With the rising demand for virtual care, the Alberta Virtual Care Working Group published a report to access factors for its acceleration in the province.

In their report, Optimizing Virtual Care in Alberta, design principles were drafted “based on characteristics of an idealized virtual care system.” These principles were proposed to create a scheme for aligning enterprise virtual care policy and workflow in Alberta.

The working group outlined the following recommendations to achieve the proposed design principles:

• Coordination through a multi-stakeholder Virtual Care Coordinating Body
• Patient representation in the Virtual Care Coordinating Body to represent the interests of diverse groups
• Co-design as a core value of the coordinating body
• Digital health to expand the scope of virtual care
• The adoption of the design principles as the shared vision for executing virtual care in Alberta
• A long-term strategic vision that supports gradual change in the virtual care system

According to a press release from the working group, this report is “a call for the re-imagination of digital health planning as a patient-centric, collaborative process, upholding the ideal that patient care is better served if partners in the health sector actively work together in virtual care design.”

Resources: Optimizing Virtual Care in Alberta: Recommendations from the Alberta Virtual Care Working Group

Join Ewan Affleck during Digital Health Week in the conversation about creating the conditions to optimize virtual care, featuring a presentation of this report by the Alberta Virtual Care Working Group.

Digital Health Week, hosted by Canada Health Infoway from November 29 to December 5, 2021, is proudly supported by CHIMA.