Understanding the use of digital health and information technologies by Canadian physicians in practice

Study Objectives

The 2024 National Survey of Canadian Physicians, led in partnership by Canada Health Infoway (CHI) and the Canadian Medical Association (CMA), and conducted by Leger, aims to explore and track physicians’ perspectives on the use and impact of digital health information technologies in practice.

Specific objectives of the study were to assess:

  • Use of EMR/EHR
  • Use of electronic tools/functionalities to support patient care
  • Use of electronic clinical communication between providers
  • Administrative burden and level of burnout
  • Perceptions of aspects to prioritize to support use of AI in physician practice
  • Frequency of collecting patient feedback
  • Perceptions related to privacy of patient data
  • Barriers/challenges related to digital health technologies

Methodology

Leger conducted this web survey with 1,145 physicians practicing in Canada who are members of the CMA, including 559 GP/FMs, 531 Specialists, and 55 residents who provide direct patient care via Computer-Assisted Web Interviewing technology (CAWI). Survey invitations were distributed to physician members of the CMA by Torpedo Marketing.

The survey was made available in both English and French. It ensured compliance with AODA (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disability Act) requirements.

Using CMA membership data, weighting was applied according to specialty, region, age, and gender to render a representative sample of the CMA member population.

Ethics approval was obtained before fielding the survey. The ethics approval was granted by an independent institutional review board in April 2024, Veritas IRB Inc (IRB Tracking Number: 2024-3530-17865-3). In addition, the results presented in this study comply with the public opinion research standards and disclosure requirements of CRIC (the Canadian research and insights council) and the global ESOMAR network.

Interpretation of Data

Privacy: Data visualizations do not allow for filtering of data where sample sizes are smaller than 30 respondents in order to preserve respondent anonymity.

Rounding Error: The data presented have been rounded. As a result, totals may differ slightly from 100%

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