EMR use and efficiency.
- Patient Communication (email, Text, Calls, Letters)
- Referral Management
- Online appointment booking pre-visit checklist
- Identifying patients for clinic efficiency (Searches)
Presented by:
Roger Mandjlekian, Clinic Manager Peer Leader
Roger Mandjlekian received his Bachelor of Science in Biology at York University in 1999, and began his career as owner and operator of a small business franchise.
In 2005, he used his entrepreneurial skills and science background to start the Gates of Maple Family Practice in Vaughan. He has played an integral role in the clinic’s selection, implementation, and utilization of EMRs, as well as its workflow efficiency.
In 2008, as a member of the Bathurst North Family Health Group EMR Selection Committee, he was responsible for evaluating various EMRs and making recommendations to the group’s 49 physicians for the implementation of a common EMR software.
He now acts as physician educator for the North Bathurst Family Health Organization, a group of 41 physicians. As a Clinic Manager Peer Leader since 2012, Roger continues to promote EMR adoption and utilization through various OntarioMD events and ongoing physician engagements.