Novari Health

Improving patient access to surgical care with Microsoft Teams

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Stepping up in the covid-19 crisis

Based in Kingston, Ontario since its inception in 2003, Novari Health became a reality when a group of smart healthcare professionals sought to improve patient access to surgical care with modern technology. With support from healthcare stakeholders, Novari developed their award-winning, cloud-based enterprise-scale software solution. Their app is anecdotally described as air traffic control for healthcare referrals.

Novari’s international expertise helped them to realize that a patient is most vulnerable when care is switched from one provider to another. Empowered with patient and industry insights, Novari Health worked with hospitals, healthcare agencies, and physicians to mitigate this risk to patient care. Digital Health market size was estimated over USD $106 billion in 2019 and the industry will grow at 28.5 percent through 2026.*

Record speed, safety, and security

With the onset of the pandemic, inbound calls to Ontario’s Telehealth Hotline spiked from 2,000 to 15,000 calls per day, putting the system under immense strain. The province’s healthcare agencies and stakeholders launched the Ontario Virtual Care Clinic (OVCC) to connect physicians with patients securely.

Novari’s industry expertise and past success with innovative healthcare solutions made them a natural ft for this project. The province agreed and selected Novari to accelerate its virtual waiting room capabilities.

Teams takes centre stage

OVCC relies on the reliability and scalability of Microsoft Teams. Novari and Microsoft collaborated to enable the virtual clinic to handle 1,000 simultaneous, secured video conferences. Novari’s expertise with Microsoft Teams enabled them to deploy a rapid training program to 1,000+ new healthcare professionals. Leveraging live and on-demand training content, they met the challenge in record time.

OVCC is a triumph. Aside from delivering the virtual clinic on time and on budget during a pandemic, Novari’s application is embraced by its users. An ICU nurse who used the OVCC as a patient and as a healthcare provider noted that the technology worked perfectly, and she had a seamless and efficient experience.

“Winning this prestigious Impact award recognizes the mountains my Novari colleagues moved almost overnight to start up the OVCC, and builds on our COVID-19 related referral, central intake, and surgical wait list management work. As Canada’s digital ‘access to care’ experts we have the enabling technology to help our healthcare system weather this storm.” - John Sinclair, President, Novari Health