Webinars

Co-Designing Health Solutions: Engaging Patients, Families, and Providers for Effective Implementation

JULY 2024

Join our webinar, “Co-Designing Health Solutions,” to learn how direct engagement and co-design with patients, caregivers, families, care providers, and community members can drive successful implementation of health services. Explore strategies for inclusive collaboration and discover the impact of co-designed solutions on improving healthcare outcomes. 

Hear from thought and practice leaders including Dr. Kerry Kuluski, Dr. Mathias Gysler Research Chair in Patient & Family Experience, Dr Laura Harild and Dipti Purbhoo from the Mississauga OHT Palliative Care Model and Yasmin Sheihkan, Vice Chair and Patient and Family Council Chair for the Mid-West OHT as they share their approach and outcomes from patient and family engagement and co-design. Come to learn and share your experience in the discussion of how and why engagement and co-design leads to better implementation and outcomes.

Using Evidence in the Learning Health System

JUNE 2024

This webinar explores how to locate or undertake rapid syntheses of existing evidence to regarding the success or failure of solutions applied to the problems you are trying to solve in your Ontario Health Team. We are host to global leading centres for evidence curation and creation here in Ontario including RISE and the McMaster Health Forum, the Ottawa Hospital Research Institute and the Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research. Hear about how these centres can help you to connect with evidence for your OHT. Learn how to leverage existing knowledge to enhance your health system’s performance and adaptability. Where there is insufficient evidence, begin to think about how your intervention can be set up to generate evidence regarding success for your own work and for others facing similar problems 

What is a Learning Health System?

APRIL 2024

This month we introduce a series on the Learning Health System (LHS) . This approach blends research with health care operations to speed the generation, synthesis, uptake, and refinement of evidence to improve population health, equity, patient experience, health workforce sustainability, and affordability. We introduce the LHS Action Framework describing how research and health care operations are linked and enacted in a comprehensive LHS approach to advance population health and health equity. Maureen Smith and Rob Reid will join Walter Wodchis to engage in discussion about this approach to health system improvement. Many are talking about the Learning Health System. What does it mean to you? Join the conversation at this month’s event.

Furthering our Understanding of Equity in the Ontario Health System

MARCH 2024

Join us this month as we address five distinct health equity-related questions identified by the Ministry of Health. These relate to research questions like how to measure health equity for health system performance and what types of data are needed to drive local health equity-oriented programming? And to health system delivery questions such as whether there are disparities in the use of virtual care or the care for individuals with chronic conditions like diabetes. Leveraging multiple data collection methods and analytical methods, each question was answered using collaborative efforts aimed at unravelling nuanced insights into health disparities within Ontario’s health systems. Through sharing our findings, we hope to illuminate the landscape of health equity in Ontario, fostering informed discussions and paving the way for potential improvements within the broader health system.

How Does Policy Support Integrated Care? International Examples, Ontario Practice

FEBRUARY 2024

Health systems around the world are aligned in aiming to improve on quadruple aim goals of patient and provider experience, health outcomes and value creation. Health systems are also pursuing these goals through the advancement of population health and integrated care. The North American Observatory (NAO) has undertaken an international review of health policy supports for integrated care with case studies draw from the NHS England, the Netherlands, Germany and the United States. The NAO and key informants from this international review will speak to the opportunities for Canada to learn from these examples. The Health System Performance Network in Ontario also undertook a review within Ontario’s example of population health and integrated care – Ontario Health Teams –  to understand local health system needs and policy stakeholder goals and supports within integrated delivery systems. Join our speakers and learn from the international experience. Bring your ideas, questions and challenges and ideas for policy supports for population health and integrated care.

New Data on Improvement Indicators for OHTs

JANUARY 2024

Interested in learning more about how the improvement indicators progressed in Ontario Health Teams? Join us this January for an update about improvement indicators and how they’ve progressed in OHTs.

The Health System Performance Network first produced a set of 10 improvement indicators for Ontario Health Teams in January 2021. Over time, we have expanded to include indicators for common target populations (Mental Health, Older Adults, Palliative and End of Life, and Diabetes) and have provided OHTs with population profiles on Collaborative Quality Improvement Indicators). In the fall of 2023, HSPN updated all the indicators for all approved teams up to Cohort 4 (53 teams those with attributed populations). HSPN also conducted a survey of which indicators were most useful to OHTs. HSPN is currently distributing a full set of all indicators, PowerPoint presentations and detailed reporting on a subset of 12 indicators that OHTs identified as most important. Indicators have also been produced stratified by material deprivation, primary care models and population grouping methodologies.

