New technology aims to improve access to cancer care

November 28, 2023 (Toronto, ON) – The Ottawa Hospital (TOH), the Ontario Bioscience Innovation Organization (OBIO®), and Gray Oncology Solutions (Gray) are thrilled to announce the results of the deployment and evaluation of a new technology developed in Canada and aimed at optimizing operations in cancer care.

Over the past few decades, remarkable strides in cancer treatment have significantly improved the treatment of patients. While offering exciting possibilities, these advances have also introduced a high level of complexity that can be a challenge to manage effectively.

The scheduling of care journeys, which plays a pivotal role in ensuring patients’ access to care and the optimal use of hospital resources, is a highly manual and inefficient process, leading to increased administrative burden, wait times and cost of care delivery.

In a concerted effort to maintain the quality of care and maximize hospital resources, TOH partnered with Gray to deploy and evaluate their novel technology, GrayOS. This project was carried out with support from OBIO’s Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN™).

GrayOS is the operating system for cancer care, which automates and optimizes the operations of cancer centres. It was co-developed with the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) and now deployed in clinics across multiple provinces, where it has been proven to increase efficiencies, reduce administrative overhead, save costs and improve staff experience.

TOH, one of Canada’s largest learning and research hospitals, became the first Ontario hospital to introduce and evaluate the technology. TOH, Gray and OBIO® are excited to share the preliminary results of this evaluation.

In less than six months, the solution saved costs and reduced the administrative burden by 60%. After GrayOS was deployed, TOH reported a 17% increase in the rate of patients treated within the targeted time outlined by Cancer Care Ontario, which is the provincial agency that sets standards for cancer care.

“Using GrayOS has played a pivotal role in reducing our operational challenges in radiation oncology,” said Melissa Diffey, Manager, Radiation Medicine Program at The Ottawa Hospital. “With this innovative technology, we are now able to further streamline our workflow and improve wait times by scheduling more patients within the targeted treatment deadline.”

The team will continue to monitor the results as further impact is expected from the efficiency gain.

“We’re incredibly grateful that The Ottawa Hospital has been such a great partner in deploying, testing and evaluating our technology. The meaningful results and interest we’ve received from Québec and now Ontario signal that we are on the right track to addressing a significant challenge in cancer care,” added André Diamant, CEO of Gray.

“OBIO® is proud to have partnered with The Ottawa Hospital and Gray Oncology Solutions on this inter-provincial project. The results of this evaluation reflect the impact of using cutting-edge technology in healthcare to improve clinical efficiency and enhance patient care. We are eager to continue to support GrayOS in the next steps of procurement and wider adoption across Ontario’s healthcare systems,” said Dr. Maura Campbell, President and CEO of OBIO®.

GrayOS will continue to help The Ottawa Hospital treat more patients with the same amount of resources by unlocking additional capacity to prioritize scheduling in a way that minimize gaps in the calendar.

About OBIO®

OBIO®, a not-for-profit, membership-based organization dedicated to advancing health technology innovation and commercialization, is prioritizing the evaluation of new technologies through their Early Adopter Health Network (EAHN™). OBIO® is engaged in strategy, programming, policy development and advocacy to further the commercialization of human health technologies, positioning Canada as a leader in the international marketplace.

For more information, please visit OBIO.ca or contact Bibaswan Ghoshal, Senior Director, Market acceleration at bibaswanghoshal@obio.ca.

About Gray Oncology Solutions

Gray Oncology Solutions (Montréal-based start-up) has a vision of a healthcare ecosystem with no resources wasted. In pursuit of this vision, they have developed an “operating system” which simplifies cancer treatment by streamlining workflows across multiple points of cancer care (GrayOS). Operationally, this translates to the optimization & automation of patient scheduling while explicitly incorporating the complex multi-disciplinary workflow resulting in increased access to care, reduced patient wait times, increased patient/staff satisfaction and ultimately superior patient care.

For more information, please visit www.gray-os.com or contact André Diamant, CEO at andre@gray-os.com.

About The Ottawa Hospital

The Ottawa Hospital (TOH) is one of Canada’s top learning and research hospitals where we are guided by our vision to provide the world-class and compassionate care we would all want for our loved ones. Our multi-campus hospital, affiliated with the University of Ottawa, is home to the Regional Trauma Centre and Cancer Centre, and to discoveries that are adopted globally.

Backed by generous support from the community, we are focused on reshaping the future of health care to improve the health of our diverse population of patients from Eastern Ontario, Western Quebec, and Nunavut.

For more information about The Ottawa Hospital, please visit OttawaHospital.on.ca or contact Alison Jennings, Manager (acting) Digital Innovation at ajennings@toh.ca.