March 17, 2022
TORONTO, March 17, 2022 — A patient’s health record, on its own, does not heal anyone. However, when that record is informed by patients’ experiences, expert insight, and reflection on values and preferences, it can be transformed into health knowledge, so that people can better understand the steps they need to take to improve their health.
As a result of interdisciplinary co-design between Baycrest’s clinical teams, client and family partners, and the MyChart
TM program development team at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, health records and self-reporting, accessible on the MyChart™ platform, can now be used to impact and improve patient health.
MyChart
TM is a web-based software and mobile app that allows patients to access their health records from hospitals, outpatient clinics and an increasing number of healthcare providers across Canada. “We did a lot of training with our clinical team, not just on how to encourage and teach patients to sign up for MyChart
TM, but also how to use people’s immediate access to our documentation of care to enhance our therapeutic relationships,” Rita Mileykovsky, Virtual Care Nurse Coordinator at Baycrest, explains.
Knowing that one clinical team does not typically have all of a patient’s information or constitute a person’s entire health experience, a
Circle of Care feature was also developed for MyChart™, among other features. Patients (with or without assistance) can add MyChart
TM users to their own unique care team. Using the
Circle of Care feature
, a patient can invite a trusted family member, specialist, family doctor, or their Interprofessional Care Team’s dietitian, for example, to be part of a group on MyChart
TM, giving each person access to the patient’s records and a secure way to communicate with the patient and one another. “We can now work alongside patients to look at new information and think together about how it fits with their health goals and their family doctor’s care plan,” Mileykovsky elaborates.
“The Baycrest partnership has been fantastic and has allowed us to work closely with their clinical team to inform the development of new features. MyChart
TM is growing into a groundbreaking patient engagement tool and has created a dynamic way for a care team and patient to be brought closer together, putting the full benefit of access and health information into the hands of the patient,” Sarina Cheng, Director of the MyChart
TM program says. “We are now working with multiple Ontario Health Teams to increase the number of people with access to their digital health records and add features to support remote, self-monitoring and communication. Baycrest has demonstrated how to access information to improve a patient’s health, their experience and health outcomes.”
Visit
MyChart™ to learn more. To view a webinar recording about this initiative, go to
bit.ly/MyChartInnovationRounds.
Media contacts:
Orsolya Soos –
osoos@baycrest.org
Marketing Manager, Baycrest
416-785-2500, ext. 6579
Marie Sanderson –
marie.sanderson@sunnybrook.ca
Communications Advisor, Sunnybrook
416-480-6100, ext. 7351
About Baycrest
Baycrest is a global leader in research, innovation, education and care for older adults, with a special focus on brain health and aging. Baycrest is home to a robust research and innovation network, including one of the world’s top research institutes in cognitive neuroscience and aging, the Rotman Research Institute; the scientific headquarters of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging, Canada’s largest national dementia research initiative; and the Baycrest-powered Centre for Aging + Brain Health Innovation, a solution accelerator focused on driving innovation in the aging and brain health sector. Baycrest helps aging adults assess, monitor, maintain and enhance cognition through an innovative portfolio of evidence-based products and services offered through its brain health company, Cogniciti.
Fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, Baycrest provides excellent care for older adults combined with an extensive clinical training program for the next generation of healthcare professionals. Through these initiatives, Baycrest has remained at the forefront of the fight to defeat dementia as the organization works to help individuals
Fear No AgeTM and create a world where every older adult enjoys a life of purpose, inspiration and fulfilment. Founded in 1918 as the Toronto Jewish Old Folks Home, Baycrest continues to embrace the long-standing tradition of all great Jewish healthcare institutions to improve the well-being of people in their local communities and around the globe. For more information about Baycrest, visit baycrest.org or visit
www.FearNoAge.com.
About Sunnybrook
Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is inventing the future of health care for the one million patients the hospital cares for each year through the dedication of its more than 12,000 staff and volunteers. An internationally recognized leader in research and education and a full affiliation with the University of Toronto distinguishes Sunnybrook as one of Canada’s premier academic health sciences centres. Sunnybrook specializes in caring for Canada’s war veterans, high-risk pregnancies, critically-ill newborns, adults and the elderly, and treating and preventing cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological and psychiatric disorders, orthopaedic and arthritic conditions and traumatic injuries. For more information about how Sunnybrook is inventing the future of health care please visit us online at
www.sunnybrook.ca.