Mackenzie Health continues to advance its Innovation Strategy with the launch of Phase Two of the Innovation Unit. The first project of the Mackenzie Innovation Institute (Mi2) and a first-in-Canada initiative, the Innovation Unit features a unique integration of advanced technology that transforms the delivery of care.
Improving Communications and Experience of Care
In the first phase of the project, Mackenzie Health implemented technologies such as ‘smart’ beds, ‘smart’ badges and communications stations, enhanced hand hygiene support solution and dome lights indicators to create safer and more effective patient care.
In phase two of the project, Mackenzie Health is implementing a smart mobile clinical messaging and alerting system which uses intelligent rules to enable automated communications between information systems and devices to bring better decision support information to the point of care.
An internet of things approach to mobile, ‘smart’ and secure clinical alerting and messaging
Developed in collaboration with healthcare providers, academia and private industry partners, the alerting and messaging solution builds on the Innovation Unit’s ‘smart’ environment and leverages innovations in pervasive computing (utilizing computers embedded in everyday ‎objects to communicate information) and ambient intelligence (electronic environments that are sensitive and responsive to the presence of people) to create a contextually aware and personalized experience that can anticipate the needs of staff and patients, resulting in:
- faster and more accurate, private, and secure communication between patients and their healthcare providers;
- more informed decision making at the bedside; and
- safer and more effective care.
The concept, design and implementation of Phase Two of the Innovation Unit have been developed by Mackenzie Health in collaboration with technology partners BlackBerry, Cisco and ThoughtWire.
Nurses and physicians working on the Innovation Unit will be equipped with BlackBerry smartphones connected to the secure clinical alerting and messaging system enabled by our technology partners.
This morning, BlackBerry CEO John Chen joined Altaf Stationwala, President and CEO of Mackenzie Health, to discuss the role mobility can play in providing better patient experience and patient outcomes for healthcare providers. They also talked about the importance of security and privacy as healthcare organizations shift to connecting medical devices, also known as the Internet of Healthcare Things (IoHT).
BES12 is the secure platform that Mackenzie Health is using to deploy the ThoughtWire application to BlackBerry 10 smartphones, as well as to manage the smartphones themselves. They chose BES12 to make sure that they are able to comply with the strict privacy and confidentiality regulations all healthcare organizations must comply with, without sacrificing the productivity of the staff.
Altaf Stationwala, President and CEO, Mackenzie Health said:
“We are pleased to be launching Phase Two of the Innovation Unit and advancing Mackenzie Health’s Innovation Strategy. At Mackenzie Health, innovation is a key enabler in achieving our vision to create a world class health experience.  We strongly believe that our new Mackenzie Innovation Institute and pioneering projects such as the Innovation Unit will help us demonstrate the value of a mobile, ‘smart’, and secure communications in a healthcare environment.”
By combining Mackenzie Health’s clinical expertise in patient care with ThoughtWire’s Ambiantâ„¢ platform and expertise in device integration and ‘smart’ systems, Cisco Canada’s expertise in network infrastructure and secure unified communications, and BlackBerry’s expertise in mobile devices and secure enterprise mobility management, Mackenzie Health assembled a ‘dream team’ for the evidence-based design, implementation, evaluation and dissemination of this Ontario-grown clinical messaging and alerting solution.
The Innovation Unit Phase Two project is one of five healthcare-related information communication technology projects which received funding from Ontario Centres of Excellence through its AdvancingHealth program. AdvancingHealth allows the public and private sectors to work together to build ground-breaking products and services to increase the quality of patient care and create a more efficient and sustainable healthcare system.
Mackenzie Health will analyze the information collected through this process of progressive implementation and evaluation in the real-world hospital environment. The information will inform planning decisions for the construction of the Mackenzie Vaughan Hospital, as well as at the provincial healthcare system and beyond.
