PRACTICE PARTNER
valid Ontario Health number.
For drugs, health-care providers are able to
view the dispensed date, name, strength, dos-
age form, quantity and estimated days’ supply
of the drugs which have been dispensed to a
patient. In addition, prescriber and pharmacy
information is displayed.
For pharmacy services, providers will see the
service date, a description of the service and
the pharmacy information. In some instances,
prescriber information will be available,
which may be the name of the pharmacist
that provided the pharmacy service.
The DHDR information is currently avail-
able through two provincial clinical viewers
which are ClinicalConnect in South West
Ontario and ConnectingOntario in the
Greater Toronto Area and Northern and East-
ern Ontario regions.
Health Quality Ontario
Health Quality Ontario’s contribution to
self-assessment using prescribing data is
MyPractice Reports, a customized report that
can provide family physicians and orthopedic
surgeons with a snapshot of their practice pat-
terns. Nearly 3,000 family physicians across
Ontario have already used the confidential
report to view their care patterns in relation
to their peers at the regional and provincial
levels. Orthopedic surgeons who have signed
up will be able to receive their first report in
Spring 2019.
These reports also include suggestions
and tools, like pain management resources,
alongside their data, so clinicians can spend
less time looking for solutions and more time
helping their patients.
MyPractice Reports offers helpful cumulative
data, but doesn’t identify individual patients.
For opioid prescribing, these four indicators
are looked at:
1. W
hat percentage of your patients are receiv-
ing opioids?
2. W
hat percentage of these patients are just
starting opioids?
3. What percentage of patients are on high-dose
opioids (90 ml equivalent of morphine or more)?
4. W
hat percentage of patients on an opioid
have also been prescribed a benzodiazepine
(by anyone)?
Opioids Clinical Primer on Machealth
In collaboration with Ontario's six medical schools, Machealth has launched a new online learning
program designed to help health professionals in Ontario better understand their role in the management
of the ongoing opioid crisis. The program addresses common challenges in the management of chronic
pain, with a specific focus on risk reduction when prescribing opioids, as well as a focused look at
preventing opioid use disorder and overdoses.
The online program was developed with the goal of
reducing opioid related harms by:
elping clinicians develop strategies for safer
h
opioid prescribing
increasing awareness of opioid use disorder and
the availability of evidence-based treatment
Facilitating access to naloxone
Educating regarding harm reduction
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DIALOGUE ISSUE 4, 2018