Abstract
As digital technologies continue to impact medicine, emergency medicine providers have an opportunity to work together to harness these technologies and shape their implementation within our healthcare system. COVID-19 and the rapid scaling of virtual care provide an example of how profoundly emergency medicine can be affected by digital technology, both positively and negatively. This example also strengthens the case for why EM providers can help lead the integration of digital technologies within our broader healthcare system. As virtual care becomes a permanent fixture of our system, and other technologies such as AI and wearables break into Canadian healthcare, more advocacy, research, and health system leadership will be required to best leverage these tools. This paper outlines the purpose and outputs of the newly founded CAEP Digital Emergency Medicine (DigEM) Committee, with the hope of inspiring further interest amongst CAEP members and creating opportunities to collaborate with other organizations within CAEP and across EM groups nationwide.
References
Critical family physician shortage must be addressed: CMA [Internet]. Canadian Medical Association. Available from: https://www.cma.ca/news-releases-and-statements/critical-family-physician-shortage-must-be-addressed-cma. [cited 2022 Dec 2]
Canada is Not Keeping Pace with the Home and Community, and Nursing Home Care Needs of its Rapidly Ageing Population [Internet]. National Institute on Ageing. [cited 2022 Dec 2]. Available from: https://www.nia-ryerson.ca/commentary-posts/9/9/canada-is-not-keeping-pace-with-the-needs-of-its-rapidly-ageing-population
Isai, V.: Disaster mode’: emergency rooms across canada close amid crisis. The new york times [Internet]. (2022). Available from: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/world/canada/nurse-shortage-emergency-rooms.html. [cited 2022 Dec 2]
Kim, S.H., Song, H.: How digital transformation can improve hospitals’ operational decisions. Harvard Bus. Rev. [Internet] (2022). Available from: https://hbr.org/2022/01/how-digital-transformation-can-improve-hospitals-operational-decisions. [cited 2022 Dec 3]
Data Integrity Trends: Chief Data Officer Perspectives in 2021 [Internet]. Precisely. Available from: https://www.precisely.com/resource-center/analystreports/data-integrity-trends. [cited 2022 Dec 3]
Mueller B, Kinoshita T, Peebles A, Graber MA, Lee S. Artificial intelligence and machine learning in emergency medicine: a narrative review. Acute Med Surg. 2022;9(1): e740.
Crawford A, Serhal E. Digital health equity and COVID-19-19: the innovation curve cannot reinforce the social gradient of health. J Med Internet Res. 2020;22(6): e19361.
Hui, D., Dolcine, B., Loshak, H.: Approaches to evaluations of virtual care in primary care. Can. J. Health. Technol. (2022). Available from: https://canjhealthtechnol.ca/index.php/cjht/article/view/es0358. [cited 2022 Dec 2]
Canada, H.: Pan-canadian virtual care priorities in response to COVID-19–19 [Internet]. 2021 [cited 2022 Dec 2]. Available from: https://www.canada.ca/en/health-canada/corporate/transparency/health-agreements/bilateral-agreement-pan-canadian-virtual-care-priorities-COVID-19-19.html
Hall, J.N., Ackery, A.D., Dainty, K.N., Gill, P.S., Lim, R., Masood, S., et al.: Designs, facilitators, barriers, and lessons learned during the implementation of emergency department led virtual urgent care programs in Ontario, Canada. Front. Digit. Health [Internet] (2022). Available at https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fdgth.2022.946734. [cited 2022 Dec 3]
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that there is no conflict of interest.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Grant, K.L., Tsang, J. & Ho, K. Implementing digital emergency medicine: a call to action. Can J Emerg Med 26, 75–77 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43678-023-00620-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43678-023-00620-0