Osteoporosis Canada

Background

In 2007, the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care (MOHLTC) initiated the Osteoporosis Strategy to reduce the number of osteoporosis related fractures in Ontario. Part of the strategy focuses on osteoporosis management after a person visits a fracture clinic for an osteoporosis related fracture. These patients are at very high risk for a subsequent fracture, however several studies have shown that few have their underlying osteoporosis assessed and addressed. The primary goal of the Ontario Osteoporosis Strategy (OOS) is to reduce fragility fractures and re-fractures through early detection and appropriate intervention.

The Fracture Clinic Screening Program has deployed Osteoporosis Screening Coordinators (OSCs) in the medium and high volume fracture clinics across the province to screen for fragility fractures and facilitate diagnosis and appropriate care.  A component of the OSC’s role is to gather data using dynamically generated questionnaires as part of routine patient care. This data includes patient demographic information, fracture description, osteoporosis risk factors, details regarding previous investigation, diagnosis and treatment of osteoporosis, as well as the patient’s views and knowledge of osteoporosis.   

Solution Overview

The Fracture Clinic Screening Database (FCSD) application is a data collection and reporting system used to collect and report on patient data used to support the OOS.  The system allows Osteoporosis Canada to securely collect patient information through the creation and deployment of dynamic surveys and to analyze that data through a powerful reporting engine. 

Surveys are created with the FCSD and can be delivered to clinics within certain geographic regions throughout the province and/or delivered to subsets of patients based on their responses and demographic information.  The surveys contain branching conditions and allow OSCs to ask appropriate questions based on previous patient responses.

The FCSD captures patient consent, allowing Osteoporosis Canada to both use the data for their own research purposes and program improvement and also securely link consenting data with the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences (ICES).  Data from the FCSD is encrypted and securely transported to ICES for linkage, this data is used to further reduce fracture rates and improve the OOS.

Data collected within the FCSD can be reported on in real time by a research team at Osteoporosis Canada.  The FCSD provides users with the tools to generate tables, graphs, and charts on demand.  Reports within the FCSD can be exported to a variety of formats including Excel, Word and PowerPoint and can be shared amongst users of the application.

Prominent features include:

• Secure and encrypted personal health information

• Dynamic data collection through customizable surveys

• Approval process for survey changes

• Conditional based survey branching

• Survey delivery base on patient demographics (i.e. Male patients over 50)

• Randomized survey delivery (i.e. deliver to 50% of patients)

• User specific dashboards

• Real-time ad-hoc reporting

• Cell suppression

• Granular user account control and permissions