If there’s anyone who knows the challenges of delivering long-distance health care in Northern Ontario, it’s David Murray.
Born in Fort Frances, he has spent his career working in leadership positions including as CEO of the North East Local Health Integration Network (NE LHIN), president and CEO of the Group Health Centre in Sault Ste. Marie, CEO of the Kenora-Rainy River Community Care Access Centre (CCAC), and president and CEO of the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre.
On Sept. 1, 2016, Murray took on a new role as executive director of the Northwest Health Alliance. The joint venture launched eight years ago as a way for 13 regional hospitals to share IT resources.
“Northwestern Ontario is absolutely unique in that all the hospitals share the same Meditech IT system. All sites have the ability to access information instantaneously,” Murray said.
The trend towards integrated IT systems is being adopted across Ontario. It reduces duplication of tests including blood work and X-rays and reduces other barriers to timely and cost-effective care.
“Other parts of the province are starting to realize how far ahead we are.”
The Northwest Health Alliance also allows member hospitals to implement other technology more easily, including smaller hospitals that may not otherwise have access. One example is an automated medication management system which reduces medication errors and improves patient safety.
“Because we’re so tied together, it makes it a lot easier to complete some of these joint projects,” Murray said.
Recently, the alliance branched into other support areas such as project management and business intelligence and analytics.
But that’s only the beginning.
Murray said technology is the future of health care — especially in rural areas such as Northern Ontario. His challenge is to help guide the Northwest Health Alliance to its fullest potential.
“I think we are going to see some fundamental changes in health care in the next few years,” he said. “These changes will come in two areas: virtualization and computerized decision support for health-care professionals.”
Virtualization will be in the form of initiatives such as the Ontario Telemedicine Network — where Murray is board chair — that allows patients to “visit” doctors and specialists through teleconferences and videoconferences, reducing travel and increasing closer-to-home care.
Computerized decision support could be from the same Watson question-answering system that beat two champions of the TV game show Jeopardy in 2011.
IBM demonstrated how Watson helped diagnose a woman with a rare form of lung cancer by reviewing her chart as well as 3,500 related articles and 100,000 other pieces of data.
The system also suggested new tests and possible treatments for the physician to consider. The whole process took 17 seconds.
“This is not going to replace doctors, but it will be a useful tool to provide deep analytics for doctors.”
Over his career, Murray has made a specialty of guiding organizations through profound change.
Most recently, Murray oversaw the transformation of the Sioux Lookout Meno Ya Win Health Centre, including the opening of a new facility in 2010.
The accomplishment he is most proud of is supporting the launch of a program that helps pregnant women with addiction issues, reducing withdrawal symptoms in newborns.
“When a baby goes through withdrawal, it’s a horrible thing. But that was the norm when I got there seven years ago,” Murray said.
At that time, an estimated 30 to 40 per cent of babies were born with an addiction.
“Drs. Dooley, Guilfoyle, and Gerber-Finn developed a whole new program to address the problem. Now, it happens incredibly infrequently — somebody told me they’ve only had two in the last year.”
The program also provides addiction treatment and counselling to mothers’ partners, as well as education programs so that kids and young adults can go to school while in Sioux Lookout.
Murray does not take much personal credit for these programs. However, it’s clear that his vision and administrative leadership is critical in allowing these new initiatives to take root and flourish.
“I’ve been fortunate throughout my career that I’ve always had champions wherever I go. They know what they’re doing. My job is just to support them and help them make it happen.”
