SGFP Digital Health Roadmap Series: Final Installment
Dear SGFP Members,
Over the past few months, our Digital Health Team has walked through the first five of six pillars of our Digital Health Roadmap, a physician-led blueprint for a safer, more coherent, and more usable digital health system in Ontario. Today, we’re sharing the final installment in the series.
As the team continues to advocate on your behalf, your input is essential. Please take two minutes to complete this short four-question survey.
Please click on the following link or copy and paste the full URL below into your web browser:
https://insights.oma.org/c/r/SGFP_PCMR_Survey
Your feedback directly shapes our priorities and strengthens our voice at provincial tables.
Warm Regards,
Dr. Dave Barber, Chair, SGFP
Digital Health Roadmap – Pillar 6 - Fixing the Interface: A Pragmatic Plan for Patient Access
Dear Colleagues,
In our roadmap, A Foundational Reset, Pillar 6 focuses squarely on a pragmatic, physician-led plan for patient access. We are urging the government to commit to four high-impact actions to meet public demand without overwhelming the front lines:
- Commit to a Single Provincial Portal this year: We need a firm deadline to commit to a single, no-cost patient portal built from existing data feeds.
- SGFP Co-Design at Every Phase: SGFP must be formally appointed to the advisory body shaping this rollout to ensure the system is safe and practical.
- Implement a Tiered Release Model: To manage workload, we must start with the immediate release of low-anxiety data, such as routine labs, immunizations, and medications. Concurrently, we must institute mandatory time delays for highly sensitive results, like new oncology diagnoses, to give physicians time to communicate with their patients first. Let’s learn from other jurisdictions already doing this.
- Fund Patient Support Tools: The portal must include provincially-funded, plain-language explanations of results, multilingual support, and secure caregiver proxy access. This is critical to reducing patient anxiety and preventing unnecessary clinic calls.
The solution is a single, unified provincial portal, co-designed with physicians, and rolled out in a safe, staged, and step-wise manner. This is how we build public trust while protecting our clinics from an unmanageable surge in workload.
We have outlined a two-phase approach to the roadmap for a unified digital health system. Phase one lays the groundwork by mandating clinical expertise at the governance level, funding centralized cybersecurity and digital infrastructure to ensure universal digital readiness, and requiring EMR vendors to adopt open APIs to end market lock-in. Phase two builds on this foundation by establishing an EMR-fed digital backbone, creating a physician-guided AI sandbox for safe innovation, and committing to a co-designed, staged rollout of a single provincial patient portal.
By addressing these core issues, the roadmap envisions a secure, interoperable health system—governed alongside family physicians—that supports the Patient's Medical Home (PMH) model, significantly reduces physician burnout, and provides a modern, fiscally responsible approach to patient care.
Thank you for your ongoing dedication and for standing united as we push for digital health reform that respects your time and your practice.
Warm regards,
The SGFP Digital Health Team
Dr. Kevin Brophy, Chief Physician Officer, Digital Health
Barbra McCaffrey, Chief Administrative Officer, Digital Health
Dr. Anushiya Ganeshalingam
Dr. Naila Kassam
Dr. Stan Spacek
Dr. Keith Thompson
Other Resources
Happy World Doctors Day!
We want to thank physicians for always showing up for patients, families, and communities.
The OMD Educates Digital Health Conference, taking place at the Automotive Building in Toronto on October 1–2, 2026, is a two-day, one-of-a-kind opportunity to get tips from experts and colleagues on using your EMR and other innovative health technologies to enhance patient care and realize value for your practice. The program for this year’s OMD Educates DHC 2026 will focus on Turning Technology into Time – Creating Capacity in the Community, featuring practical sessions designed to help family physicians, specialists, and clinic staff save time and streamline workflows.
Early-bird registration is available now, and in recognition of World Doctors Day, we are offering you an additional 15% off with discount code 15FDD26.
The OMD Educates Digital Health Conference 2026 always brings together clinicians and digital health experts for real conversations and real-world insight.
ORA Immunization Recommendations for Immunocompromised Adults
The Ontario Rheumatology Association has developed new guidance to help clinicians and patients quickly access the best current vaccine recommendations to support optimal care for people living with rheumatic diseases and other causes of immunocompromise.
Link: Summary of Immunization Recommendations for Immunocompromised Adults
Resource Sharing: If you have information about a news item, policy, survey or event you wish to share with SGFP members, please review the criteria and provide the following required information for us to include in this section of the newsletter. Please send this submission to: ChairLetterSGFP@outlook.com