September 2025 eTips Newsletter
Tips and advice on EMRs and digital health tools you can use NOW
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Here’s what you’ll find in this month’s issue
From the CMO's Desk
Don't miss out! Last call to register for this year's Digital Health Conference
Our OMD Educates: Digital Health Conference is just days away. Don't miss the final chance to secure your spot to the event that has it all, including:
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Thought-provoking keynote speakers:
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Panel presentations on digitally enabled primary care and physicians shaping the AI era
- Interactive sessions with the OMD Advisory Service Team
- EMR training workshops led by OMD Peer Leaders
- An expansive vendor showcase, with immersive booths and exhibits
- Networking with industry leaders and colleagues
- 9 Mainpro+ credits, just for attending!
OMD Educates: Digital Health Conference
Rebooting Your Practice – The Digital Advantage
September 18 and 19 at theToronto Congress Centre
You’re already innovating for your patients — now empower your practice.
Didn’t pre-register? Walk-Ins are welcome!
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AI Tools for Ontario Clinicians
OMD Patient Consent Toolkit for AI scribes
In Ontario, obtaining valid consent from patients before primary care physicians use an AI scribe is important to uphold key privacy responsibilities, and maintain patient trust. OMD has developed a tool to help support you with this process. The
OMD Patient Consent Toolkit provides a sample script for you to explain your AI scribe to patients, a sample consent form, and material to add to your clinic's policies about how the scribe works.
New resource: AI Scribe Transition Support Guide
Check out the new
AI Scribe Transition Support Guide, your step-by-step resource for using an AI scribe, now on the
OMD Practice Hub. In addition to the Guide, the OMD Practice Hub offers an abundance of resources to support you. And as always, OMD Advisors and Peer Leaders are here to support you with change management:
contact an OMD Advisor.
Ready to sign up for the Ontario AI Scribe Program?
The OMD Practice Hub is your one-stop shop to find an AI scribe that's right for you – you'll find the
Expression of Interest (EOI) form,
Vendor of Record (VOR) list, and
program video on the site.
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Tip from an OMD Advisor
Our team of digital health advisors are experts in change management, EMRs and clinic workflows, with extensive experience helping physicians streamline care. These tips comes from one of our trusted advisors, who works directly with practices in your area and is ready to support you too — contact an OMD Advisor.
Customize EMR dashboards to streamline multidisciplinary team care
Attend this session at OMD's Digital Health conference to learn how
customized EMR dashboards and digital tools are transforming care coordination across multidisciplinary teams. The session explores how specialist-specific dashboards and electronic forms can streamline referrals, improve triage by acuity, and support scalable solutions across clinics. Discover how OMD's Practice Enhancement Consultants can guide strategic planning, implementation, and digital adoption to boost efficiency and patient engagement beyond traditional EMR optimization.
Register for the customized EMR dashboard session.
Want to simplify preventive care and population health? Check out these OMD tools
Preventive care and population health are easier to manage with our:
OMD Advisors develop useful tools and provide valuable advice to clinicians anywhere in Ontario. They can help you with provincial digital health tools, not just EMRs. Take advantage of these services,
at no cost to you, before calling anyone else! Contact support@ontariomd.com for assistance.
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Advice from the General Counsel and CPO
PHIPA breaches have a new price tag: first monetary penalty lands in health care
This past month, Ontario's Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) issued
PHIPA Decision 298, its first administrative monetary penalty under the
Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA) against a physician who accessed patient records from a hospital without authorization to solicit his clinic's private services. The IPC imposed financial penalties on both the physician and the clinic involved. The doctor has been ordered to pay a $5,000 penalty for accessing and using patients' hospital records without authorization for personal financial gain. For its part, the clinic has been ordered to pay a penalty of $7,500 for failing to meet its most basic obligations under PHIPA. The clinic could not demonstrate any evidence of privacy policies or data governance, which formed the basis of why fines were imposed. The decision underscores that custodians must be able to demonstrate that they have reasonable safeguards and governance systems in place, and are applied in practice, not just on paper.
Some critical obligations include:
- Protecting personal health information (PHI) from unauthorized use or disclosure, through:
- administrative, technical and physical measures or safeguards
- privacy policies, procedures and practices, with auditing functionality
- privacy training, awareness programs, and initiatives
- confidentiality agreements
- Reviewing measures or safeguards from time-to-time to ensure continued protection of PHI
- Ensuring no agent of the custodian collects, uses, discloses, retains or disposes of PHI contrary to PHIPA
- Ensuring that PHI is not collected without authority
For physicians, this decision is a stark reminder about evolving expectations around privacy, digital tools, and accountability. As indicated above, the IPC emphasized the importance of regular and appropriate privacy training for which an individual can demonstrate records of completion. OMD provides physicians and support staff with
free training and certificates upon completion.
