Digital Emergency Medicine, a unit within the UBC Department of Emergency Medicine, will be among a consortium of national partners and international supporters to develop a project that aims to continue the advancement of digital After-Hours Urgent Primary Care.
The project proposal titled, “Swift Access for Emergency Triage/Treatment eStrategy” (22018 SAfETe), was submitted to the ITEA board in 2022 and was successfully labeled in March 2023.
The goal is to provide patients with optimal virtual urgent care services using cutting-edge technologies to support patients to obtain timely care for their urgent health issues and reduce unnecessary visits to Emergency Departments (ED), thereby optimizing patient experience, reducing ED overcrowding, and improving cost effectiveness of using the right health resources for the right health problems.
“Health issues can occur at any time and are not confined to regular business hours,” said Dr. Kendall Ho, Digital Emergency Medicine Lead, UBC Department of Emergency Medicine. “When patients have no choice but to access the ED for unplanned health services, they either do so and then find it was not necessary and contributed to ED overcrowding, or they avoid going but end up delaying much needed medical care and negatively impacting their health. It is important to find innovative solutions to provide high-quality, accessible services to ensure patients receive the best possible advice and navigate access of care in the most appropriate setting.”
The project aims to create more equitable access to personalized, high-quality After-Hours Urgent Primary Care through innovative digital health and data analytics software that can be adapted to different healthcare settings, using advanced predictive data analytics functionalities to improve health system effectiveness. The end result is to offer a “digital emergency advice line in citizens’ pockets” that would offer an improved patient experience and optimization of patient safety, a better health professional experience, increased efficiency, and cost optimization.
SAfETe goals for improving healthcare access and service delivery by several means:
- Intelligent triage that is accessible by all patients at any time, with an emphasis on after-hours primary care urgent issues
- Accessible virtual care/telehealth platforms
- Appropriate clinical point-of-care support of patients at home (e.g., enabling home monitoring of physiologic signs, direct-to-patient laboratory testing, etc.)
- Clinical decision support for primary care providers
- Longitudinal and integrated care to ensure the continuity of care
- Creation of a safe and efficient data ecosystem where different innovations can be integrated, contributing to intelligent and timely data usage to support individual care and healthcare system effectiveness and cost-effectiveness
The Canadian consortium includes UBC Digital Emergency Medicine, the National Research Council, 3 Small and Medium Enterprises with support from the BC Ministry of Health, and international partners in the Netherlands, Turkey and Belgium. Project work will begin in January 2024 to align with the delivery of the ITEA grant.
