65 per cent of physicians in Ontario ready to quit and turning to automated work for help
Published March 26, 2024 at 4:50 pm
Some doctors are ready to quit family medicine in Ontario.
The medical system in Ontario has seen a significant amount of strain over the last few years, with the end result being a body of medical staff left in a perpetual state of exhaustion. While government agencies look into privatizing (but still publicly funding) parts of Ontario’s medical system to alleviate this pressure, another solution is in its early stages, and that’s automation.
An official release issued on behalf of the eHealth Centre of Excellence (eCE) revealed that, on a national scale, medical practitioners commit over 18 million hours of work to administrative duties per year. Here in Ontario, 65 per cent of surveyed primary care physicians have announced that they are scaling back on their hours or leaving the medical field due to a never-ending backlog of time-consuming regulatory duties.
As a byproduct, the eCE has been tinkering with an automated services division since 2020, dedicated to engineering virtual and automated technologies for medical staff.
This is where Poppy comes into play.
Launched in 2023 by the eCE Automates division, Poppy is the newest automated assistant designed to make sure that Ontarians receive the care they require — and hopefully — ensure that medical staff don’t prematurely exit the medical system.
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“Administrative work has become a significant obstacle in delivering quality patient care,” said Dr. Mohamed Alarakhia, CEO at eCE, in an official statement. “As a practicing family doctor myself, I understand firsthand the pain points in current clinical workflows.”
Poppy is currently active at East Toronto Health Partners and helps in administrative duties while juggling the needs of almost 14,000 patients. By sifting through a physician’s roster of patients, Poppy can identify which ones are overdue for certain procedures, such as cancer screenings, and notify them immediately, saving medical staff hours of their day.
“As we continue to refine and expand our automated solutions, we will continue to work with clinicians to identify which tasks in their everyday workflows should be prioritized. We must meet this crisis in primary care with tangible, sustainable solutions that really address the needs of clinicians right away,” added Alarakhia.
Poppy is the newest member of four automated medical operatives issued by eCE, with the other three bots managing systems such as care plan management, personal patient data and billing duties.
“As we continue to refine and expand our automated solutions, we will continue to work with clinicians to identify which tasks in their everyday workflows should be prioritized. We must meet this crisis in primary care with tangible, sustainable solutions that really address the needs of clinicians right away,” concluded Alarakhia in his statement.
While applications like Poppy remain in their infancy, virtual solutions could become a regular staple. However — the question remains — if well over half of physicians are on the brink of packing it in, will these solutions be ready in time?
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