Toronto (March 21, 2018) — NexJ Health Inc., a provider of patient and family-facing engagement solutions for chronic disease management, announced today that in collaboration with The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids), they have been awarded funding from the Government of Ontario to develop, implement, configure and evaluate their patient-facing virtual care platform for some of the sickest children in the province; those in the SickKids Complex Care Program.

The 24-month initiative will apply an innovative patient-facing technology to paediatric care to address the needs of children with medical complexity and their families and caregivers. NexJ Connected Wellness will enable care coordination for these children and their families by providing access to a patient-facing coordinated care plan, patient health record, secure information sharing, and patient-based online information entry. The solution will enable remote access to critical information for all care providers, linking the community, acute care, and rehabilitation centres to establish a shared care plan that patients and their families can contribute to.

Children with medical complexity are defined as children with chronic complex medical conditions, functional limitations (including often being wheelchair dependent and technology reliant, such as  needing feeding and/or breathing tubes for life support), and high healthcare utilization across homecare, acute care and rehabilitation settings. These children consume greater than one third of all child health care spending, despite accounting for less than one per cent of the paediatric population in Ontario (Cohen et al., 2012). Complexities in coordinating care for this population results in higher rates of hospitalization, poorer health outcomes for child and caregiver, decreased satisfaction with health care services and increased mortality.

The Complex Care Program at SickKids is the largest complex care program in the country with satellite clinics bridging patients between SickKids and seven community centres across Ontario. This project will include the implementation of NexJ Connected Wellness at SickKids and their satellite sites, allowing for ease of communication between all care providers, to allow parents to not have to continuously tell their story. The implementation will be overseen by SickKids and the Complex Care Kids Ontario Strategy led by the Provincial Council for Maternal Child Health.

The project will be led by a Health Innovation Team (HIT) who have robust experience and expertise in paediatric complex care, clinical research, and adopting innovative technologies. The HIT will consist of members from NexJ Health, SickKids, Holland Bloorview Kids Rehabilitation Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario – Ottawa Children’s Treatment Centre (CHEO – OCTC), Credit Valley Hospital, Royal Victoria Hospital, North York General Hospital, Peterborough Regional Hospital, Orillia Soldiers Memorial, Michael Garron Hospital, and Ontario’s Provincial Council for Maternal Child Health. The HIT will work collaboratively to ensure a full understanding of the conditions necessary for successful implementation, and develop evidence to support broader uptake of the technology across paediatric care in Ontario.

This joint initiative was selected as one of 12 innovative projects to be supported through the second round of the Health Technologies Fund (HTF). HTF is a program of the Government of Ontario’s Office of the Chief Health Innovation Strategist (OCHIS), administered by the Ontario Centres of Excellence (OCE). Innovations selected will improve patient care at home and in the community through cutting-edge, made-in-Ontario health technologies that will help bring better care closer to home, and bring value to the healthcare system.

About NexJ Health Inc.

NexJ Health Inc. is a provider of patient-facing population health management solutions that deliver patient engagement for chronic disease management. At NexJ Health, we believe that the most efficient and cost-effective way to offset the rise in chronic disease is to empower patients, with the support of their families, friends, and healthcare professionals, to actively participate in managing their own chronic condition(s). By engaging patients through NexJ Connected Wellness, patients are more likely to achieve their health goals, payers can lower costs, providers can improve care to patients, and pharmaceutical manufacturers and pharmacies can improve medication adherence. For more information about NexJ Health visit www.nexjhealth.com, e-mail info@nexjhealth.com, or call 416-227-3700.

About The Hospital for Sick Children

The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) is recognized as one of the world’s foremost paediatric health-care institutions and is Canada’s leading centre dedicated to advancing children’s health through the integration of patient care, research and education. Founded in 1875 and affiliated with the University of Toronto, SickKids is one of Canada’s most research-intensive hospitals and has generated discoveries that have helped children globally.  Its mission is to provide the best in complex and specialized family-centred care; pioneer scientific and clinical advancements; share expertise; foster an academic environment that nurtures health-care professionals; and champion an accessible, comprehensive and sustainable child health system. SickKids is proud of its vision for Healthier Children. A Better World. For more information, please visit www.sickkids.ca.

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