There is a great feeling being called an "Innovator" and working with the "Early Adopters" of the industry, but at some point success catches up with you. 

After several years working exclusively in the home health care sector, we have 11 agencies running our software and many others looking to adopt our "leading edge mobile technology". MedShare is on its way to becoming a mainstream technology provider in the industry.

One agency CEO, recently commented, "mobile technology at the point of care will be a minimum requirement to win RFPs in Ontario".  Many of the provinces are looking to point of care technology to deliver informed decision making and increase patient safety.  Saskatchewan and others need to ensure their health care workers stay safe, which is aided by using mobile communications devices. 

Our vision of empowering Home Health Care Workers with access to medical information, knowledge and support has become a reality.  With support from Research in Motion we built the first BlackBerry application for home health care workers.  Now those trail blazers and deploying BlackBerrys to their full workforce. 

On the eNursing front, Saint Elizabeth Health Care, an early adopter of the MedShare eMotion tablet software won the 2008 CST national award for "Innovative use of Store and Forward Telehealth technology".  That word innovation is like music to my ears.

MedShare's mobile health information solutions have come of age.  And we are getting comfortable with terms like main stream and the emerging standard.

Wishing you and yours a happy and safe holiday season ,

Barry Billings, President, MedShare
barry.billings@medshare.com

1. To provide an effective channel of communication between HC user organizations and MedShare
2. To provide a vehicle for HC users to share problems and solutions related to the use of the HC application

For the clients, the goal is to contribute to the evolution of MedShare HC.  With a large group of users in the room, it is our hope that the group will be able to coordinate and prioritize requests, allowing MedShare to develop based on the collective goals of the group.  Secondly, it will allow MedShare an opportunity to easily communicate strategic directions for MedShare HC to the users that rely on the software. 

The first meeting was on September 17, 2008 following our AGM.  The participants included Nightingale, Therapy Partners, PACE Homecare, The Speech Clinic and Community Rehab.  The group appointed a Chair and associate members and then discussed its formal operation including the terms of reference, plus the top 5 priorities for MedShare HC going forward.  Please contact MedShare if you are interested in joining the MedShare HC User Group.

MedShare eCampus is an online training resource centre for MedShare clients
MedShare proudly announces MedShare eCampus.  This is a new online service that MedShare will roll out early in 2009 designed to help our clients with some of the features of our products and have an ability to discuss products with MedShare and other clients.

What Clients can expect:
Access short online videos with instructions on how to use MedShare for BlackBerry® (MBB). Eventually training resources for MedShare for eMotion and Care Plans along with administrator and coordinator training for MedShare HC will also be available. The portal provides a single place to access all the training materials necessary to use MedShare software. Clients can step through the videos at their own pace and progress from new users to champion level. Resources are searchable and also organized by product and feature so clients can quickly go straight to the information they need when they need it.

After reviewing the flash based videos, users can take short quizzes to test their knowledge and ensure they have grasped the information. This is particularly useful with new employees who have to quickly get up to speed with the software they will be using daily in their work. There are also FAQ’s and Tips and Shortcuts for frequently used features.

Lastly there is a discussion forum that allows MedShare clients to ask questions and submit ideas for software enhancements.

MedShare eCampus supplements onsite and webinar based training provided when a client first launches or upgrades MedShare software. It helps as a refresher for staff who have been away from the software for a bit or as a new user introduction when onsite or webinar training is not immediately available.

Look for a beta of MedShare eCampus in January 2009.

The Professional Services Team

On September 17, 2008, MedShare held its third annual general meeting (AGM), titled MedShare Cares.  Glencairn golf course in Milton, ON were hosts to approximately 50 clients and guests on a beautiful Wednesday morning.  The half day event gave clients of MedShare an opportunity to find out how the past year has been, and where Barry and the management team of MedShare expects to take the company over the next 12 months and beyond.

The day started when Barry Billings, MedShare’s CEO, took the audience through his vision for the company over the next few years.  Barry’s thorough explanation of the current product offerings, market opportunities with aging demographics and new technologies, and a new model for healthcare, leveraging patient knowledge to help make decisions, gave everyone in attendance hope for a more efficient healthcare system.

Our product manager, Amy Morris, reminded us of the past year’s product improvements, and there were many.  Amy’s development team has done an amazing job of delivering product improvements and enhancements to help our clients to better manage their client base.  We have a new version coming soon for MedShare for BlackBerry and recently released the Sven version for MedShare HC.  Amy thoroughly explained the development process for MedShare and some of the new features and benefits that will be available as new versions of our software are released.

Debbie McCabe, our professional services manager, released the results of our customer survey that was distributed this past summer.  Thank you to all of our customers for taking the time to fill out the survey.  These surveys provided MedShare valuable information about what our clients need our software to do.  The results of these surveys help drive future product roadmaps, ultimately helping our clients do their important jobs better.  Debbie was also able to announce the creation of our MedShare HC User Group.  This is a new initiative that was launched at our MedShare Cares event this year.  More information will be provided later in the newsletter.

Aaron Stuart from Research in Motion, gave everyone the opportunity to see the new RIM produced video chronicling the success of our MedShare for BlackBerry product with one of our clients, WeCare.  RIM has been a good partner for MedShare and we are looking forward to future partnerships with the BlackBerry maker to help put BlackBerry’s in the hands of home care workers.

Before lunch, Joanne Coyle, CEO of Therapy Partners, gave everyone her perspective on how Barry and MedShare has helped her company significantly reduce costs and increase productivity because of the investments that Therapy Partners has made in technology.  Therapy Partners was MedShare’s first client and has worked with MedShare throughout the past three years, giving Ms. Coyle a unique perspective on the benefits of working with MedShare.

During a very enjoyable lunch put on by the staff at Glencairn golf course, we heard Nadine Henningsen gave a very motivational speech about the need for more funding for home care, and the necessary technology to improve the efficiency and capacity of the healthcare system.  Nadine specifically mentioned the successes that MedShare has had with our current products and how they have the potential to revolutionize delivery of home care in this country.  It is certainly nice to hear some of the positive impacts that our products have had in the industry, and how they have helped clients and companies alike. 

To finish off lunch, Barry showed us more about MedShare’s vision of a consumer-based healthcare model that we believe will add an important dimension to remote patient monitoring in Canada.  Chronic disease management has not historically been a referral source for home care agencies.  We know that a significant amount of health care dollars are spent on managing chronic diseases and technology is finally offering solutions that could significantly impact spending in this area.  MedShare plans to be on the cutting edge of this new health care delivery model and feel strongly that home care agencies have a strong role to play.  Home care workers have a unique ability to interact with the clients they serve, and we feel those relationships can be used to aid in chronic disease management.  At this time there may be more questions than answers, but we feel strongly that this is a natural fit for MedShare and our clients to improve chronic disease management in this country.

We want to thank all of our clients and guests who took the time out of their very busy schedules to spend part of their day with us.  We hope you found it useful and a good use of your time.  We invite any further feedback on the event so we can make it even better in 2009.

CHRIS/HPG
The CCAC's implementation of CHRIS means making sure that MedShare is ready to go:

Privacy Update
Are you struggling with privacy and security concerns when building your mobile technology strategy?

• MedShare is partnering with the Ontario Information Privacy Commissioner and RIM to develop a best practices guideline to implementing handheld mobile solutions in your agency.  This report will be available mid-December
• MedShare has a Privacy and Security paper available to help you understand what features and options are available when implementing MedShare for BlackBerry.  Please contact Amy Morris directly for a copy of the paper - amy.morris@medshare.com