OIN implemented at Erie St. Clair Regional Cancer Program (Windsor)

Executive Summary: 

Erie St. Clair Regional Cancer Program is researching OIN strategies to meet the needs of a growing population of seniors, rural areas and people with chronic diseases, showing strong results.

Toronto, Canada – November 1, 2010 – The OIN is serving a growing number of seniors, rural areas and people with chronic diseases during implementation of the OIN at Erie St. Clair Regional Cancer Program.

The OIN will support clinicians, educators, navigators and community care providers, to help patients to become engaged by actionable, tailored content to support their cancer journey.

The implementation research at Erie St. Clair is already seeing very high uptake numbers on OIN usages.

“The plain language approach of the OIN helps make the tool accessible and clear to the diverse population with varying degrees of formal education,” said president of Jack Digital Productions Murray Rochon. “We're very pleased to see the uptake among the older people as well — something that is a repeating theme in research conducted on the OIN in many centres.

“One of the challenges faced by healthcare is supporting people who find themselves with a cancer diagnosis but miles away from a cancer centre. The OIN will help cancer programs reach those people out in the community, providing early support to answer those individual questions, thereby reducing distress and anxiety early on.”

Patient Summary Forms printed at the point of diagnosis will connect patients to tailored, comprehensive OIN content. Usage patterns and comments are tracked and reported weekly, providing a feed-back loop for ongoing development.

Two implementation strategies are being compared at Erie. St Clair Regional Cancer Program. The mail-out strategy using Patient Summary Forms shows an uptake of 40 percent, which is very strong for this method. However, an integrated approach using community surgeons reveals uptake of 90 percent.

This innovative research by Erie. St Clair Regional Cancer Program is very helpful to ensure maximum reach and effectiveness of the OIN.

Implementation includes clinical champions, educators, navigators and community care providers.

The OIN is the result of the work done by Jack Digital Productions and a multidisciplinary team of health professionals. Integrated within clinical care, it gives clinicians, educators, navigators and community care providers a comprehensive web-based program that enables patients to participate as active partners in their care and wellness.