Abstract
Canada Health Infoway has formed a new Clinical Council that will provide advice on strategies to further engage physicians, pharmacists, nurses and patients in the use of information and communications technologies (ICT) in health care delivery.
The Council is to complement the work of the organization's existing reference groups for health care professionals, including pharmacists. The new body will provide interdisciplinary and team-focused perspectives, as it includes physician, nurse, pharmacist and patient representatives.
The pharmacist representative named to the Council is Iris Krawchenko of Hamilton, Ontario. Ms. Krawchenko is chair of the Board for Dell Pharmacy's 17 locations, a member of the Ontario Pharmacy Council and past-president of the Ontario College of Pharmacists. She is also currently a member of Infoway's e-prescribing working group.
The role of the Council is to advise Infoway on strategies for engaging clinicians, reaching out to clinical leaders across Canada and suggesting candidates for the organization's discipline- and project/program-specific clinical and consumer reference groups. The Council will be chaired by Dr. Michael Golbey, a practising family physician in Kelowna, BC, and chair of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Medical Association.
“As clinicians, we see every day that good care depends on accurate and timely information, and it is time for us to embrace information technology solutions that add value for our patients and to our practices,” Dr. Golbey said in a September 9, 2011, news release from Infoway.
ICT to become a bigger part of pharmacy training
Canada Health Infoway has undertaken another initiative to expand ICT use in clinical practice — this one in concert with the Association of Faculties of Pharmacy of Canada (AFPC).
The AFPC-Infoway Clinicians in Training project is designed to strengthen training for pharmacy students in the effective use of ICTs, such as drug information systems. Curricula will be enhanced with ICT-focused resources and e-learning tools in all 10 faculties of pharmacy across Canada.
“By building the use of ICTs into the curricula, Canadian faculties of pharmacy are preparing the next generation of pharmacists with the skills they will need to optimize ICT use into their daily practice,” said Harold Lopatka, executive director of AFPC, in a news release on September 23, 2011.