At the January 23, 2024 HSPN monthly Ontario Health Team Webinar, we will review the results of our survey of OHTs regarding which indicators are most useful as well as host a discussion on what other indicators OHTs would find useful. We will review stratifications and how to use the indicator reports. We will also highlight details that OHTs have access to for all 28 indicators according to the 4 main stratifications.

All indicator reports will be distributed to OHTs before the webinar and posted online in early February. Come in January to learn about the 10 improvement indicators, what has changed since 2021, and what we should be doing to continue to monitor the progress of OHTs on health system indicators.

How are OHTS Advancing in Digital Health

NOVEMBER 2023

How are OHTs fairing with digital implementation? Join us for our upcoming November webinar session, where we will learn about the implementation successes and pivots of Ontario Health Teams in implementing digital solutions. Dr. Andrew Sarta will reflect on the implementation of digital practices based on an HSPN survey of proposed digital activities from approved OHT applications across the first 3 cohorts of OHTs. In this session we will review activities under 4 broad sets of digital practices that we identify as Patient Data Access, Partner Data Sharing, Virtual Care, Data Strategy Planning. And we will explore the survey results of OHTs completed in Feb 2023 to find out what was implemented, changed, and not implemented based on their initial applications. Then we’ll hear from Cambridge North Dumfries and Algoma OHTs on their approaches to advancing digital health innovations, the successes, challenges and strategic thinking for integrating digital health in OHTs. Come join the conversation to learn and to share your OHTs experience.

IFIC Canada Virtual Community Care

OCTOBER 2023

What is the relationship between integrated care and patient/caregiver engagement? How can engagement with our communities and people with lived healthcare experiences inform and improve integrated systems of care? Join us for a thought-provoking panel to learn about current practices and future directions. Learn from researchers, system leaders and patient perspectives with International and Canadian experience. 

We look forward to continuing to bring our community together to learn and have an impact.

Interventions to Address Inequities in Ontario Health Teams

SEPTEMBER 2023

We close our 4-part series on health equity in Ontario Health Teams with a focus on action! Building on our understanding of equity (April 2023), building capacity for equity (May 2022), and measuring equity (June 2022), this September Webinar will provide details on what activities are being undertaken to address health inequities. We have a special guest, Dr. Sarah Sowden of Newcastle University in England who will describe two interventions implemented in England. Dr Sowden is an Advanced Clinical Academic Fellow in the Population Health Sciences Institute at Newcastle University.

Then we will hear from Ontario participants describe interventions that are directly addressing equity in their Ontario Health Team. Greater Hamilton Health Partners, Central West, North West Toronto, and Kitchener–Waterloo–Wellesley–Wilmot–Woolwich will share programs that they are implementing to improve health equity through community hubs, neighbourhood models, bringing care to people living in congregate settings, and for people with no home at all. Dr. Paul Wankah who has hosted prior webinars in this equity series will lead off with ways that we can summarize the types and effects of programs and where and how they can be enacted. Join us to learn what integrated care networks such as Ontario Health Teams are capable of doing to improve health equity.

Measuring Equity

JUNE 2023

Measure what matters so that what matters is attended to. This webinar will review and discuss approaches to measuring health equity and using health equity measurement to advance health equity in integrated delivery systems.

In this session:

Jessica Morgan from the HSPN will review current and proposed approaches to measure health equity and why different approaches to measurement matters. Will Manners will show how NHS England is supporting Integrated Care Boards with health equity measurement and providing these data to local ICBs to support their work to address health inequities. Dr. John Ford (Queen Mary University London) will discuss how measurement supports action. The session will be moderated by Dr. Paul Wankah and Dr. Walter Wodchis.

This is the third instalment in the HSPN series of webinars on advancing health equity in Ontario Health Teams.

Building Capacity For Equity Work in Ontario Health Teams

MAY 2023

How do Ontario Health Teams develop and strengthen their skills and capabilities to address health inequities in their communities? What resources are critical to achieving equity work? What strategies did Ontario Health Teams enact to successfully carry out their equity work?
In this webinar we will discuss opportunities and challenges encountered by OHTs as they progressively established their equity work groups. We will explore contextual factors that contributed to the success of OHT equity work groups and key factors that influenced they way they carried out their activities.