By following these tips, and learning more on our Practice Hub's
Legal & Privacy Page, you can take a strong, proactive approach to PHIPA compliance to protect patient data and maintain integrated privacy and security when adopting AI tools into your practice!
Read more privacy and security tips from past issues of our newsletter
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HRM Improvements
HRM Optimization Project
The Health Report Manager (HRM®) Optimization Trial is live! Participants are providing positive feedback on this important initiative to address duplicate, near match, and PDF reports delivered from hospitals to EMRs via HRM. A limited number of users are receiving reports clearly labeled as duplicates, with PDF reports enhanced with an AI-generated summary for quicker review. The trial is the latest action health system partners are taking to find the right solutions to reduce your report burden.
Still Receiving eNotifications? You Can Choose to Turn Them Off
Bogged down with hospital reports AND eNotifications? Receiving eNotifications is now entirely up to you. Reduce reports coming into your inbox and the time it takes to review them by opting out of eNotifications.
Read our blog post to appreciate how much time clinicians are saving by opting out and waiting for discharge summaries instead.
Your HRM experience is important to us. We support you and your practice,
at no cost to you, so don't hesitate to contact us at
support@ontariomd.com with any questions about HRM or anything else digital.
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Partner News
Why medical office assistants matter
Primary care faces critical challenges that impact patients and healthcare providers, including decreased access to primary care providers and high levels of clinician burnout. Medical office assistants (MOAs) are often overlooked in this context, despite their pivotal role in delivering primary care.
Read a new report by Women's College Hospital (WCH) scientists, Jennifer Shuldiner and
OMD Peer Leader Dr. Noah Ivers, on the essential role of MOAs to primary care and the significant challenges they face to effectively do their work. OMD is proud to have supported this important work.
Casey House transitioning to Epic EMR
On September 27, Casey House will transition from its current BCare Electronic Medical Record (EMR) System to Epic EMR. As part of this transition, Casey House will also begin contributing select clinical reports through OMD's HRM system, enabling more seamless and secure sharing of client information with community providers. This change supports timely access to clinical documentation and strengthens continuity of care for our shared clients.
For more information about this change and how this impacts your practice, please contact
privacy@caseyhouse.ca.
OMD Digital Health Advocacy and Education
Upcoming events
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OMGMA Conference 2025: Building Bridges (Orillia, Sept. 10-12) – Visit OMD at our booth during the Ontario Medical Group Management Association (OMGMA) annual conference and attend our digital health update session on Sept. 11.
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Tips and Tricks for Addressing Burnout (Sept. 17, 8:00 am to 9:00 am) – Administrative burden, including completing complex forms and reviewing EMRs, are all contributing to burnout in family medicine. Join the Ontario College of Family Physicians' upcoming webinar as panelists discuss tricks to efficiently review EMRs, set boundaries with patients and train office staff to take on some of the burdensome tasks. OMD's Dr. Chandi Chandrasena is co-moderating with Dr. Stephanie Zhou, Addictions Medicine Physician and EDI & Social Accountability Lead, Sunnybrook Hospital.OMD Peer Leader Dr. Anish Mody will serve on the panel.
Register now.
OntarioMD is proud to attend events across the province, connecting with clinicians and supporting the important work of Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) and Primary Care Networks (PCNs). If you're interested in having OntarioMD speak at your event or host a booth with our knowledgeable advisors, please reach out to us at omd.events@ontariomd.com.
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OMD in the News
Recent media
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Need Help with Your EMR?
Your EMR should be a
benefit, not a burden. In addition to our
OMD Advisory Service and
Peer Leaders, OMD has additional, COMPLIMENTARY resources to help you use your certified EMR better to save you time and frustration.
OMD develops tools and suggests helpful workflow improvements in our
EMR Lab.
Join an
EMR Community of Practice (CoP)! CoP is a virtual place for EMR and digital health tool users, including clinicians and office staff, to share their knowledge, discover upcoming changes, ask questions and learn from the vendors and other users.
Find out more about OMD EMR Communities of Practice.
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Important Reminders
Changing Your EMR or Practice? OMD Needs to Know
Especially for HRM!
Planning to make any of these changes?
Contact us at
support@ontariomd.com at least two (2) weeks in advance to ensure you continue to receive HRM reports.