Grant: CCI Applied Research and Development Grants

Magenta Health Inc. (Magenta) operates a large multi-site primary care medical organization based in east Toronto within the publicly funded system to further the internationally recognized and provincially adopted Quadruple Aim - better patient care, at lower system cost, with better patient and provider experience. Technology is the primary tool used by Magenta Health to achieve this. In collaboration with Conestoga College Institute of Advanced Learning and Technology (Conestoga), this project will enhance Magenta's open source electronic medical record (EMR) platform, in the view of a post-pandemic hybrid care model that incorporates both in-person and virtual care. Existing technologies used by Magenta were designed for a certain paradigm of care - in-person episodic care with per-visit reimbursement. The previous delivery model has evolved for Magenta and they are now largely reimbursed a flat daily amount per patient regardless of how (and whether) the patient receives care, including remotely. The existing EMR system excels at printing physical blood work or imaging requisitions to hand to patients in person; however, improvements are needed to securely provide such requisitions to a patient virtually. Similar issues exist with communication between providers, which might further involve virtual patients. Overall, the areas of challenge encountered by Magenta relate to improving inter-professional communication, electronic patient/provider communication, and the physician's interface to the EMR. This project uses the proven innovation path of open-source software, along with technology and related expertise from the Conestoga research team paired with the medical and technical expertise of the Magenta Health team. It will prepare a prototype software solution to secure communication materials from provider to patient, improve provider-to-provider document and message transfer, and resolve issues for providers in interacting with the user interface, particularly in relation to working with the electronic patient data. All work completed will be released open-source and made freely available so that other organizations have access to these innovative functional improvements.