Ontario Nursing Informatics Group

As the Communication Director for ONIG, I was extremely pleased to see a significant portion of the Fall 2011 issue of the College of Nurses of Ontario’s  ‘The Standard’ dedicated to discussion surrounding the use of social media in nursing.  Kamini Kalia, Robert Fraser, and Joyce Fox are all showcased in the feature article of the edition as being nurses who use social media technologies in an innovative fashion to distribute information and knowledge within healthcare.  Both Kalia and Fras

The INIG has an open invitation to their upcoming Annual General Meeting, to be held at McMaster University on November 30th, 2011.

The two keynote presentations to be held that evening include:

Following on a previous blog topic – the use of social media for healthcare, the following article speaks about using social media tools to “enhance disaster preparedness and emergency response”.

I found the article thought provoking but had difficulty articulating my ideas so I shared the link with a fellow ONIG member and was totally impressed by the immediate response I received back.  I quote:

Theme: "How Technology Supports Process Changes"

Location: William Osler Health System, Brampton

Date: November 4th, 2011

UPDATED - Registration is now open

UPDATED - Ed day SOLD OUT (contact deb.haggman[at]grhosp.on.ca if wishing to register and haven't done so already)

William Osler Health System, Brampton
BCH Auditorium, Main Level, Rm S.1.719
2100 Bovaird Drive East
Brampton, ON L6R 3J7

UPDATED - October 28, 2011

The ONIG executive have been working for the last year to revise the ONIG bylaws.  This current iteration of the bylaws will be presented to the membership at the upcoming Annual General Meeting. This current iteration of the bylaws will be presented to the membership for approval at the upcoming Education Day on November 4th.  For more information on the ONIG bylaws, please feel free to contact communication@onig.on.ca

Mobile Health Symposium:  Imagine the Possibilities of M-Health Technologies

This event hosted by Dr. Diane Doran and the NHSRU will feature guest speakers including health care clinicians  and  researchers  in  nursing,  medicine,  engineering, and computer science to discuss the relevance of mobile health care solutions for promoting safer patient care.Topics include:

Dr. Lynn Nagle and a number of guest faculty from across Canada will be hosting a National Institute in Nursing Informatics in Toronto, Feb. 3-5 2011. 

Currently, the three day event is scheduled to include the following curriculum items:

As informatics specialists (aspiring and established), we have all probably heard mention of Moore’s Law. This law describes a long-term trend in computer hardware where the number of transistors that can be placed inexpensively on an integrated circuit doubles approximately every two years. As users we have experienced that transition as we have witnessed computers evolve from room sized machines to portable laptops and tablets.

In the past I have been intrigued by the use of flu and cold medicine retail sales data to track seasonal health patterns.  The usage of this sales data is just one demonstration of the value of electronic data leveraged to support health care.  Along a similar vein, an article by Rosie Lombardi (Technology for Doctors Online) describes research completed by Mark Dredze and Michael J.

Have the policies for the use of mobile technology in your organization kept up with the times?  The organization where I am employed is currently struggling with policy development to protect patient confidentiality without impeding information sharing.  Because of this, I was drawn to the editorial by Sara Jackson in FierceMobileHealthcare, ‘Smart Phone Bans: Does your hospital need a policy?’