William Osler Health System partners with SeamlessMD for before and after surgery monitoring

Osler hospitals are leveraging EMR-integrated Digital Patient Engagement technology to support surgical patients

William Osler Health System (Osler) has partnered with SeamlessMD, a Digital Patient Engagement platform, to help improve patient safety, quality and outcomes for surgical patients. This platform is a great addition for patients as Osler carefully and gradually resumes normal operations, including some priority non-urgent surgeries and procedures across its three hospital sites.

Osler worked with SeamlessMD to empower all patients undergoing elective and emergency surgery with a digital companion that assists them from surgical preparation through to their recovery at home. With SeamlessMD, patients at Osler are guided before and after their surgical procedures with education, progress tracking and symptom monitoring after their procedure using their own devices (e.g. smartphone, tablet, computer). Customized dashboards also enable the Osler care team to monitor the health of patients throughout their journey. The platform supports multiple languages including English, Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Portuguese, Italian and French, prominent in Osler’s diverse communities.

More than 2500 patients have already benefited from the digital experience, with 90 per cent of patients recommending SeamlessMD to others to help manage their health at home following their in-hospital procedures. One patient shared “I felt less on my own after leaving the hospital.” Another patient shared that the digital experience was “quick and easy and felt like someone was checking in on me each day.”
The platform also helps to facilitate internal efficiencies, including improved communication and workflow across care teams, which helps to streamline Osler’s surgical operations. Health care staff are also able to digitally collect and view pre-operative patient data (e.g. pre-anaesthesia questionnaires and COVID-19 screening forms), thereby minimizing unnecessary visits to the hospital.

If patients consent to being enrolled on the platform, their email address is added into the system and they then receive an email with instructions on how to set up their password. Once that is complete, patients can start using SeamlessMD and receive real-time updates and reminders on their appointments and surgery dates.

SeamlessMD is developing a Machine Learning model for more accurate risk prediction (e.g. readmissions) models and Osler, a collaborator in the process, is one of the first partners with access to this advanced model to further optimize patient care.

This endeavor is federally-funded by Scale AI, Canada’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) Supercluster, whose initiative is to identify cross-sector collaborative projects and provide funding and expert guidance to help Canada stay ahead of the AI curve.

For more information and to see SeamlessMD in action, please visit: www.seamless.md.

Quotes

“SeamlessMD has been one of Osler’s many excellent technology partners, helping us to deliver innovative patient care across all of our hospital sites,” shares Dr. Rardi van Heest, Vice President of Medical Affairs at William Osler Health System. “Patients love their technology-enabled experience, and our staff at the pre-anaesthesia clinics and surgeon’s offices have improved day-to-day operations with SeamlessMD’s streamlined perioperative dashboards.”

“SeamlessMD is helping us bring state-of-the-art technology and innovation to our surgical patients and deliver safer patient care even from a distance” says Jane de Lacy, Vice President of Clinical Services at William Osler Health System. “We are particularly proud to have made the platform available in multiple languages, which helps us to provide more accessible, convenient care for our diverse patient community.”

“We are excited to collaborate with Osler in this unique partnership, as the multi-site organization continues to demonstrate exemplary leadership in healthcare innovation,” Dr. Joshua Liu, CEO at SeamlessMD. “We remain dedicated to the delivery of safe and effective virtual care during COVID-19, and are grateful for the ongoing support provided by Scale AI.”