Operationalizing and Evaluating Synchronous Virtual Group Health Interventions: Wide-Scale Implementation at a Tertiary Care Academic Hospital

Neesha Hussain-Shamsy; Ian McMillan; Sheridan Cook; Alyssa Furfaro-Argier; Andrea Sadler; Faith Delos-Reyes; Lori Wasserman; Sacha Bhatia; Danielle Martin; Emily Seto; Simone N Vigod; Juveria Zaheer; Payal Agarwal; Geetha Mukerji

doi:10.2196/29841

Operationalizing and Evaluating Synchronous Virtual Group Health Interventions: Wide-Scale Implementation at a Tertiary Care Academic Hospital

J Med Internet Res. 2022 Apr 7;24(4):e29841. doi: 10.2196/29841.

Authors

Neesha Hussain-Shamsy^{1

2

3}, Ian McMillan⁴, Sheridan Cook⁵, Alyssa Furfaro-Argier⁶, Andrea Sadler⁷, Faith Delos-Reyes⁸, Lori Wasserman⁹, Sacha Bhatia^{1

3

10}, Danielle Martin^{1

3

11}, Emily Seto^{1

2}, Simone N Vigod^{1

3

10

11}, Juveria Zaheer^{11

12}, Payal Agarwal^{3

13}, Geetha Mukerji^{1

3

11

14}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
² Centre for Global eHealth Innovation, Techna Institute, University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada.
³ Institute for Health System Solutions and Virtual Care, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁴ Women's Virtual, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁵ Gevity Consulting Inc, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁶ Department of Information Management and Technology, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁷ Department of Psychiatry, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁸ Department of Cardiology, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
⁹ Reproductive Life Stages Program, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁰ Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹¹ Temerty Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹² Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹³ Family Practice Health Centre, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.
¹⁴ Department of Medicine, Women's College Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada.

PMID: 35389350
PMCID: PMC9030913
DOI: 10.2196/29841

Abstract

Group-based health interventions are an important component of health promotion and management. To provide continuity of care throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, our institution undertook a rapid pivot to delivering group-based health interventions via a videoconferencing service which was securely embedded into both the electronic medical record and the patient portal to sustainably address immediate health service delivery needs during the pandemic and beyond. In this paper, we (1) describe the institutionally driven operationalization of a system to provide integrated synchronous video group visits across our hospital and (2) present a proposed strategy to comprehensively evaluate outcomes regarding their implementation, quality, and impact. Lessons for other institutions and the potential future role of synchronous video group visits to enhance how care can be scaled for delivery are discussed.

Keywords: electronic medical records; group therapy; health promotion; health service delivery; health systems; innovation; patient education; patient portal; sustainability; video call; videoconferencing; virtual care.

©Neesha Hussain-Shamsy, Ian McMillan, Sheridan Cook, Alyssa Furfaro-Argier, Andrea Sadler, Faith Delos-Reyes, Lori Wasserman, Sacha Bhatia, Danielle Martin, Emily Seto, Simone N Vigod, Juveria Zaheer, Payal Agarwal, Geetha Mukerji. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (https://www.jmir.org), 07.04.2022.

MeSH terms

COVID-19*
Hospitals
Humans
Pandemics / prevention & control
SARS-CoV-2
Telemedicine*
Tertiary Healthcare