BC’s Dr. Bill Clifford wins quality award

VANCOUVER – Prince George, B.C., physician Bill Clifford (pictured) has been given a provincial award for lifetime of leadership and innovation. Dr. Clifford received a BC Quality Award for “Leadership in Quality” for his revolutionary work in the medical space. First coming to Prince George in 1989, Dr. Clifford designed a system called the Medical Office Information System (MOIS) and launched it in 1990.

MOIS quickly spread around the north, and positively impacted primary care physicians, nurses, social workers, medical office assistants, and technicians.

“The magic of this EMR is how simple it is to use the program to provide guideline-based care to patients, to run reports on what is needed to ensure patients are receiving the care they need, and to find patients whose care needs more intervention,” said Dr. Paul Murray, retired Northern Health medical lead for Primary and Community Care. “The long and the short of it, Bill created MOIS and it’s made my life easier.”

By the early 2000s, MOIS was among the best of its kind in Canada, and demand surpassed what Dr. Clifford was able to supply on his own. So he sold it for $1 to a non-profit he funded, now known as Bright Health.

“He is one of the most brilliant people I know, but he is incredibly humble around the contributions he has made,” commented Christina Krause, the CEO of the BC Patient Safety and Quality Council.

Krause said Dr. Clifford’s work has “laid a foundation… to improve the standard of care in the north in particular, but it has spread across the province as well. He is a real leader in this province around information systems.”

Other quality award winners include:

• Kelly Mayson
  Anesthesiologist, Vancouver Coastal Health
  While she has been involved in many quality improvement initiatives over the years, there are two that feed Dr. Kelly Mayson’s passion for improving patient outcomes by focusing on care before and after surgery – the Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) initiative, and the provincial Surgical Patient Optimization Collaborative (SPOC).
• Elizabeth Baron
  Regional Director, Experience in Care, Vancouver General Hospital, Vancouver Coastal Health
  Elizabeth (Liz) Baron is a regional director for VCH’s Experience in Care program – a program she pioneered. She built a comprehensive strategy for improving care experiences that centres on human connections and fostering a culture where everyone feels valued and empowered to make a positive impact.
• Real-Time Virtual Support Network & The First Nations Virtual Care Initiatives (joint winners)
  First Nations Health Authority, the Rural Coordination Centre of BC, and others
  The Real-Time Virtual Support Network is a team-based, wrap-around service that links rural health care providers and patients to virtual physicians, psychiatrists, mental health clinicians, care coordinators and specialists via Zoom videoconferencing or telephone. It also offers multiple ways for patients and providers to access culturally safe care and support.
• The Virtual Interpreter
  Vancouver Coastal Health
  The Virtual Interpreter provides on-demand, live medical interpreters through a wi-fi enabled tablet in care locations across the health authority. It has led to better care decisions and outcomes for patients who have benefited from its use.

For more information, see Meet Our 2023 BC Quality Awards Winners and Runners-Up! / BC Patient Safety & Quality Council