Novari eVisit virtual care tech wins Microsoft award

KINGSTON, Ont. – The Microsoft Crisis Champion IMPACT award recognizes the Microsoft partner who has had a significant impact on people, businesses, and/or communities in Canada, with quick response, innovative solutions, and empathy toward those affected by the coronavirus.

On Tuesday, July 22, 2020, it was announced virtually at the annual Microsoft Inspire Conference that Novari Health and its eVisit virtual care technology was this year’s award winner.

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit Ontario, the healthcare needs in a province of 14 million surged. In addition to the strain that potential COVID-19 patients were placing on an already stretched medical system, patients with non-COVID-19 symptoms or emergencies also needed help but were afraid to go to the ER. Compounding that access-to-care problem was the fact that patients and family physicians were reluctant to meet in person due to a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE).

As an alternative, Ontarians started calling the Ontario Telehealth hotline, which helps callers determine what their medical needs are (based on symptoms) and where they may seek appropriate care (i.e., family physician, clinic, ER, etc.).

The vision was to create a virtual waiting room for patients that either cannot access their primary care provider or do not have one. The service, available to patients 7 days a week, is designed to provide access to care while mitigating everyone’s risk of exposure to the virus.

The Ontario Virtual Care Clinic (OVCC) is a collaborative initiative of the Ontario Medical Association (OMA), OntarioMD, MetricAid, Ontario Ministry of Health and Ontario Health (OTN). Canada Health Infoway, an independent, federally funded, not-for-profit organization, is providing funding to Ontario Health to support this innovative access to care project.

As a vendor of record (VOR) with Ontario Health, the Novari technology was selected through a competitive secondary procurement process and Novari was quickly called upon to assist in delivering care during the early stages of the pandemic and COVID-19 response. Specific COVID-19 functionality was quickly designed, built and implemented. Within a matter of days, the OVCC, powered by Novari eVisit, went live and has been used by participating primary care physicians to virtually see thousands of patients from every corner of the province.

Residents of Ontario in need of non-urgent care may access the Ontario Virtual Care Clinic at no charge by going to https://seethedoctor.ca/en/

“As Canada’s digital ‘access to care’ experts we have the enabling technology to help our healthcare system weather this storm,” said John Sinclair (pictured), president, Novari Health. “Ironically, I personally needed access to primary care and was able to experience the OVCC and our Novari eVisit technology from the perspective of a patient. I waited only minutes in the virtual waiting room to see a friendly physician located elsewhere in Ontario who provided excellent care.”

Independent of the OVCC, the Novari eVisit virtual care technology is available to individual primary care physicians, specialists, and allied health professionals across Canada. More information can be found at www.novarievisit.ca.

About Novari Health
Novari Health designs, builds, and implements award winning cloud-based, enterprise scale software solutions that improve access to care, coordination of care, and the delivery of healthcare services. The Novari Access to Care software platform includes virtual care, eReferral, central intake, workflow management, surgical waitlist management, and medical imaging requisition management modules. Based in beautiful Kingston, Ontario, Novari has become one of the largest Canadian-based digital health solution providers. With offices in Kingston, Toronto, Vancouver, Boston, and Sydney, Australia, the Novari team is comprised of physicians, nurses, former hospital administrators, software architects, software developers, project managers, certified professionals in Health Information and Management Systems, and client support. Novari Health is a Microsoft Partner, with software solutions hosted on the Microsoft Azure Canadian and Australian cloud data centres, for security and scalability. Novari Health has been independently assessed by BSI against internationally recognized standards showing our commitment to quality and assurance and is ISO 27001 Information Security Management System certified.