The results are in: specialist advice through eConsult translates to direct action to help patients.
03/27/2019
In a first-of-its-kind study in Canada, researchers discover that specialist advice given through eConsult translates to direct action by primary care physicians. This research was conducted at the Bruyère Academic Family Health Team, located in Ottawa, Canada.
The research team—comprised of scientists from the Bruyère Research Institute, the University of Ottawa, and The Ottawa Hospital—examined whether primary care physicians use the specialist advice they receive through eConsult. When all was said and done, the team found that surveyed clinicians adhered to advice from the digital platform 85% of the time.
“This number is huge,” says Dr. Clare Liddy, a primary care physician, scientist at the Bruyère Research Institute, and one of the founders of eConsult. “This really confirms that eConsult is the solution we need to reduce specialist wait times.”
eConsult is a secure online platform that connects primary care providers to specialists. Here physicians can ask a specialist for advice regarding health challenges facing a patient and can receive advice in as little as two days. This is significant, as 56% of Canadian adults waited more than four weeks to see a specialist in 2016.
Among the clinicians at the Bruyère Academic Family Health team, questions asked of specialists through the platform most often related to diagnosis (63 percent). Other questions related to management (27 percent), drug treatment (10 percent) and procedure (1 percent). The eConsult’s results were communicated to patients in 79 percent of cases, most often by face-to-face meeting (38 percent), phone call (32 percent) or through a patient portal (9 percent). Communication occurred in a median of 5 days. The most consulted specialties were dermatology (32 percent), orthopedics (8 percent) and neurology (7 percent).
The Bruyère Academic Family Health Team was an early adopter of eConsult. During its implementation, they developed an innovative model for its use, wherein dedicated staff members served as delegates to smooth out the submission process, and is one of the reasons this clinic was chosen for the study. As a result of the use of eConsult, practitioners at the Bruyère Family Health Team have provided hundreds of their patients with prompt access to specialist advice.
Dr. Jay Mercer, co-author of the study and family physician at Bruyère Academic Family Health Team, and the Medical Director of the Bruyère Family Medicine Centre, highlights the effect eConsult had on in his practice and his team. “It was instrumental in helping get specialist feedback to our patients quickly.”
Launched as a small proof-of-concept in 2010 in the Ottawa region, the eConsult service has completed nearly 50,000 cases, enrolled more than 1,400 primary care providers, and been replicated in Manitoba, New Brunswick, Quebec, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Here in Ontario, the service is now supported by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care and is undergoing expansion province-wide.