Latest Big Ideas Lecture
Wednesday, October 12, 2022
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Online
Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya, MD
Using digital tools to become a better doctor: What has the pandemic taught us about what health care could be?
Family medicine is a service that is supposed to be accessible, comprehensive, coordinated and promote continuity but has been under-delivered as a service, in part because it didn't take advantage of the range of available communication channels. During the pandemic, we rapidly adopted a narrow set of tools in limited ways that improved access during a time of physical distancing but have only just scratched the surface of what is possible. This presentation will go through the core functions of primary care, look at how they were modified during the pandemic and suggest ways that digital tools could be used to enhance the relationships at the core of family medicine, provide better services and get better outcomes for the population.
Dr. Onil Bhattacharyya, MD, PhD, is the Frigon Blau Chair in Family Medicine Research at Women's College Hospital, and director of the Institute for Health Systems Solutions and Virtual Care. He is the Scientific lead for the Centre for Digital Health Evaluation and Canadian Network for Digital Health Evaluation. He practices family medicine and is an Associate Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine and the Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation at the University of Toronto. His work focuses on the evaluation of digital tools to enhance primary and integrated care and works closely with policymakers at the provincial and federal levels to support the appropriate use of virtual care. He has been a Harkness Fellow in Health Care Policy at the Commonwealth Fund in New York City and a Takemi Fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health.
