Category Archives: Uncategorized

Getting involved with health care

I wanted to send a quick shout out to my colleague and friend Dr. Anh Tran for putting together a new website with some of our colleagues. You can check it out here at www.carenotcuts.ca. What I like most about the latest round of government cuts is that it got people who would otherwise never have become political to be political. It has made advocates out of people who would otherwise have gone on with life as usual. Threats to health care may give us a better democracy, and for those of us more personally affected, if nothing else we have great motivation right now to reflect on the state of our lives and make moves we never would have made if we weren’t challenged.

OSCAR and survivalists

It has been a bit over a year since I started using OSCAR and coming up on a year that I’ve been with my current OSCAR service provider. I’ve learned a few things along the way that I thought were worth sharing.

The first topic I thought I’d tackle is something I’ll call EMR survivalism, which I believe highlights some important aspects of the psychology of OSCAR. According to Wikipedia, survivalism is “a movement of individuals or groups (called survivalists or preppers) who are actively preparing for emergencies, including possible disruptions in social or political order, on scales from local to international.”

Survivalists

OSCAR users – looking to survive catastrophe? Photo from nytimes.com

I have noticed this kind of survivalist mentality can to be one factor that draws people to OSCAR. From my perspective (and please note I’m not trying to paint all OSCAR users with the same brush, here), the prototypical OSCAR survivalist is an individualistic physician who is looking to maintain control over clinical infrastructure and patient records – in essence, one who believes that the physician bears ultimate responsibility for the care provided and therefore must also strive to maintain complete control over their clinical infrastructure and patient records. Such an individual may be suspicious of abuses of power by large corporations, inappropriate intrusions into clinical decision-making by administrators, government snooping and surveillance, and potentially preventable disasters / outages that disrupt clinical work. From the perspective of a survivalist, OSCAR seems very attractive – allowing one to maintain control over patient data and to prepare for the worst – power outages, networks going down, hardware failure, theft, EMR provider failure – at least in theory.

Does it actually work that way in practice? My best answer so far: sort of.

Does the average physician with some inclination to learn about computers know enough to effectively maintain server hardware, set up a secure network, and monitor for intrusions? I suspect not – at least not as much as a specialist would know. Also, it’s ongoing maintenance and a mental diversion that takes us away from doing what we’re good at (and what brings in the money) – looking after patients.

Is it cost-effective for the average physician or small clinic to retain in-house IT support? I would say no.

Does the average physician have access to the infrastructure needed to maintain EMR functionality in the face of unanticipated disruptions – redundant and separate internet connections with sufficiently high upload speeds, independent power supplies, ready access to replacement components in case of hardware failure, backup server with automatic switchover in case of primary server failure? Possibly, but it’s not very efficient to set all of that up for one individual system. It would probably be much more cost-effective (and environmentally friendly) to pool resources and share server space in a dedicated, secure server facility – in other words, a cloud solution.

So, why go through all the trouble of setting up an in-house OSCAR solution at all? I believe it’s the same reason why people buy farmland in the country, stockpile supplies, and build bunkers. My hypothesis is that the kind of people who worry about a zombie outbreak, nuclear attack, and foreign invasion are similar, in ways, to a subset of the people who use OSCAR.

Fallout shelter

Are OSCAR users the kind of physicians who would build a place like this? Image from spiritmeetsbone.me

There are arguments for and against this way of living; in the event that nothing happens, it seems more efficient not to worry and trust in the people in charge. In the event of catastrophic failure in social order, though, the people with canned goods, medical supplies, and ammunition lining their basements look like they had a good idea. I suppose that whether or not it was “the right thing” to set up your own OSCAR server looks different depending on whether you’ve had years of reliable service from an EMR provider or you bought into a lemon and the company went belly-up or just didn’t pick up their phone when you needed them, leaving you stranded.

Is there a third way? I think there might be – and it comes down to trust and cooperation. In the event of a world-ending scenario I’m inclined to think that the people who prepare but also cooperate with others stand the best chance of doing well. Blind trust and obstinate self-sufficiency are two extremes, and let’s face it – not everybody is going to have a country estate with a bomb shelter to fall back to. So, too, with OSCAR – by sharing resources, hardware, and infrastructure, individual physicians could have access to more reliable EMR service with lower overhead and possibly better security and maintenance expertise, without needing to put the keys in the hands of institutions or companies that may or may not come through. I’m talking about a co-op situation – physicians pooling their resources to run their own OSP (Oscar Service Provider), hire support staff, and put together a server farm. At the end of the day we are responsible for the work we do and the people we hire, so I think we need to know at least something about the computer systems we use, as well. However, we don’t have to do it alone.

As far as I know, the OSCAR co-op doesn’t exist yet. So for now, unless a doctor can do everything independently, the next best option is to find an OSP they trust, and for the extra-paranoid among us, keep a backup system handy.

Practice update

My secretary, An, will be away until January 24. In the meantime, I will be handling my phone and fax machine (just like old times!) If you call the office it is likely that nobody will pick up, but please leave a message and I will endeavor to return your call promptly. I will be able to access my messages on weekdays even when I am not in the office.

An used to give appointment reminders by phone – I will not be able to do this while she is away. Automated email appointment reminders are high on the priority list but I have not gotten there yet – still working on getting electronic fax capabilities for consultation reports and switching to OSCAR-based billing, behind the scenes.

The office will also not be accepting new referrals for the first few months of 2015, to allow me to work through the waiting list, which is already several months long.

Thanks, and happy New Year to everyone.

MBCT at U of T

A work colleague and I have started a Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy group for Anxiety at the University of Toronto. Our first week was the most fun I’ve had at work in a long time! Making the handouts and the guided meditation recordings has been a challenge in the best way. The university provided space and printing services, and I was also fortunate enough to be able to borrow some cushions from a friend so we’ll be able to sit comfortably on the floor for the next 7 weeks. I think this will enhance the group experience. We can do a lot by helping each other out, and collaborating with otheres like this makes the work so much more enjoyable.

Practice update – Hong Fook

I’m excited to start working one half-day per week at Hong Fook Mental Health Association, starting in April, seeing Vietnamese-speaking patients. This means I’ll be cutting my private office time back from 1 1/2 days per week to one day (Wednesdays). While my capacity to take new referrals from the community will be decreasing, I hope that I’ll be able to provide a much-needed service for people who would otherwise have great difficulty accessing care while improving my language skills and connecting with my roots.