Advancing Health Equity in Ontario Health Teams – A Primer

APRIL 2023

What is health equity as it relates to Ontario Health Teams? How can OHTs advance health equity? How can OHTs measure and track progress on health equity? In this webinar we will discuss terminology and definitions of health equity and what it means to advance health equity. We will discuss approaches to measure health equity with the purpose of identifying inequities and disparities. We will review examples of health equity measurement and results across OHTs by the HSPN. At this event, participants will also share current approaches, questions and challenges that are being undertaken and supported across OHTs. This will be the first in a series of HSPN webinars on health equity.

Advancing Integrated Care with Digital Health Innovation

MARCH 2023

IFIC Canada Co-Leads Jodeme Goldhar and Walter Wodchis invite you to join our next IFIC Canada Virtual Community Session on March 28, 2023 from 12:00 PM-1:30 PM EST. This session is a collaboration between the International Foundation for Integrated Care (IFIC), IFIC Canada and the Health System Performance Network at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health, and the Digital Health and Data Enabling Integrated Care IFIC Special Interest Group co-led by Dr. Carolyn Steele Gray.

In this session, we will be sharing learning from the recent special issue of the Journal of Integrated Care (Emerald), which helps to advance our understanding of the role of digital health in integrated models of care. Participants in this session will learn about and discuss key papers around co-creating, evaluating, and implementing technology through a novel training and education strategy. Participants will also have the opportunity to hear from patient partner Hilary Horlock, who will reflect on what this knowledge means from the patient perspective.

Session Learning Objectives:

1) Co-creating a human-centered integrated care pathway for a digital, user-centric health information solution.

2) Adopting technology-enabled integrated care education to address the micro-, meso-, and macro-dimensions of integrated care.

3) Evaluating the effectiveness of a digitally enabled integrated care program for post-acute care of stroke patients.

4) Discussing how this learning can help us keep the patient at the centre when adopting technology into models of integrated care.

Sense Making Population Health Management in Ontario Health Teams: A Diabetes Example

FEBRUARY 2023

Ontario Health Teams are intended to hold fiscal and clinical accountability for an attributed population defined by primary care attachment and hospital referral and use patterns. OHTs will integrate care and use equity-based population health management approaches to deliver better health outcomes and provide better experiences for patients. Doing this requires several resources including population health data, methods to segment the population, indicators to assess improvement opportunities, engagement strategies to involve community, patients and providers in priority setting and co-design, implementation, monitoring and model adjustment. This webinar reviews the challenges faced by OHTs and identifies some key resources and opportunities for OHTs to leverage assets in Ontario to undertake these activities using diabetes management as a case example.

The learning objectives for this session are:

1) To understand the (five) principal elements of population health management

2) To understand population segmentation and the transitions of individuals between population “segments” over time

3) To understand the intersection of care pathways for acute and chronic conditions in a person-centred approach

4) To identify opportunities to improve person-centred care with an example of diabetes management.

Collaborative Governance: Towards the Next Level of Integrated Care

JANUARY 2023

The Critical Role of Partnering with the Volunteer Sector to Enable Integration

DECEMBER 2022

Integration is the lever to enable population health and well-being. A key component of integration is the role of partnering with the volunteer sector to improve outcomes for our patients, caregivers and our population.

In this session, we will take a deep dive to learn firsthand about the role of engaging the volunteer sector from the perspectives of policy-makers, researchers and a person with lived experience. This session will discuss the available evidence, the volunteer sector’s role in policy, and share approaches and practical examples of local work that engages with the volunteer sector.

Results from the HSPN Developmental Evaluation:  Advancing toward Maturity

OCTOBER 2022

After nearly 3 years of the OHT initiative, we are asking how OHTs are developing and what is needed to advance toward maturity.

Grounded in the experience of 6 OHTs participating in the HSPN Developmental Evaluation, in October’s HSPN webinar, we are sharing the key themes and findings in advance of our Developmental Report.

Come see if these themes resonate with your experiences and share your stories. We look forward to this exchange.

Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams: Health Care Costs & Value

JULY 2022

In 2022, HSPN is hosting a series of events on Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams.

In July, we will review opportunities to measure and leverage health care costs and to create value by improving patient experience and outcomes as well as provider experience while managing costs at the population and individual level.

Join Dr. Walter Wodchis and special guests Jillian Paul and Howard Baker from the Ministry of Health Ontario Health Team and Health Health Sector Models Branches as well as Ontario Health Vice President of Value Based Care Dov Klein as they talk about their goals and supports for improving value in Ontario Health Teams.

Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams (Part III)

JUNE 2022

In 2022, HSPN is hosting a series of events on Quadruple

Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams.

