Cardio software shared among four hospitals ensures region-wide access to images and reports

The Simcoe Muskoka Regional Heart Program at the Royal Victoria Health Centre, in Barrie, Ont., is one of 20 cardiac care centres in the province and a recognized leader in embracing its regional mandate.

Ontarians experiencing cardiac events and requiring emergency care in smaller communities within a range of 125 kilometres of Barrie either call 911 for immediate transportation by ambulance to RVH or show up at Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare sites in Huntsville and Bracebridge, Georgian Bay General Hospital in Midland, or Collingwood General and Marine Hospital.

Several years ago, Muskoka Algonquin Healthcare integrated with RVH’s instance of Philips Cardiovascular Workspace software (previously IntelliSpace Cardiovascular, also known as ISCV). In 2024, Georgian Bay General Hospital integrated with RVH’s instance of Philips Cardiovascular Workspace software and IntelliSpace ECG (ISECG), while Collingwood General and Marine Hospital adopted only the Cardiovascular Workspace software. This strategic collaboration marked a significant milestone in advancing cardiac care across the Simcoe Muskoka region.

Before integration, many processes – such as scanning ECG results or transferring rhythm strips – were manual, creating delays and opportunities for errors. This integration delivers significant benefits, including streamlined access to cardiac data across sites, faster diagnostic workflows, improved collaboration among clinicians, and improved patient care.

Having access at RVH to a patient’s historical ECGs, echocardiograms, stress test and Holter test results in the Cardiovasular Workspace software can also be helpful if the patient does at some point have a cardiac event. “Previously, we had no visibility into whether an ECG or echocardiogram had been completed because the information wasn’t shared,” said Amy Bellisle, RVH’s regional manager of clinical informatics.

“What RVH is doing to embrace its regional mandate is something that other regions in Ontario are only limping towards,” remarked Andrew McClure, a Philips cardiology specialist. Some regional cardiac care centres have made a similar commitment to integration and interoperability, but others have been slow to extend their cardiac care software to smaller hospitals in the region they serve.

By sharing RVH’s instance of Philips software, the participating hospitals were able to acquire Philips ISCV and ISECG with significant cost efficiencies compared to purchasing them individually. In addition, leveraging RVH’s dedicated cardiac informatics team – a highly skilled group of four specialists – enabled hospitals to achieve economies of scale.

“By leveraging a shared instance and RVH’s cardiac informatics expertise, we’ve enabled participating hospitals to achieve cost efficiencies and operational savings that would not be possible through individual procurement. This model demonstrates how regional partnerships can optimize resources, enhance interoperability, and deliver sustainable value for both clinicians and patients.” said Sarabjit (Sunny) Singh, RVH’s regional chief nursing informatics officer.

“Usually, hospital informatics teams are responsible for a much broader portfolio,” said McClure. “At RVH, the informatics team has a deep knowledge of cardiology and a lot of experience with the Philips software. This level of dedicated focus on cardiology informatics is rare across Canada, and it truly sets RVH apart as a leader in regional cardiac care,” said both Singh and McClure.

The ISCV software features a dashboard with a cardiology timeline, a graphical, panoramic, and chronological overview of a patient’s cardiovascular care continuum. The timeline functions as a patient-centric, comprehensive repository of cardiovascular information, allowing cardiologists to view multi-modality images and reports in the same workspace, streamlining clinical workflow, improving operational performance and enhancing patient care.

“Having everything in one place is far more convenient,” asserted McClure. “You log in once and you can see everything. If you had to sign in to three separate accounts, it would be unnecessarily time-consuming.” Cardiologists seeing evidence of atrial fibrillation in an ECG will want to have a look at the patient’s echocardiogram, and if they see a pacemaker wire in the echo, they’ll want to go into the cath lab management software, XperIM, for further information, so with ISCV, everything is easily accessible. Philips’ XperIM software is only located at RVH, site of the region’s only cath lab.

The extension of the Philips software allows access to cardiac tests in one workspace regardless of where the tests were performed.
“The integration of these systems has transformed our cardiac workflows at RVH,” said Lori Vajda, operations director, Simcoe Muskoka Regional Heart Program. “They have streamlined documentation, reduced redundant data transfer, and enabled faster, more informed clinical decision making. The ability to access patient data from anywhere has improved collaboration across our teams and ultimately enhanced patient care.”

The digitization of ECGs through Philips’ ISECG software has also helped to streamline workflow and reduce errors, said Bellisle. “When we had paper-based ECGs, we had issues with wrong labelling, lost paperwork and misfiling into patient charts. There’s a decreased load on our archiving and scanning teams who used to manually go in and scan the results into the patient chart. With ISECG, the digital ECG appear directly in the patient’s chart.” When ECGs were processed and filed manually, every point of human contact was a potential source of error. Philips’ solutions deliver a high level of accuracy in associating studies with the right patient chart, driving faster reconciliation.

RVH’s expertise as a regional cardiac care centre has not gone unnoticed by other hospitals hoping to emulate its success. “We’re proud to serve as a demonstration site for other hospitals looking to implement similar initiatives. I’m incredibly proud of the cardiac informatics team’s hard work and the strong collaboration with our clinical teams and Philips. Together, we’ve set RVH apart as a leader in regional cardiac care,” said RVH’s Singh.