#Clinically Appropriate Use of Virtual Care – Guidance for Primary Care (Ontario Health, 2022)

On November 9, Ontario Health released new virtual care guidance materials for primary care clinicians. The Clinically Appropriate Use of Virtual Care Guidance for Primary Care aims to help primary care clinicians feel supported in the decisions they make related to the planning and delivery of virtual care. This is ‘phase one’ of the virtual care guidance for primary care. More detailed virtual care guidance will be released in the future, including materials focused on other specialties and areas of care. The materials were developed with a patient-centred care approach and informed by an expert panel of clinicians and patients. 

To access the virtual care guidance materials, please visit Ontariohealth.ca/virtualcareguidance. A French version of the virtual care guidance is also available at Ontariohealth.ca/fr/guidesoinsvirtuels.

Questions about these materials can be sent to PCP.Guidance@ontariohealth.ca

#Materials for Primary Care Providers and Teams

#Materials for Primary Care Clients

#Customizing your Client-Facing Materials

To learn more about how the co-design process by which these tools were developed please check out the October/November 2022 edition of EPIC News.

#Providing safe and high-quality virtual care: A guide for new and experienced users | Clinician Change Virtual Care Toolkit (Canada Health Infoway & Healthcare Excellence Canada, 2022)

The Clinician Change Virtual Care Toolkit shares information and resources of virtual care in practice to support clinicians with the tools they need to provide safe, high quality virtual care. It contains streamlined information from trusted sources about

  • Appropriateness
  • Use and optimization of virtual care services
  • Quality and safe virtual care intercations

It also provides virtual care evaluation resources as well as additional virtual care tools and resources that were identified through an extensive environmental scan and stakeholder outreach activities.  

To learn more about how these resources were developed, please check out the August 2022 edition of EPIC News.

#HEC Learning Collaborative: Partnering on Appropriate Virtual Care

Participants in this learning collaborative will develop a framework for shared decision-making and will receive up to $20,000 in seed funding to implement it. It runs from January through November 2023 and involves a range of learning and design activities. Dr. Jennifer Rayner, Director of Research and Evaluation at the Alliance, provided expertise to help develp this program.

#Virtual Care in Canada (Canadian Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2022)

This suite of resources from the Canadian Institute for Healthcare Improvement (CIHI) describe a program of work that aims to provide key information about the impacts of virtual care, and to support furture measurement and evaluation of virtual care dilivery across the country.

  • Virtual care: Impact of COVID-19 on physician practice patterns
  • Virtual care: Impact of COVID-19 on patiences receiving physician practices
  • Virtual care in Canada: Strengthening Data and Information

#Virtual Care Research at the Alliance

These articles, reports, and conference presentations were developed by Alliance staff and research partners. They explore the value, strengths, and challenges of virtual care from the perspectives of clients and providers, and they showcase examples of how it was implemented  in community primary care settings.

#Journal Articles

#Posters and Slide Decks

#Reports and Handouts

#Responding to COVID-19

These articles describe how Alliance members responded to the COVID-19 pandemic crisis. Pivoting quickly to virtual delivery of primary care and community programming was one of the strategies that our members used to keep services accessible and address urgent new needs arising from the pandemic.