New digital platform gives staff easier access to healthcare data to improve quality of care

As rapid access to data about healthcare users becomes increasingly important in improving the quality and management of care, staff at the JGH and across CIUSSS West-Central Montreal will be getting easier access to a wide range of data from the network’s sites.

Starting this summer, the information will be available via the ADAMS (Ask, Discover, Act, Measure, Share) platform, developed by MDClone, a leader in digital technology that helps clients make prompt, practical use of healthcare information.

From left: Nelson Ventura, Director of Innovation at the Nova Scotia Health Authority; Dr. Alan Forster, Executive Vice President and Chief Innovation and Quality Officer at The Ottawa Hospital; Dr. Justin Cross, Chief Digital Health Officer at CIUSSS West-Central Montreal; and Josh Rubel, Chief Commercial Officer of MDClone.

“In today’s evolving healthcare environment, data is often the critical piece that’s needed to improve our processes and the quality of care,” says Dr. Justin Cross, the CIUSSS’s Chief Digital Health Officer.

“However, until now, the procedures for obtaining this necessary data have often been difficult and lengthy. The ADAMS platform will simplify the way members of staff ask questions to get the data they need.”

According to Dr. Cross, no special coding skills will be needed for staff to gather data from comprehensive datasets in several major clinicial applications that the CIUSSS now uses.

Information will be readily available in various categories, including patient demographics, death records and the causes of death, visits to the Emergency Department, in-patient admissions and their location, the condition of patients, and lab results.

For example, Dr. Cross says, a member of staff might ask a highly detailed question, such as, “What are the rates for seven-day revisits and thirty-day re-admissions to the Emergency Department among patients diagnosed with schizophrenia?”

“It’s worth noting,” he adds, “that in the interests of privacy, MDClone generates search results using synthetic data that contains no information about specific patients, but retains all of the statistical properties of the original material.”

This synthetic data is rich enough to help staff spot certain trends or identify groups of patients for whom a medical intervention might be needed. However, if the source data is needed, it can be supplied to the appropriate member of staff, as long as the proper approvals are obtained.

Dr. Cross says the capabilities of the new platform also complement Care Everywhere, the CIUSSS’s commitment to achieving the right outcomes by delivering the right care at the right time in the location that’s most appropriate, safest and most convenient for users—often by using the latest forms of digital technology.

“In addition,” he says, “our CIUSSS will be able to enter into partnerships with other organizations that use the ADAMS platform, such as the Ottawa Hospital and the Nova Scotia Health Authority.

“The over-all intention is for all of these organizations to support one another through shared insights and approaches, all focused on data-driven quality improvement in health care.”