In June, we will review opportunities to measure health outcomes at the population and individual level using administrative and patient-reported data and how we are approaching equity in this measurement.

Come join us as Drs Kaileah McKellar, Ruth Hall and Walter Wodchis review HSPN measures for OHTs and join the discussion on how OHTs can move toward health outcome measurement in evaluating OHT initiatives.

We will review the measurement of PROMs and PREMs using

the HSPN surveys to support comparable measurement across OHTs.

Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams (Part II)

MAY 2022

In 2022, HSPN is hosting a series of events on Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams. In May, we will gather for our second event focusing on Provider Experience.

Come join us as Dr Ruth Hall and Elana Commisso from HSPN review the approach to provider experience measurement and results from the Couchiching OHT.

Dr Erika Catford, Annalise Stenekes, Chris Archer and Angela Munday will share their reasons for measuring provider experience in the Couchiching OHT and to talk about the ways that they are using the results.

Come to hear about these experiences and discuss the approaches to measure and improve on provider experience at a time of great strain in health care.

Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams (Part I)

APRIL 2022

In 2022, we are hosting a series of events on Quadruple Aim Measures for Ontario Health Teams (OHTs): April is Patient/Client Experience Month.

Come join us as Walter Wodchis reviews the HSPN approach to patient experience measurement. Sarah Grace Bebenek and Sheila Koss from South Georgian Bay OHT will discuss their implementation of the HSPN patient experience survey with nearly 4000 respondents, and talk about how they plan to use the results in collaboration with patients and family.

Zahra Ismail, Director, Primary Care and Social Determinants at Ontario Health will discuss the strategic direction for patient reported experience measurement at Ontario Health.

Stories from the Ivory Tower

MARCH 2022

In March, we are coming out with our stories from the ivory tower of university-based evaluation of Ontario Health Teams (OHTs). Evaluators from the HSPN have spent the better part of the past year observing the development of OHTs with an aim to understand: 

1. What factors contribute to the successful implementation and sustainability of OHTs?
2. What adaptations are OHTs making to improve function/performance/outcomes?
3. What are the barriers to OHTs’ successful implementation?

Join us on to engage in a discussion of these questions as they relate to the development of population health management and integrated care in Ontario with attention to selected foundational elements of the OHT model. 

Segmenting your OHT Population: Stories from the Field (Part III)

FEBRUARY 2022

In February, we will merge our streams of population health management and stories from the field providing real-world examples in Ontario Health Teams (OHTs) of using data to better understand where, how, and for whom interventions can be directed. Examples include the raw use of hospital diagnoses through sophisticated segmentation with pre-packaged risk stratification tools. Presenters will describe their use of Intellihealth and Integrated Decision Support (IDS) resources.

Speakers will include Darren Gerson and Holly Opara from the North Toronto OHT, Lauren Tessier from Chatham Kent OHT, and Caitlin Agla from KW4 OHT. We look forward to this conversation and to uncovering the good, the bad, and the ugly in trying to use population segmentation in the real world of OHT implementation.

Using Segmentation to Support Quality Improvement

JANUARY 2022

In January, we come back again to segmentation for population health management, building on the February and September 2021 webinars.

This time we will look at the new collaborative Quality Improvement Indicators and other areas for improvement across Ontario Health Teams and look at data to help understand how population segmentation can be used to design different approaches to improvement on common indicators.

Walter Wodchis (co-lead HSPN OHT evaluation) will present on the provincial view of collaborative Quality Improvement Plan indicators and how OHTs can use population segmentation to better understand and improve on cQIP measures. This is a prelude to data that HSPN will provide to support OHT cQIP ideas.

Christina Clarke (RISE population health coach) will share key principles and examples to illustrate how segmentation can be applied at the local level in focus populations to understand and identify improvement ideas  for cQIP and other areas of importance to OHTs.    

Stories from the Field (Part II)

NOVEMBER 2021

In November, HSPN is excited for the second in a series of events that focus on sharing stories from the experience of Ontario Health Teams. At this event, we focus on a few examples of teams that are looking at ways to meaningfully engage patients and families in co-design, to develop and implement integrated strategic plans, and to create robust governance structures. We are joined by Jeff Wingard and Melissa McCallum from Greater Hamilton Health Network OHT, Melissa Sharpe-Harrigan from the Chatham Kent OHT and the Patient and Family Health Council from North York Toronto Health Partners. From the HSPN, Gaya Embuldeniya, Kaileah McKellar and Walter Wodchis will also provide insights on these OHT initiatives. This event is essential for Governance, Strategic Planning or Patient and Family Engagement.

