Dear Editor
MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT
tures of the EMR that I am not fully using – or perhaps even using properly.
So it was with real interest that I read the article in this issue of Dialogue about OntarioMD’ s Peer Leader program. The program works by having doctors who have an advanced understanding of how EMRs work mentoring their fellow doctors to help them realize the full potential of their EMRs. In short, peers are helping peers master their EMRs without the headaches, cursing and tears that were such a part of my journey.
Dr. Jeff Habert, a family physician from Thornhill, has been an OntarioMD Peer Leader since 2012 and a College assessor since 2004. Wearing both hats, he says, has allowed him to help doctors understand how to better optimize their EMRs from both a technical and clinical perspective.
Physicians who use an electronic medical record must have a level of comfort and fluency with their system to meet the requirements for record-keeping as set out in the College’ s Medical Records policy and relevant legislation.
Reflect on your ability to effectively navigate your electronic medical record. If you do not have a level of comfort, I urge you to very seriously consider giving OntarioMD a call.
Please read more about this program on page 40.
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Dear Editor
Re: Opioid Crisis( Dialogue, Volume 13, Issue 2, 2017) The Registrar’ s editorial( Dialogue, Volume 13, Issue 2, 2017) rightly describes the opioid crisis as‘ the biggest drug safety crisis of our time’. Canadian physicians bear full responsibility for their initial introduction of narcotics to patients. The pharmaceutical company’ s marketing campaign was almost entirely driven by paying pain specialists and other physicians to promote its narcotic products through lectures and seminars, even to the extent of running speaker-training conferences and pain“ education” seminars for selected physicians.( N ENGL J MED 376; 16. April 20, 2017.) Even the release of the 2017 Canadian Guideline For Opioids for Chronic Non-Cancer Pain was tainted when the Globe and Mail reported that one of the guideline’ s committee members had received money from Purdue( May 17, 2017). How long will it be before the College takes leadership and decides that doctors receiving money from drug companies cannot ethically be allowed to teach other doctors? Such a conflict would be unimaginable to an employee at any level of government. We have replaced Eisenhower’ s Military-Industrial Complex with a Medical-Industrial Complex that has killed or ruined the lives of hundreds and thousands of Canadians. Canadian physicians and their patients deserve better from their respective Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons.
Paul Cary, MBBS. Cambridge, Ontario
6
DIALOGUE ISSUE 3, 2017