ArticleJMIR medical informatics2019
Improving the Referral Process, Timeliness, Effectiveness, and Equity of Access to Specialist Medical Services Through Electronic Consultation: Pilot Study.
Article in JMIR medical informatics, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 15 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
15 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 39 citations in OpenAlex.
- Family Physician-to-Hospital Specialist Electronic Consultation and Access to Hospital Care: A Systematic Review.JAMA network open · 2024Pooled it
- A Bibliometric Analysis and Visualization of Decision Support Systems for Healthcare Referral Strategies.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Understanding and Addressing Delays in Endocrine Surgery: Insights From a Mixed-Methods Study and a Pilot Educational Intervention.Journal of surgical oncology · 2026Article
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- Barriers to and Facilitators of Implementing Overnight Nursing Teleconsultation in Small, Rural Long-Term Care Facilities: Qualitative Interview Study.JMIR aging · 2025Article
- Continuous Glucose Monitoring-Enhanced eConsult Improves Clinical Outcomes in Adults Living With Diabetes in a Safety Net Primary Care Setting.Journal of diabetes research · 2025Observational
- Physician-to-Physician eConsultations to Ophthalmologists at an Academic Medical Center.Translational vision science & technology · 2024Article
- Successful Electronic Consultation Service Initiative in Quebec, Canada With Primary Care Physicians' and Specialists' Experiences on Acceptance and Use of Technological Innovation: Cross-Sectional Exploratory Study.JMIR formative research · 2024Article
- Does virtual consultation between primary and specialised care improve healthcare quality? A scoping review of healthcare quality domains assessment.BMJ open quality · 2023Article
- A Data-Driven Algorithm to Recommend Initial Clinical Workup for Outpatient Specialty Referral: Algorithm Development and Validation Using Electronic Health Record Data and Expert Surveys.JMIR medical informatics · 2022Article
- Today's referral is tomorrow's repeat patient: referrals to and between medical outpatient clinics in a hospital.BMC health services research · 2022Article
- Professional continuous glucose monitoring and endocrinology eConsult for adults with type 2 diabetes in primary care: Results of a clinical pilot program.Journal of clinical & translational endocrinology · 2021Article
- Electronic Consults for Infectious Diseases in a United States Multisite Academic Health System.Open forum infectious diseases · 2020Article
- Clinicians' Experiences and Perspectives about a New Lung Cancer Referral Pathway in a Regional Health Service.International journal of integrated careArticle
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 4 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAccess to specialty care remains a major challenge in the Canadian health care system. Electronic consultation (eConsult) services allow primary care providers to seek specialist advice often without needing the patient to go for a face-to-face consultation. It improves overall access to specialists and the referral process using an electronic care consultation service in urban and rural primary care clinics. This study describes the preliminary results of a pilot study with an eConsult service across 3 regions in the province of Quebec, Canada.
objectiveThe main objective of this study was to provide a 1-year snapshot of the implementation of the eConsult Quebec Service in rural and urban primary care clinics to improve access to care and the specialty referral process for primary care providers (PCPs).
methodsWe established an eConsult service that covers urban and rural communities in 3 regions of Quebec. We conducted a quantitative analysis of all eConsult cases submitted from July 4, 2017, to December 8, 2018.
resultsFor over a year, 1016 eConsults have been generated during the course of this study. A total of 97 PCPs submitted requests to 22 specialty groups and were answered by 40 different specialists. The most popular specialty was internal medicine (224/1016, 22%). Overall, 63% (640/1016) of completed cases did not require a face-to-face visit. PCPs rated the service as being of high or very high value for themselves in 98% (996/1016) of cases.
conclusionsThe preliminary data highlight the success of the implementation of the eConsult Quebec Service across 6 primary care clinics. The eConsult platform proves to be effective, efficient, and well received by both patients and physicians. If used more widely, eConsult could help reducing wait times significantly. Recently, the Ministry of Health and Social Services of Quebec has identified developing a strategic plan to scale eConsults throughout other regions of the province as a top priority.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.