Stories from the Field (Part I)

OCTOBER 2021

In October, HSPN is pleased to announce the opening of a series of events that focus on sharing stories from the experience of Ontario Health Teams. At this first event, we are focused on a few examples of teams that are looking at ways to re-organize care and design new models. We are starting with example from central and northern OHTs. Chris Archer joins us from Couchiching OHT and Colleen Neil joins from All Nations Health Partners. Walter Wodchis and Ruth Hall describe the approach to our Developmental Evaluation and our experience of observing these teams as they develop toward OHT implementation.

How Population Segmentation applies to Population Health Management

SEPTEMBER 2021

In September, we come back to the topic of population segmentation with some insights on how population segments can be built and used. Debra Chen reviews how the Canadian Institutes for Health Information (CIHI) Population Health Grouper segments the population into groups. Samantha Magnus provides an example of how the British Columbia Ministry of Health has supported the use of segmentation for the BC Health System. Rob Reid and Christina Southey describe how segmentation is being used at the front lines of care delivery in Ontario Health Teams. Come for the content and stay for the chat. We look forward to hearing how OHTs are planning care for priority populations and choosing priority populations to focus on.

Special Event: Q&A Session

JULY 2021

In July, the HSPN evaluation team will host a series of special meetings in July to answer your evaluation questions. There will be four 45-minute interactive Q&A sessions beginning at 9:05 AM, 10:05 AM, 12:05 PM, and 1:05 PM on Tuesday, July 27th. Each session will be limited to 100 attendees, in meeting-style to enable live, face-to-face discussions. These sessions will not be recorded, nor posted on our website. We will post an FAQ document following the sessions. You are asked to select up to four preferences for session times and to suggest at least one, and up to three, questions of any nature for the HSPN evaluation team. (There are no dumb questions. Please ask yours.)

How should we be evaluating integrated care?

JUNE 2021

In June, join us for a special event brought to you by the Health System Performance Network, in partnership with the International Foundation for Integrated Care –Canada, and Emerald Publishing. With leading practices from the Netherlands, England and Canada, we present the latest thinking in evaluation of integrated care, both locally and at the health system level.

Measuring Patient and Provider Experience: Completing the Quadruple Aim

MAY 2021

In May, we discussed the measures of provider experience and for patient experience that we recommend for use in OHTs. We heard from providers and patients to talk about experience from their own perspective.

OHT Improvement Measures for Focus Populations

APRIL 2021

In April, we took a look at improvement measures for common OHT focus populations including mental health and end of life.

OHT Improvement Measures: Where are OHTs starting from?

MARCH 2021

In March, we looked across all OHTs at the baseline achievement on key improvement measures. What is the range of outcomes? Is there any association with socioeconomic deprivation?

Population Health Management

FEB 2021

In February, we explored the topic population health management. What is it? How can you use population segmentation to direct efforts? Where in the world do they do this best ? How can we do it here in Ontario?

How to Measure OHT Success: Evaluation Metrics Using the Quadruple-Aim

JANUARY 2021

In January, we discussed improvement measures to be used in the evaluation of Ontario Health Teams, both provincially and locally.

OHT Implementation: A Focus on Measures for Local Evaluation

NOVEMBER 2020

How will you use your logic model to drive local measurement and reporting? Our November 2020 webinar focused on how to do this and showcased the way in which one OHT has implemented its logic model.

The Generation of Integration: Lessons Learned in Ontario, Canada

OCTOBER 2020

Ontario has experienced both successes and failures in past initiatives to integrate care. Our October 2020 webinar uncovers lessons and practical advice that will help us learn from our past.

Formative Evaluation for the 1st OHT Applicant Cohort 

SEPTEMBER 2020

What are the areas of strength which OHTs can build on and where are there needs for supports? How are supports being organized to further OHT implementation?  This month’s joint HSPN/MOHLTC webinar highlights findings from surveys and interviews completed by the first cohort of OHT applicants, and includes an update from the Ministry on planned supports for the OHT initiative.

Logic Models for OHTs

FEB 2020

Interested in evaluation? Thinking about how to choose indicators and performance measures for your OHT? Do you have a logic model? Did you know you really should have one (or more)? HSPN introductory webinar to strengthen evaluation within your OHT.

OHT Evaluation

DECEMBER 2019

HSPN will play an important role with Ontario Health Teams in the coming years in undertaking a Central Evaluation of OHTs. An overview of the initial formative evaluation was provided at two webinars on December 17 and 19, 2019.