"We need to have better technologies and we need to have better approaches to caring for people.”
The Ottawa Hospital took a step toward its goal of becoming a “smart hospital” Wednesday, announcing a collaboration with a global medical technology company to improve care using artificial intelligence and connected devices.
That collaboration is expected to result in the development of new systems that do everything from assisting clinical decision-making using data and algorithms to improving medication adherence.
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Hospital President and CEO Cameron Love said the agreement with Becton, Dickinson and Company (known as BD) would improve patient care and “challenge the status quo of the health-care industry.” He also said the partnership would help the hospital as it builds the new Civic campus that is expected to open in 2028.
The collaboration will initially focus on four areas of hospital care, according to information released Wednesday: making sure antimicrobials are used prudently and only when necessary; developing tools using artificial intelligence that enhance choices made by medical professionals; creating a medication management strategy for patients and their caregivers; and making sure there is an integrated approach to chronic disease management.
Dr. Alan Forster, executive vice-president and chief innovation and quality officer at TOH, said the collaboration was overdue. Health care, he said, has tended to lag behind other industries when it comes to use of technology and innovation.
“We recognize that there is a need for change in the health-care system,” Forster said. “We need to have better technologies and we need to have better approaches to caring for people.”
The hospital and the medical technology company will work together to develop approaches to solve some of the challenges facing health-care providers, patients, caregivers and health administrators, he said.
Eventually, Forster said, the hospital might be able to use technology to more accurately predict demand for beds a week down the road, for example.
Initially it will work on specific areas. Among them will be the development of a system that can help health professionals assess the amount of IV fluid to give a patient in the intensive care unit.
“How do we build a system where the data informs the decision about the appropriate rate to run the IV fluids?” Forster asked.
He said the hospital was hoping to create a system that would make a recommendation for treatment for a physician or nurse based on data fed into an algorithm.
Ivy Parks, president of BD Canada, said automation and digital imaging could help speed up identification of bacterial infections in patients so that patients could get the right antibiotics more quickly.
“Giving patients the right treatment the first time reduces stays in hospital and often prevents recurrence of infection,” Parks said.
Parks said the collaboration agreement would allow the hospital and the medical technology company to determine which areas of innovation were important for the hospital.
The collaboration will help The Ottawa Hospital tackle complex problems affecting health care in Ontario and across Canada, the hospital and the company said in a joint media release.
Forster said the agreement would connect the hospital with innovations in health care around the world, through the company. BD is currently working with Eastern Health in Newfoundland. Forster said he hoped more Canadian hospitals would begin similar collaborations and share innovations.
“My ultimate goal is that we be connected with a bunch of hospitals.”
The collaboration agreement comes at a time when the health system in Ontario and across Canada is facing unprecedented pressures, partly related to ripple effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Among other things, hospitals are facing critical staffing shortages that have forced temporary closures of some emergency departments across Eastern Ontario and have contributed to record wait times in other emergency departments.
Premier Doug Ford has said “the status quo isn’t working” when it comes to health care in Ontario.
