KINGSTON, July 25, 2020: The Microsoft Crisis Champion IMPACT award recognizes the Microsoft partner who has had a significant impact on people, businesses, and/or communities in Canada, with quick response, innovative solutions, and empathy toward those affected by the coronavirus. On Tuesday, July 22, 2020, it was announced virtually at the annual Microsoft Inspire Conference that Novari Health and our Novari eVisit™ virtual care technology was the winner for this year’s award.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Ontario, the healthcare needs in a province of 14 million surged. In addition to the strain that potential COVID-19 patients were placing on an already stretched medical system, patients with non-COVID-19 symptoms or emergencies also needed help but were afraid to go to the ER. Compounding that access-to-care problem was the fact that patients and family physicians were reluctant to meet in person due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE). As an alternative, Ontarians started calling the Ontario Telehealth hotline, which helps callers determine what their medical needs are (based on symptoms) and where they may seek appropriate care (i.e., family physician, clinic, ER, etc.).
The vision was to create a virtual waiting room for patients that either cannot access their primary care provider or do not have one. The service, which is available to patients 7 days a week, is designed to provide access to care while mitigating everyone’s risk of exposure to the virus.
The Ontario Virtual Care Clinic (OVCC) is a collaborative initiative of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), OntarioMD, MetricAid, Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health (OTN). Canada Health Infoway, an independent, federally funded, not-for-profit organization, is providing funding to Ontario Health (OTN) to support this innovative access to care project.
As a vendor of record (VOR) with Ontario Health (OTN) the Novari technology was selected through a competitive secondary procurement process and Novari was quickly called upon to assist in delivering care during the early stages of the pandemic, and COVID-19 response. Specific COVID-19 functionality was quickly designed, built and implemented. Within a matter of days, the OVCC, powered by Novari eVisit™, went live and has been used by participating primary care physicians to virtually see thousands of patients from every corner of the province.
Residents of Ontario in need of non-urgent care may access the Ontario Virtual Care Clinic at no charge by going to https://seethedoctor.ca/en/
“Winning this prestigious award recognizes the mountains my Novari colleagues moved almost overnight to stand up the Ontario Virtual Care Clinic. The award also builds on our COVID-19 related referral, central intake, and surgical wait list management work across Canada. As Canada’s digital ‘access to care’ experts we have the enabling technology to help our healthcare system weather this storm
Ironically, I personally needed access to primary care and was able to experience the OVCC and our Novari eVisit technology from the perspective of a patient. I waited only minutes in the virtual waiting room to see a friendly physician located elsewhere in Ontario who provided excellent care.”
– John Sinclair CPHIMS-CA President Novari Health
The Novari eVisit™ virtual care technology is available to individual primary care physicians, specialists, and allied health professionals across Canada. www.novarievisit.ca
Novari worked closely with Microsoft Canada to ensure that Azure would be able to support the load of a potential 1,000 video conferences, all occurring at the same time. The project was delivered on time and on budget, and Novari Health is very honoured to win this year’s Microsoft Crisis Champion IMPACT Award.
About Novari Health
Novari Health designs, builds, and implements awardwinning cloud-based, enterprise scale software solutions that improve access to care, coordination of care, and the delivery of healthcare services. The Novari Access to Care software platform includes virtual care, eReferral, central intake, workflow management, surgical waitlist management, and medical imaging requisition management modules. Based in beautiful Kingston, Ontario, Novari has become one of the largest Canadian based digital health solution providers. With offices in Kingston, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, and Sydney, Australia, the Novari team is comprised of physicians, nurses, former hospital administrators, software architects, software developers, project managers, certified professionals in Health Information and Management Systems, and client support. Novari Health is a Microsoft Partner, with software solutions hosted on the Microsoft Azure Canadian and Australian cloud data centres, for security and scalability. Novari Health has been independently assessed by BSI against internationally recognized standards showing our commitment to quality and assurance and is ISO 27001 Information Security Management System certified.
