Browsing by Author "Abrams, Howard"
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- ItemDemonstrating the BlackBerry as a clinical communication tool: a pilot study conducted through the Centre for Innovation in Complex Care.(2008-12-11) Quan, Sherman; Wu, Robert; Morra, Dante; Wong, Brian M; Mraz, Richard; Hamill, Melinda; Abrams, Howard; Rossos, Peter GCanadians are living longer with chronic medical conditions which have led to an increasing complexity and volume of care for hospitalized patients Effective in patient care depends on the effective coordination of care through rapid and efficient communication between various care providers A delay in coordinating this care has downstream effects on other parts of the system ultimately contributing to increased emergency department wait times To address this system wide issue the Centre for Innovation in Complex Care at the University Health Network collaborated with Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre to pilot the use of BlackBerry devices on the general internal medicine wards to improve clinical communication We describe the implementation process impact on clinical care and lessons learned from this experience We observed that residents quickly adopted this new technology and felt that it improved their workflow efficiency and productivity
- ItemEffect of a postdischarge virtual ward on readmission or death for high-risk patients: a randomized clinical trial.(2014-10-01) Dhalla, Irfan A; O'Brien, Tara; Morra, Dante; Thorpe, Kevin E; Wong, Brian M; Mehta, Rajin; Frost, David W; Abrams, Howard; Ko, Françoise; Van Rooyen, Patrick; Bell, Chaim M; Gruneir, Andrea; Lewis, Geraint H; Daub, Stacey; Anderson, Geoff M; Hawker, Gillian A; Rochon, Paula A; Laupacis, AndreasHospital readmissions are common and costly and no single intervention or bundle of interventions has reliably reduced readmissions Virtual wards which use elements of hospital care in the community have the potential to reduce readmissions but have not yet been rigorously evaluated
- ItemMedical students and personal smartphones in the clinical environment: the impact on confidentiality of personal health information and professionalism.(2014-05-23) Tran, Kim; Morra, Dante; Lo, Vivian; Quan, Sherman D; Abrams, Howard; Wu, Robert CSmartphones are becoming ubiquitous in health care settings The increased adoption of mobile technology such as smartphones may be attributed to their use as a point of care information source and to perceived improvements in clinical communication and efficiency However little is known about medical students use of personal smartphones for clinical work
- ItemThe use of smartphones for clinical communication on internal medicine wards.(2010-12-16) Wu, Robert C; Morra, Dante; Quan, Sherman; Lai, Sannie; Zanjani, Samira; Abrams, Howard; Rossos, Peter GBACKGROUND Communication between clinicians is hampered by the frequent difficulty in reaching the most responsible physician for a patient as well as the use of outdated methods such as numeric paging The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of smartphones to improve communication on internal medicine wards METHOD At the Toronto General Hospital residents were provided with smartphones To simplify reaching the most responsible resident for a patient a smartphone designated as Team BlackBerry was also carried by each senior resident and then passed to the resident covering the team at night and on weekends Nurses were able to send email messages or call smartphones directly RESULTS There were on average of 9 1 incoming calls 6 6 outgoing calls 14 3 received emails and 2 8 sent emails per day to each Team BlackBerry Team BlackBerrys received up to 35 calls and 57 emails per day Residents strongly preferred the smartphones over conventional paging with perceived improvements in all items measured and felt that it improved efficiency and communication Although nurses perceived a reduction in the time required to contact a physician 27 6 vs 11 minutes P Under 0 001 their overall satisfaction with physician s response time for urgent issues did not improve significantly DISCUSSION When smartphones were used for clinical communication residents perceived an improvement in communication with them Residents strongly preferred emails as opposed to telephone calls as the prime method of communication Further objective evaluation is necessary to determine if this intervention improves efficiency and more importantly quality of care