A Physician Forward Future at the OMA

The Ontario Medical Association (OMA) has been an association supporting Ontario’s doctors since 1880 (the same year that the first woman in Canada to practice medicine, Dr. Emily Stowe, was finally granted a formal licence to practice, although not admitted to the association as a member until several years later).  That is a lot of history.  The amount of change that has happened in healthcare is astronomical.  We have seen the advent of antibiotics, the discovery of insulin, the success of organ transplantation, and so many other incredible innovations which have improved the lives of patients across the world.

And we have now arrived at the top of a new cliff of innovation to jump off of.  Artificial intelligence (AI) represents the future of healthcare.  We have yet to comprehend what it will be able to accomplish on behalf of our patients.  I have benefitted from utilizing an AI scribe to write my patients notes but this is only the first of its many potential applications.  

AI is challenging—it is a largely untested, unregulated field which people want to apply to the medical field, where regulations, privacy and safety standards are paramount to protecting patients’ wellbeing.  We have entered a period of transition, where technology will continue to accelerate faster than we as a society are able to regulate and plan for.

It is essential that we do everything we can to keep up.  And we do that by making sure doctors are involved in every step of development and ensuring all physicians are being given the tools needed to harness AI properly in their clinical practice.  When previous technological advances in medicine have been implemented in healthcare without proper consultation with doctors, we have seen increased administrative burden and clunky usability.  This prevents physicians from being efficient and slows down patient care.  

The electronic medical record (EMR) industry is a great example of this, where there is almost no incentive for EMR vendors to improve usability because they have a stranglehold on the market.  The announcement of the development of Ontario’s first primary care medical record, which will focus on interoperability throughout the healthcare system, represents one of the first times in over a decade where vendors will feel real incentive to improve their product (more to come in a future blog post).

We know doctors being involved from the ground up is what makes a difference in technology being a value add in clinical care.  And that means our association needs to be on the front lines of the digital health space.  That is why we have OntarioMD, our digital subsidiary.  This organization is dedicated to bring the physician voice into the development of digital health policy, programs, and solutions, advocating for physicians' needs and perspectives with government and health system partners.

And we can use this example of physicians improving digital health transformation as a great example of why physicians need to be co-designing solutions throughout the healthcare system.  When the experts keeping a system together are the ones being tapped to provide advice on how best to improve things, funding is better invested and patient care improves.  

We have an opportunity as one of the largest medical association across Canada to be leaders in physician-led solutions, in direct patient care, in digital health solutions, and across the healthcare system.  And we do that by improving our engagement with our members, fostering and developing leaders, and ensuring our organization has physicians involved in every level of advocacy.

We often speak of the need for organizations to be future forward, to think 5-10 years in the future to what the organization could be.  This is not enough for the OMA.  Instead, we need a physician forward future—a strategy that considers not just where healthcare will be in 5-10 years but also considers how physicians will lead and contribute to that system. 

I am excited to move forward with this principle in mind.  Dr. Sharon Bal (board chair), Dr. Andrew Park (interim CEO), and I (current president) are thrilled to be working with the OMA team, the OntarioMD team, OntarioMD Chief Medical Officer Dr. Chandi Chandrasena, and our physician leaders to bring doctors into the next phase of physician forward advocacy.  Members, please know you are our top priority—without you there is no healthcare system.  Join us in making a physician forward future a reality.